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This post courtesy of your local library

I am deeply ashamed of myself.

Not for any nefarious acts recently committed. My conduct of late has been little short of exemplary, I could give any parfait gentil knighte a run for groats in the chivalry stakes. The reason for my shame is in the header.

I was obsessed with libraries as a child, and they played no small part in my almost complete sequestration from my peers, preferring as I did to bury my fizzog in a book. I even went so far as to fundraise for my local one when at school in cornwall (the form of fundraising, a 24 RPG extravaganza, so upset the local methodists that apparently, on the day in question, prayers for my soul were said from Bude to Newquay; a comforting thought to know you've got that much goodwill with the Almighty banked, thugh I suspect I may have spent a great deal of it since). Then I moved away, and found that the university library fulfilled my needs amply. Then I left university and discovered the joy of disposable income, so my bibliomania switched to the building of my own library. I never got round to joining the ormskirk one.

Until yesterday, that is. Regular readers will doubtless be aware that the quorate figure at Coastal Towers has reduced somewhat in recent weeks, and concomitant internet kerfufflage has led to yours truly being without access for a bit whilst the previous ISP insist the line is clear and the ISP in waiting insist there's nothing they can do cos it isn't. What with email becoming annoyingly essential to one's day to day business this is clearly an unsatisfactiory state of affairs. So i joined the library, and within a matter of seconds was wondering why I hadn't done so before. This may be stating the obvious, but it's clear that I'd forgotten this important fact in the intervening years: libraries are one of those wonderful resources which are easily taken for granted (a little like the NHS in that regard). This shit is free.

And here I sit, ashamed that it's been eleven years since last I took advantage of the wonder whch is beng able to go into a building and walk away with a bunch of books for, and I cannot emphasise this enough, free. And they have the internet now, too. Libraries. Aren't they great?

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