Unchained Melody: For the love of libraries

By Melody Thomas

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No barrier to entry, access to entire universes without spending a dime – libraries are one of the world’s greatest gifts.

I’m not sure I understood how much libraries meant to me until earlier this year, when I burst into tears in one. It was the State Library Victoria in Melbourne, a grand building first opened in 1856, which has since grown to take over a full city block. Images online of the La Trobe Reading Room brought me here, and the tears began the moment I crossed the threshold into the room. Was it the shelves of books, stacked from floor to towering ceiling? The stunning little balconies and alcoves? The extraordinary domed roof? Or was it all of those sweet little lamps, casting their magic halos of absinthe-green light on the desks below them?

I’ll admit I am prone to crying in the face of beauty. In fact I enjoy it so much I will sometimes do it on purpose, taking to the coast with a playlist of orchestral instrumentals, quietly weeping as I watchbirds freewheel above me (if ever you want to feel like the protagonist in a beautiful art film I suggest you try it. (Here’s a link to my playlist to get you started). I’ve wept over a rose, the sky, a perfect leaf, so it’s really no surprise that I crumbled in a magnificent and stately room of books. But more than its beauty, I think what moved me to tears was gratitude.

Are there any other spaces that offer what a library does, where money isn’t a requirement for access? [Where quiet and rest are so effectively encouraged? Libraries are like a town square that’s taken a valium and gone to have a lie down. Anyone can enter and seek refuge: students, parents, children, the elderly, rough sleepers, people from all different cultures and backgrounds and financial situations. All these people, gathered in one place, with no barriers to interaction besides their own willingness. (Side note: There are churches, and the occasional free museum or gallery, but I’d hazard a guess that more people feel excluded from them.)

Plus, libraries have books! Even the most modest of home libraries contains whole worlds waiting to be explored.

The first library that ever stole my heart was a known heart stealer: the one gifted to Belle by the Beast. The twin spiral staircases. The lofty shelves stacked with titles you just know are going to be beautifully bound and stamped in gold leaf. The open, roaring fire inviting you to curl up in front of it and disappear into the page. What a gift! I would never leave (to be fair, I already had a crush on Belle’s library in the little village, where she’d read every book twice. It had a moving ladder and a sweet little librarian.)

My friend the poet Ruby Solly once called reading the only socially acceptable escapism for adults. It is true that, while the same demons may drive you to both, devouring 50 books and devouring 50 sandwiches or gin and tonics will not be met with the same response. This is what books are made for: to offer an escape hatch from our fraught and anxiety-provoking “real” lives. To make us feel something different, imagine something else. Even when books challenge or frighten us, or cause us to despair, we can always close the pages to take a breath. Real life offers no such respite (except, as I’ve mentioned, in the form of reading).

When I was 11, I attempted a year of vegetarianism, helped along by a book called Healthy Eating for Young Vegetarians. On the day it was due back, I scoured the whole house, but it could not be found. I watched with despair as my fines began to collect, and when they hit $120 I clocked out. The grand doors of the city library closed to me, and I didn’t return until my 20s. This is why I was so happy when Wellington City Libraries (and many others around the motu) announced an end to library fines. Yes, I should have kept better track of that book. But fines are only punishment for those who can’t afford to pay them. Removing this financial barrier reinforces the idea that libraries are a place for everyone. That everyone deserves knowledge, entertainment, rest and adventure (P.S. One year on from abolishing fines, Wellington City Libraries are thriving).

If you’re not already a library user, this is a reminder that they are there waiting for you. Whether you’re a parent who wants to lie half-conscious on a couch while your toddler claps and sings, or an avid audiobook consumer who just can’t stomach the cost of an Audible subscription (for borrowing them you’ll want to download Libby). If a book isn’t available near you, you can use the website to get it sent to your local library for free. Personally, I own a Kobo e-reader, which allows me to add any book I see mentioned or recommended to a list of holds, which then appear like magic when they’re ready (beware: you can’t do this with Kindle).

Don’t worry if you haven’t been to the library in a while, it won’t notice. A library will wait for as long as you need it to, and when you’re ready it will be there, cosy, quiet, and open-armed. A portal to peace, adventure and understanding right in your own backyard.