A Real Library

Central Reference Library, Edinburgh

I am pick-eee when it comes to where to work. I'm sure this is a very bad habit. I can work in coffee shops for an hour or two, but then I get distracted and bored and the coffee gets cold, and that is YUCK. The Edinburgh University Library is ok: it has some beautiful views over the meadows, but the low ceilings remind me of Davis Library (UNC) and sometimes I feel like I'm getting squashed. THAT and it is so competitive to find spacing. I hate that. Then there is the NLS. The National Library of Scotland is friggin amazing. It is a copyright library, so it has a copy of every book that was ever printed in Britain past... I dunno, 1900 or something. It has high ceilings, but no real windows with a view. Worse, there are all these really good academics, who actually know what they're doing, milling around and I feel so intimidated! BUT the NLS is good because 1. it has delicious soups and bread for pretty cheap and 2. I sometimes run into the lady I nanny for, and she is the salt of the earth and makes me feel better about, well, everything. Still, I don't frequent the NLS as often as I should.

But today I waltzed into the Central Library to get a book on Iceland, when they directed me to the reference Library. As I climbed two huge flights of steps, my hopes rose, and I thought, maybe it'll be beautiful. And ya'll, it was. I discreetly snapped the above photo. It has huge high ceilings, at least two stories. There's even a little Bannister and ladders for the really high up books-- sort of like Beauty and the Beast. The desk all face the same way (yay!!), it is spacious, and it wasn't crowded. It reminded me a lot of Wilson Library at UNC. I knew Edinburgh had to have a really beautiful library somewhere, and I'm cross with myself it's taken me so long to find it. Now just need the motivation to leave my teeny room with its unlimited cups of tea and mess for some real working. Am I the only one that think reading books should come with a beautiful room?