Libraries, the Home of Luring Books

There has never been a time where I walk through my university library and walk out empty-handed. Always at the last minute of m stay, as I am walking towards the exit, I find a book on a shelf that calls to me.

The books do not literally call my name, they just sit there, and with the bold writing on their spines catch my eyes - it would prove rather creepy if these books could physically call my name, in which case I would not approach them, I would rather run as fast as I possibly can in the opposite direction until it is physically impossible to hear them calling my name. How would they know my name? And why me? I am the last person any talking book would seek to fulfil their legacy or prophecy. I am far too lazy and when I do move, I move at a pace a turtle would find uncomfortable.

Honestly, though, just when I think I have finished from the gravitational pull of a library and its many uses, I am pulled towards at least one random book which happens to fit my liking. The first time that this occurred, and note that it is the first because I usually tend to avoid bookshelves in the library when I am there to study for this sole reason, is a book about the Third Reich. It was short, stubby and worn out, and without hesitation I pulled it off the cold, hardly visited shelf, and took it to the librarian to scan. I never got around to reading the entire book, I did not even get half way. In fact, I probably read around three pages and on the third, I came across a long sentence. After counting the amount of words in that particular sentence, I had a miniature freak-out. One hundred and twenty-three words. I was so astounded, so amazed, in fact so in awe that I could not pass that page to read on.

Eventually, I had to return the book, so upon my arrival at home the week after it was borrowed, I opened up eBay and bought my very own copy - unfortunately it did not come with the exact cover of that which I fell in love, but it was still the same book, and to this day I am yet to pass the third page. What is important, though, is the fact that I now own this amazing book, and what is more important is that I came to know it by walking pat and walking back to a shelf on which it sat. Had someone placed it their prior to my arrival, in order to tempt me? Perhaps I am getting too carried away, but judging by all the crazy movie ideas I have come across I am failing to view things realistically.

I do not know, now, what scares me more - the prospect of someone having placed that particular book on the shelf for me because they knew I was coming and they knew that I had more than a mild interest in the Third Reich or books with sentences over one hundred words long, or the prospect of a book being able to firstly identify me and secondly call out my name. Anyway, the other day, I picked up a total of around ten books which I had firstly thought were relevant to my research topic, and had miserably left them on the side of the computer desk I was sitting at because they turned out irrelevant. The eleventh book I came across was one about Wittgenstein. The cover looked complicated, and it promised a complex but easy look at this man's life. So I picked it up with the intention of borrowing it.

Then, in the sociology section, a book titled, So You Think You're Human? It had a sophisticatedly dressed monkey on the cover, surrounded by books. I mean, how much more interesting does a book need to get before I feel like borrowing it? So I picked that up too. I asked a companion about the maximum amount of books that I could borrow at one time and was told five. That was the maximum amount I could carry, too, because of how heavy they all were, and coincidentally I only needed three other research relevant books to borrow, so it all worked out fine.

Now, apart from these five books, I have around seven other pieces of reading material and no time because I spend too much of my time procrastinating whilst sitting down rather than actually doing anything. One of these days, one of these days I shall have my life a little more organised. Now, it is three in the morning, so I must log off to go and read a set class text and fall asleep to how boring it is.