I had the sudden realisation the other day that due to the *gestures vaguely* everything of everything, this is the longest I’ve ever been without going to the library. Eighty-two days. Or, as the internet has helpfully informed me, eighty two days is the equivalent of over 22 % of this entire year.
Libraries matter a lot in my life, and the absence of them has been a strange and tender bruise. When I was looking for somewhere to rent, I would look for somewhere near the library. When I moved somewhere new, I would go and sign up at the library. I have worked in them, I have laughed in them, and I love them because they symbolise so much of what we can be.
This period has seen my approach to reading change, not only because of the absence of library visits but also because of the (forgive me for gesturing vaguely again) everything. The first few weeks saw a frantic tidy up of bookish things, a purposeful addressing of the TBR pile – a pile more ambition than stability – and then I threw things away. A reaction to it all, I suspect, but also one of those long needed jobs. There were certain rules of course (I’m not a monster). Anything that’s a tentative throw and is still in print can be thrown. Anything that I’ve not looked at for a long time and can be replaced can go. The Elsie Oxenhams must be placed in a bag to go and then they must return for they have a peculiar and quite lovely staying power.
I packed up six bags of books. And the books stayed in the bags.
They didn’t come back out again. I didn’t have that moment of doubt. I didn’t tearily smuggle something back upstairs at midnight promising never to leave it ever again (not that I’ve, errr, ever done that). The books stayed in the bag and even though they still haven’t gone (circumstances!), they are going. And I don’t really remember what’s in there, but they’ve already left my little library.
And nothing has yet replaced them. No library books, no secondhand hauls (I am aching to head back into my favourite cobwebby auction rooms let me tell you that), no charity book shop bonanza. Just that light and tender bruise, the space on the table that looks fine but – if you touch it, if you recognise what isn’t there, if you see it – then it hurts.
Eighty-two days. It’s weird, right? The moments where you realise just how strange this process is. The moments where you think – this is embarrassing. I should have more than three books on my account but three is all I have. It means that I’m going to be spending the first weeks of a pandemic with a biography about a Nun, an emotional look at the cultural life of American immigrants, and Elton John’s autobiography.
And inevitably I read them all in minutes and thought – what now? what now?
(Of course in the scale of things, all of this is small. So small. I do not want my library back – or indeed any library – to return to public service until it is safe, feasible and realistic for them to do so. I especially want the needs of library staff made paramount during this process and I recognise that many of you will have been working wonders through this entire period through online services and support and distanced working. I will go another eighty days, another hundred, if it means that library staff remain safe and healthy and able to do their jobs without fear. It also goes without saying that I wish you well if you are a member of library staff, and that you have my utmost support and love and respect at this time.)
A tender and most peculiar bruise this whole thing, but the thing about bruises is this: they heal. And the books shall wait, and the reading shall come back, and I shall comb the secondhand bookshops once more.
This is only how we live now.
And now is not forever.
Two quick updates: this blog shall no longer be covering Harry Potter nor any of the related media. It has been a while since I have covered any and it has never been a particular focus, but this is how things shall lie from this point on. It is also worthwhile reaffirming that I welcome authors from diverse backgrounds and under-represented cultures getting in touch if they think my work – both here and on BookRiot, where I write a weekly newsletter of new children’s book releases and also co-host a fortnightly literary fiction podcast – may be a good fit for their book. I want to know you. Here’s my contact form or you can reach out to me on Twitter. Thank you.
Daisy May Johnson 
I appreciate that they don’t want people going in, picking up umpteen books to have a look and then putting them back, but I thought they might have sorted out an order and collect service by now, and then asked you to put the books in box or on a trolley when you take them back. I think some American states are doing this.
That’s a good point! I think a lot of this will depend on resourcing and simply who has the materials / finances / people to do so.
If you ever do decide that you want to throw out those Elsie J Oxenhams then please, please throw them in my direction. They are almost impossible to get hold of and I remember them so fondly from being a child. I don’t blame you for wanting to hang onto them!
I will certainly mention it online if I do decide to get rid of them. But if they’ve lasted this long, I’m not sure I will now! 🙂
It is always hard to let go of books. Once you let them go they are available for others to enjoy and you are making space in your life for something new.
I think ‘getting rid of books’ might have to be a whole separate topic – there’s a lot there to think about!
I have been trying to game the system by putting books on hold at several libraries within a half hour drive, and finally I was rewarded when one started doing “curbside delivery” a week ago. If they had the book, you got an email inviting you to book an appointment, then you drove over at the appointed time with your name on a piece of paper on the windshield. The staffer came out, took a look, when back inside. you pop the trunk, and the came back and put a bag of books in your trunk. Once she was gone, you could get out of the car (in your mask) and shut the trunk and drive away. The car behind me was not expecting my spontaneous little jig! Two of the books were for a course and one was an Elizabeth Gaskell CD but the fourth was fun and escapist, The Spies on Shilling Lane, which was just what I needed.
I am not sure what they do with pedestrians!
Hurrah for escapist reads!!