I am an author. I don’t know how to drive a car. I have no interest in watching or playing any sport. I’m not very good with my hands and my beard prevents me from operating heavy machinery, even when sober or not on medication. I neither like dancing nor loud music. I have never watched The X-Factor, Pop Idol, Britain’s Got Talent, Strictly Ballroom or anything with music by or featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber. But I love books. I love reading books. I love discussing books. I love writing books. I love the feel of them. I love the smell of them. But, most importantly, I love where they take me when I read them.
Shrewbury
I am very fortunate to have grown up in a house full of books, where both my mother and father read avidly, and we went to the local library. For less well-off families, school and the library are sometimes the only real source of books, but what a source. A well-stocked library with a good librarian is a gateway to EVERYTHING. Of course, not every child takes to reading but it offers possibilities. Options. Choices. Should anyone have the right to snatch those possibilities away? To pull the rug out from under a child’s feet before s/he’s even had the chance?
And do you know what? I started this intending it to be a funny piece, with the punchline that libraries are so important because they sometime employ unemployable people such as myself as highly unqualified library assistants (or, at least, they did back in the 1980s) … but, instead, it’s turned into this impassioned plea.
LIBRARIES MATTER. HELPING TO STOP LIBRARY CLOSURES MATTERS. As for Mr Spock with a goatee beard? That has something to do with ANTIMATTER, but there’s no room for that here. We all have to act NOW before it’s too late, so what are you waiting for?
[I also posted this blog entry on my Facebook page and the response has been fantastsic.]
Tags: library, library closures, reading, saving libraries, why libraries really matter, writing
I agree with you entirely, Mr Ardagh. You may be interested in http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk , a national campaign defending public libraries. Our aim is to present positive personal stories from library users to highlight the value of public libraries in the 21st century. All stories can be submitted via contact details on the website. I wondered if you would consider writing a short piece about why your local library was important to you when you were growing up? We are also on Twitter as @ukpling. Thank you - Gary
[...] “A well-stocked library with a good librarian is a gateway to EVERYTHING. ” (Philip Ardagh) [...]
Well said Phil. We had no books in our house but a visit once a week to the library. And I had the school library also. So important.
And when I was first working a wonderful source of information.
Libraries truly are fantastic. It was a library where I was introduced to eddie dickens and the fall of fergal. I LOVE LIBRARIES.
I too, am highly concerned about the proposed library closures. I have worked in my local Primary School for the past eighteen years and know how crucial it is for children to read and have access to books.
To be able to read is the key to everything in life! Every subject across the curriculum involves reading. The joy I feel everytime a child makes those first steps and reads independently blows me away! I know that the child is starting a fantastic adventure to a wealth of information and imagination. What more can I say. I love it!
STOP LIBRARY CLOSURES NOW!
I have written to the Secretary of State for Culture to stop this appaling injustice but as yet have recieved NO reply. What else can be done? (Well done Philip for your Daybreak interview)
I have been blessed with a hugely fantastic series of libraries. It’s a massive system including two counties, numerous towns, and unfortunately no goats. Goats (although none believe this) are a great asset to libraries. And these libraries let you order books from other libraries and have them brought to your library of choice. It’s like having a giant menu of take-out food in as many genres as you want! If you could get fat from reading, I would be obese. SO yes. Libraries are most fantastic.
Libraries definitely matter! We’ve just spent the morning at ours making spinning acrobats as part of the summer holiday reading scheme! Great fun! Books are wonderful, have lost count of ours! Thankfully both our girls love books as well (hard not to in a house full of them!) Thinking of books please write some more Eddie Dickens!
[...] http://www.philipardagh.co.uk/?p=2939 This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged libraries by Alan Gibbons. Bookmark the permalink. [...]
This week at my son’s school it’s Book Week (they don’t actually call it that anymore, it has some modern fancy new-fangled name) He’s disappointed because he has not been chosen to take part in any workshops or outings. Last year he met an author which was fab, and spent a morning at his local library. He loved the library visit because he got to spend his time in a quiet corner with no distractions, reading his book. This apparently is strange behaviour for his sort…he’s a boy, and a teenager.
Sounds like a splendid chap to me, Denise!