onionbagblog

I’m learning to love Wivenhoe Library, having overcome a short falling out period involving the main entrance:

Press button to open.

I stood there standing for a few minutes, waving madly at the book folk within. I failed the Wivenhoe Library Idiot Test.

Oh the fun I had trying to leave:

Press button to open.

I stood there standing, etc…

But nope – once within the High Street citadel of high (ish) knowledge, and the Wivenhoe Library really is a lovely, lovely place. The opening hours take a bit of adjustment, but then I can quite easily cope with a late opening for an even later closing. A chap bathes in the morning, and then reads in the afternoon.

That online source of esteemed knowledge in 140 characters or less, um, @EssexLibraries, reliably informed me ahead of the festive season that the Wivenhoe Library will be open on New Year’s Day.

Blimey.

I bet the librarian’s New Year’s Eve booze up was a barrel of fun.

So yeah, it was with some fortune that a recent book had a return date of 1st January stamped on the inner page.

“That ‘aint never gonna happen,” chipped in the book snob @AnnaJCowen. And whaddya know – the girl was right. Wivenhoe Library *was open* on New Year’s Day morning, but I was still feeling tired and emotional from the night before.

As for my forfeit for being four days late with my return? Ten pence. That’s two and a half pence per day, for the guilty pleasure of being a slightly naughty boy in bookworm circles.

I always find that chance visits to the Wivenhoe Library lead to a greater reward. There’s the risky element of surprise, not knowing, or expecting exactly what is around the corner. It’s not quite cottaging in some public convenience, but whatever gets you through the night, etc.

What has been getting me through the night of late is the wonderful collection of hyperlocal books stocked by the Wivenhoe Library. The Pop Genius of this Parish not surprisingly figures highly, but then I have got a lot of Wivenhoe catching up to do.

Feeling greedy late on Tuesday afternoon, I approached the counter carrying four books. Seems that I need to build up more stamina – fourteen is the top load for each time that you check out.

And so my reading material for the next three weeks takes in A Portrait in Old Picture Postcards (I’m not very good with the words, and neither it seems is Amazon) Guy Taplin (following a random and chance encounter with the sculptor out towards the estuary, who entertained @AnnaJCowen and I with a Boxing Day feast of local folklore,) This Little Ziggy and the Wild Man of Wivenhoe.

It all makes a change from the stash of Viz comics still piled up in the smallest room in the house.

Of course the wonderful Wivenhoe Bookshop is equally worthy of your custom, and yep, I have been known to buy up bits and pieces for my own burgeoning library of late. I did balk at the cut price reduction of A Journey though.

With the Essex Book Festival on the local horizon as we finally shake off this deep, deep winter, there’s more reason for literary love within our local libraries.

The programme of events at Colchester Library includes a reading from David Baddiel on 10th March. It would have been much more interesting to invite the esteemed author over to these parts to see if he can pass the Wivenhoe Library Idiot Test.

*arms flapping, waving as I type…*