Is there anything nicer?

There are a number of things that I miss about London. During spring break I am going for a visit and I can hardly wait. I've been making my list of places to go, things to do and foods that I want to eat and this only intensified today whilst talking to a colleague who is originally from London. We compared top places to go and favourite London experiences. Needless to say I'm even more excited now.

My class right now is doing a unit on our school and to start we are conducting thorough tours of the school to get to know it better. Well, how are these two lines of though connected? Last Friday our librarian took my class on a tour of the library and I had unexpected flash backs of my neighbourhood library in London. It is a new style library, revamped and renamed to give it a hip image so that it appeals to a wider variety of people. It is a bright building, almost too bright with lots of windows a lime green accents. The first floor had a big computer lab and the second held the books in lots of low, curvy, easily accessible shelves. The curvy shelves meant that it was almost impossible to figure out where the order of the shelves when looking for books but it did mean that you had to browse.

Is there anything nicer than being able to browse through books? I loved going and just looking through all the books. Sure there wasn't always something I wanted to read but, it was nice to have that option. It was also nice to be able to take a chance on a book that I wasn't sure of and take it home to try it out. Sometimes I was pleasantly surprised and other times, well- nothing ventured, nothing gained. It was a good way to find new authors and make my way through old favourites.

I have to say I miss it. I love reading and I read a lot. I miss looking though books and finding new ones. There are book stores here, but even if you browse you it's a little more expensive to take a chance. Plus, the selection is small and doesn't change much from week to week so chances are not much is new. Sadly the best book store we had closed before Christmas. There are others, but not to the same standard. That's not to say I haven't read anything new since I've been here, I've discovered new authors and read a lot, but it's just not quite the same as a good leisurely browse through library shelves.

I'm getting the the bottom of my supply now and my last visit to the book store was unfruitful. So, has anyone read anything good lately?