Today I acheived something I’ve been threatening to do for the last few months – run out of bookshelf space! (And possibly money too…)

So I did what any desperate reader would do – I joined the local library. I admit it’s been a few years since I’ve been a member of one. The last time was when I was still at secondary school; I even think I still owe them a book… anyway.

I joined. Eventually. Their “fangled” online joining system – which basically requires you to print off the completed application form after filling it in online and THEN take it down to the library. Quite why it’s called an ONLINE application I have no idea considering you have to take it down there.

So after showing them more I.D than perhaps is probably necessary (the last time I had such a severe security check was when I applied for an airport security pass…) I was finally free to peruse those coveted books.

It seems the last time the library updated their stock of books was when my Grandma last visted – and she’s been dead for the last 15 years! I finally found the fiction section (it was labelled FICTION – obviously) but wait. What’s that? The books weren’t in English. I went through Tamil, Chinese, Hindi, French… and then finally English. There were more gaps between books than there are on the Underground system. Seriously, have the local council never heard of putting back into the local community – i.e. the library?

In the end I settled on a classic, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood – the latter which I recently wrote a review on for work despite having never read it! That’s the downside to working for this new bookshop company, they don’t allow you to take the books home to read. How am I supposed to understand and ultimately sell the “products” if I don’t know what they are?

I’m tempted to do some local fundraising for the library just so they can get decent books in. Or just books in. I’m not fussy.

End note: I had to resist the urge to properly sort the books on the shelves. Working in a bookshop automatically trains you to spot an incorrectly filed book. There were a lot of them. I almost cried.