Libraries

Had a meeting at the National Library of China this afternoon. Guess what, it's big. Biggest in Asia, and one of the biggest in the world. 26 million volumes of which 1,640,000 are traditional thread-bound Chinese books, 270,000 ancient documents, over 35,000 inscriptions on oracle bones and tortoise shells etc etc. This photo just shows the new wing but there are two other massive buildings. It's in the west of the city, near the zoo. Anyway, we were there to discuss a Shakespeare exhibition which will hopefully tie in with the Library's 100th anniversary.

I love libraries, but actually I prefer small public ones. This is the one in Chichester which, in my youth, I spent a fair bit of time in. I still visit it with the children when we go back. It's an odd building: 1960s design, circular which has a feintly disorienting effect when you're browsing the shelves. When we visit Liz's mum, we visit Liskeard Library every other day. It's small but great.