The Library Is Not Just a Place

I spent part of my spring last year in Manchester in the quiet neighborhood of Burdith Avenue, an extension of Fallowfield, where my partner and I shared a small studio with scarcely enough room for a decent table and chair. I knew I’d need to find room to work comfortably. So I Googled the nearest library, which turned out to be the Wilbraham Community Library, also known as The Place at Platt Lane, some ten minutes’ walk from my house. Past the Asda and a few restaurants, and then across the street. The Place is a red brick building with a damp face that has been washed over with rain and time. You can tell it is many decades old.

There is always something refreshing about visiting a library. As summer approached, it was especially relaxing to know I had a comfortable place to go for a respite from the afternoon heat of my studio room. 

The Place is a community resource center in addition to being a library, offering English classes for non-native speakers and a host of other culture programs. So far as books are concerned, the collection is quite small, with few that piqued my interest. Since I hadn’t brought many books with me to the city, I went to Waterstone’s in Arndale to get NoViolet Bulawayo’s Glory, a book whose Orwellian template mocks Mugabe’s dying grip on Zimbabwe. I started NoViolet’s latest offering at the bookshop, but returned to the library to finish it, partly, I admit, in hopes of the occasional gifts of candies from the librarians.