Library Days

There was a time, long ago, when if you’d asked me whether spending the day in the library was my idea of fun, and I would’ve told you “Absolutely not!”. In secondary school, I would spend breaktimes in the library on some days, but never alone – sometimes I’d be catching up on late homework, but I’d always have my friends in the library with me, and we’d get told off repeatedly for making too much noise.

College was very much the same, although I became more comfortable with being alone in the library. At lunchtime or breaktime, I’d sit in the library on my own and do work – either on the computers or by hand – but if I had a free period and wanted to go to the library, I would’ve needed to find my friends and be in the library with them, because otherwise it would have been unbearably boring.

Everything seems to have changed now that I’m at uni. I’m writing this from in the university’s library, in the social study zone, where I have been sat for the last three hours, working on portfolios and attempting to learn lines (yes, I learn lines by typing them out on the computer repeatedly for hours. Don’t judge me!). The strange thing is, I’ve been completely happy here. It’s a pleasant atmosphere, plenty going on but not too loud that I can’t concentrate, and it’s nice to be able to just turn up with my laptop at 12 and know I don’t need to leave until 10pm if I need to stay. I’m quite happy to be here.

There does seem to be a certain type of person who goes to the library. I thought at uni EVERYONE would flock to the library – I suppose things may be different in exam season – but for the most part, it does seem to be filled with either international students, or solo students like me who need somewhere away from their flat to get on with some work. There’s too many distractions in my flat – my playstation, the ability to blast my music as loud as I want and impromptu games of Twister (as last night showed) – so being here in the library is great.

I really do think that libraries are underrated. People see them as just a hangout for nerds and weirdos when actually, it’s a lot more than that. There’s so much you can do – yes, you can read books – don’t scoff, there are some books that look really interesting here – or you can bring your laptop and relax, you can chill with a coffee on the comfy sofas, you can spend hours getting lost amongst the books and the journals.

I have a lot of love for the library. Without the two libraries I was a member of as a child – and, to my knowledge, am still a member of today – I wouldn’t have learned to read so quickly, and I wouldn’t have developed the love of reading which made me such a passionate writer and the lover of literature I am today (as long as that literature isn’t Wuthering Heights, of course).