Three Cheers, it’s World Book Night!  No cheers for the councils cutting libraries.  They may say it’s a question of “use or or lose it”, so are we book-lovers making good use of our local libraries?

Parents may be reading less but children still need and crave the intellectual adventure to be found in books.  At least one County Council is saying that libraries can be run by volunteers instead of paid staff.  Maybe, but the whole enterprise then depends on the ability and the willingness of the unpaid:  it might work, it might not.

IF YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT’S HAPPENING AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY, WHY NOT GO AND SEE FOR YOURSELF?

Weekly visits to the library were an essential part of my childhood.  Within the imposing ’20th-century Georgian’ building, within which was that unique and wonderful smell that attaches itself to books, lay row upon row of treasure for the taking:  I am immensely grateful to that library which gave me a life-long love of books and the written word.