Waiting for.....Godot?

Waiting. We've all done it. Exam results. Dental receptions. Doctor's surgeries. The new Harry Potter. There are different sorts of waiting - excited, apprehensive, bored. Well, I'm doing the bloody terrified sort at the moment. Test results. Future treatment plans. Like I said - bloody terrified. The sort of waiting where you pick up a book to distract you and have to read each sentence about three times before it sinks in. The sort of waiting where you look at the clock every two hours only to realise that just five minutes have passed.
I've tried thrillers, page turners, bodice rippers, and I'm still waiting. And still the terror lurks. Please tell me the most gripping book there is (and preferably the longest most gripping book there is) and I will try it. I will try anything. (Well, maybe not quite anything. A librarian does have standards, you know.)
People seem to pass time in libraries, but that is not really an option for me - my fingers would start to itch, and I would have to tidy something.
So.

I'm waiting.

In sickness and in health...

Apologies for the lack of post this last couple of weeks, but I have had shocking news, swiftly followed by surgery to remove said shocking news. I will draw a veil over the details, but suffice to say that books and libraries were not at the forefront of my mind, and may not be for a while. And yet, and yet....I did pack a book in my hospital overnight bag, because it did even then seem essential. And I did enter into an eager conversation with a fellow patient who was reading Grisham - "Bloody awful stuff but it gets you through the night" was the verdict. And I was amused to find a hospital library, even though I did not have cause to use it. I would be pleased and interested to hear from any hospital librarians out there - apart from anything else, what state are the books in - I know what your average public library book has stuck on its pages, so I dread to think what a hospital library book may be like. I am not too young to remember when librarians had to be notified of infectious diseases in their borrowers...
Anyway I will endeavour to keep posting as much as possible - any tips for get well reading, or the importance of books at times of crisis, most welcome.

Winter wonderland

Have you noticed, good people, that as the nights draw in, as the days grow colder, the library changes subtly? If you are very lucky, the heating will come on, and work. If you are unlucky, it will come on occasionally, in certain rooms, so the men reading their papers are quietly toasted, while the knitting group upstairs have to huddle around a small electric heater for comfort. I have often thought that if we could harness all the energy produced in our mother and toddler group we could probably power the lights and the kettle all day. (Well maybe not the kettle - our tea and coffee consumption increases to gargantuan proportions during the winter).
It also looks different when those corners, normally illuminated by daylight, are suddenly plunged into four o'clock dark, and look increasingly attractive to the teenagers who hang around the park in the summer, but need somewhere warm for the winter. We also seem to have an increase in tramps, and rather oddly, crosswords that are neglected in the summer months find themselves mysteriously complete in the winter.
And the books - the weighty tomes that are too heavy for summer suitcases disappear off the shelves in the winter. What better time to try Ulysses for the sixth time than a gloomy Tuesday in November when there is nothing on the telly? Some people even like to find out what sort of spider has crept in to their bedroom in the dead of night.
So, libraries are not immune to the winter chill or the evening gloom, but you might just find a haven and a tonic to get you through the season. Or possibly a warm corner to hibernate in.