Rock and roll!

So, along with Casanova and Chairman Mao, Keith Richards has been outed as....a librarian! I was somewhat amused by the coverage - the public are quite prepared for any sort of sexual or social deviance from Mr Richards, but to find that he yearns for nothing better than stroking the spines of his Dewey-ordered books seemed to shock people to the core. I mean, libraries, not exactly rock and roll, is it?
But delve a little deeper, and you will find all sorts going on - for a start, we still seem to nurture the image of a librarian as at the very least, buttoned up. Now your very own Dorothea may have a starched cardigan and (occasionally) a bun (of the hairy variety)(and the cream variety) but she also has a twinkle in her eye, and a certain tolerance born of a long life experience which may have involved loud music and the odd illicit substance. Librarians are graduates, after all, from the school of life if nothing else, and have done all the stuff that people do at university - they even took their clothes off sometimes!
Also, books are still just not cool, somehow. Not once you get past the Hungry Caterpillar anyway. Kid reading equals boring. Bookish is still a playground insult, and even some parents, pleased though they are that little Joshua has a very good grasp of grammar and English, would rather he got out a bit more. I hope that the outing of Keith Richards can change this once and for all - what better after a night on the town than half an hour of calming prose before retiring to bed? Books fit into any lifestyle, even that of a rock and roll god.
And no, most librarians are not spinsters, nor are they waiting for someone to remove their glasses and show them just how gorgeous they are (although Keith, if you are reading, I could use a holiday if you feel like whisking me off somewhere...). Libraries and books are not a substitute for life - they are life itself! Get down to your local library and live a little! And, librarians, if you should roll into work after a heavy night, and feel like a snooze in the stacks, you are just carrying on a fine tradition of loose living librarians!