Fictions of Every Kind: Procrastination

Photo by Nick of The Print Project

Fictions of Every Kind: Procrastination is our next event. It will take place on July 5th at The Leeds 'Secret' Library and will feature screenings of specially curated films around the theme of 'procrastination'. Award-winning shorts from Canada, the US, the UK and Ireland will be shown, and boxed wine will be provided. Entry will be free, although donations towards the cost of the boxed wine will be welcomed. There will be time and opportunity for writers to share their work. It'll start at 19.30 and will end around 21.30.
The 'Secret' Library - also known as 'The Leeds Library' (for that is its real name) is the city's oldest independent subscription library. If you live in Leeds, you have probably walked past it hundreds of times without even noticing its there. The doorway to it is snuggled between Britannia Bank and Paperchase on Commercial Street, Leeds, opposite LUSH. It was opened in the 1760s and boasted Joseph Priestley as one early member. Annual membership costs £25 for young 'uns between the ages of 18-25, or £75 if you are starting to get wrinkly, like me. However, you do not have to be a member to attend the 'procrastination' event, as one of us will be able to sign you in.

There are lots of things to love about this library. It has a beautiful tiled entrance hall and stairway, and old-fashioned library ladders, and is filled literally floor to ceiling with really, really old books. The collection is idiosyncratic and reflects the interests of its members. Any member can request for new books to be added to the collection; accordingly, it has a large collection on the occult, following the interests of a member who was evidently a casual Satanist, and rich sections on topography and American classic literature.

Behind the original library is an extension to the original building, which was completed in 1900. They call this 'the new room'. This is where you'll find all the books on travel, topography, and the occult. Every week, on a Thursday afternoon, specialist book preservers in white lab coats come to fix the old books. It is thanks to their work that the library is able to continue to hold a collection of marvellous old tomes.

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to seeing your lovely faces on July 5th!

Shhh!

Like most other writers, I loves me a good library. A good library is a true escape. The door closes behind you as you go in, closing the bustle of the city centre behind you; and you are, at last, in an oasis of calm. The hubbub of conversation and banality fades behind you as you take those first vaunted, expectant steps up wooden stairs and tiled hall.

Even in the public city libraries, room and corridor smell of books. Their scent, dusty and hallowed, overpowers the smell of freshly-ground coffee from the tea shop and staff rooms. Walk up the steps into the reading room, and you can feel yourself enter another world: a world where there is quiet, and calm; a world where all the desks are old and wooden, and the librarians all dressed in twinsets and slacks.

Every shelf, from end to end, is stacked with books. Not every book is popular. Some, like the nerdy kid in PE class with the unfortunate co-ordination of a clumsy monkey, will always be the last to be picked. They remain on the shelves, the tops of their pages thick with dust, for months, while their more popular neighbours go out and come back again, their pages thumbed almost to the margins by the hands of many. But whether stamped out daily or monthly, the fact remains the same: a good book can take you anywhere. Held by its spell, the reader finds herself transported away to far away lands; she follows its characters wherever they go, sympathising with their struggles, resonating at the injustices they suffer - turning the pages lickety-split, desperate to know what happens next.

Yet books are not only there for escapism. They're also there to edify, and public libraries let every reader educate himself. Whatever you're interested in, whether it's animal husbandry or anatomy or particle physics, you can learn about it in the library - for nothing.

It's disappointing (infuriating? enraging?) to hear that many local authorities are starting to seriously consider closing down their public libraries. Many are starting to feel the bite of government belt-tightening, and are looking to see which of their services they can cut, or at least give a sizeable trim. In a time where massive job losses are already a reality, this seems seriously unfair. Libraries allow everybody - regardless of situation or background - to gain information and knowledge free of charge, and at the moment that seems more important than ever.

All across the country, people are protesting in new and creative ways - from banding together to take out all the books to demonstrate demand to the council, to staging read-ins and protests. The Guardian is running a blog on planned protests at libraries around the country: see their interactive map for details.

Happy protesting, everyone!

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