Coolest Library Ever!

Some people (particularly British ones), when you say you are going to Birmingham on vacation (or Milton Keynes, or Coventry), they ask "Why?". Ok, so Birmingham isn´t quaint in a Midsomer-ish or Downton Abbey-ish way, but it has its charm and a lot to offer. These industrial cities took quite a beating during the war, and were perhaps again victims at the hands of some less classy architectural fashions during the mid- to late 20th Century. There are fine examples of brutalist architecture, but there are too many that hasn´t done humanity any favours at all and some are being pulled down. Birmingham is really pushing the envelope when it comes to innovative architecture and I was so curious to see how the new library had turned out. Yes, we went to Birmingham just to see a library. We saw a lot of other fine things too, but it would have been totally worth it to come all the way from Sweden just to see that library.

We had to pass the old library on our way to the new one, and it looked as dull as every. When I was there in 2009, the site of the new library was just a demolition site - I don´t know what stood there before, but I expect it must have been something ugly. Now, I was just awestruck at what appeared. I imagine they must be very pleased with how it turned out.

When you come inside, it feels a bit like looking up into that spaceship in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". If the old library was a Tomb of Dead Books, this is the Temple of Learning. Very fittingly indeed, it was Malala Yousafzai who opened it in September last year. And it is full of people! Reading, working, talking, eating lunch on the terrace or in the café by the entrance, kissing! and some walking around in wonder, as we were. The building is a magnet.

They have two terraces, and the library even extends underneath the square in front of it. There is a "sunken" stage with a stand built into the pavement above it. When we were there, they had a steel pan orchestra playing old Beatles´ tunes. Everywhere the circle theme is used to give it a coherent aesthetic look. What a great place! If you want to know more, check out their website.

Neighbours: The Hyatt Hotel, The Symphony Hall, The ICC, The Rep.

The view overlooking the town centre.

To the captain´s bridge....

The captain´s bridge The Shakespeare Memorial Room, a reading room
built in 1882 for an earlier, now demolished, city library.

The Secret Garden

Reminded of Birmingham

I just read that Birmingham has opened its new library. I looks beautiful. I visited the city in 2009, and I have to say, the old library was probably the most depressing place I have ever visited. Already then, there were plans and a plot for the new library, and I thought it would be really something to see once it opened.

At the time, 2013 seemed far away into the future, and now that we are already there, I realize I probably will not go there anytime soon. A look at their site suggests a place where things really will be happening, though!

Libraries are not what they used to be. What they used to be was a haven for introverts. A silent sanctuary in a noisy world. You´d think this would be even more important as the world has become noisier (hasn´t it?), but no. Our new library is, for example, completely open to a café and a restaurant, where there is sometimes live music. Separate study/meeting rooms have become study places incorporated within the body of the library itself, mixing those who work alone and those who work together in projects. I have several times heard visitors complain to the librarians about loud groups, only to be told that "that´s just not how we do things any more, sorry".

I think it´s both good and bad. I wish there had been a separate room or a separate floor in our library for silence. I don´t see why both needs can´t be satisfied.

Anyway, Birmingham wasn´t all bleak, even though my previous blogpost might have given that impression. I spent a lot of time at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, where they have historical and art exhibitions, as well as a really nice lunch restaurant.

When I travel alone, I tend to go for a substantial lunch and have a light dinner in bed, while sorting through my photos and generally trying to digest all impressions of the day.



My last day in Birmingham, I walked to a wonderful park, the Warley Woods. Then, along a pretty canal, I found my way to the Bothanical Gardens, which were just amazing.

In the shop I ran into a Swedish lady, with whom I had supper (she had been to a wedding - Birmingham is not really the place you´d expect to run into a lot of Swedish tourists, particularly not in May), and it turned out we were booked on the same flight home!

In Praise of the Amateurish

Last week I went with a friend to our local library, for a Book Café. It´s a very unpretentious function, tea or coffee in plastic mugs, and one of those flat, long-shaped buns the Swedish call vetelängd.

Two librarians, of two different generations, present reading suggestions to a small congregation of middle-aged and elderly ladies and a couple of culturally afflicted men. One of the ladies was positive to everything, even the fairly large pile of dystopian novels the young guy presented. The older guy was more into local history, as am I, and I did come away with some interesting reading suggestions.

What bugged me a little bit was how they talked too much about the content of the books. It reminded me of when my mother-in-law has read a book that has made an impression on her, she can go on and on for hours, retelling the entire story in detail, as if it´s something that happened to a dear friend of hers. Of course, that is what good literature will do to you, but if not careful, you can spoil a potential reading experience for others. Reading excerpts from the last page of a book is perhaps not the thing to do.

Also, it is a bit surprising that they don´t have a woman librarian there, considering the majority of the librarians are women. But, my impression is that an overwhelming majority of booknerds are very introverted, and perhaps it´s hard to even get anyone to want to do it. Even though we of the audience are so very nice and encouraging.

I will continue to go, awkward as the execution of this Book Café-concept might be. This is probably a surprising statement coming from someone who bloggs about books (mainly), but I am not usually a fan of book talk. I avoid book programs on television, rarely watch interviews and talks given by authors. I prefer to read the books. With a few exceptions. Some writers can really talk and make another kind of art from that, but it´s rare. And I rarely read other book blogs, except for Robby Virus´ Blogging the Canon, which is so unpretentious I can´t help but love him. I´m sure there are plenty out there, if I would just bother looking for them.

Yeah, I suppose I liked the Book Café just because it was kind of faulty and amateurish and didn´t attempt to be anything else. Amateurs are perhaps a bit shaky in the execution, but they have heart to make up for it. A plenty.

Visby, Gotland - Day Three

I made the most of the last few hours in Visby, as we were flying home again after lunch. I steered towards the one part of town I hadn´t yet seen, the modern harbour.

What a sight, eh? Two large cruise ships, and from the mass of chatting people coming towards me as I walked, I gather they were full of American cruise tourists. I hope they were happy with their day in Visby. Must be among the best things the Baltic has to offer. (I confidently say this now, not having been to Tallinn, St Petersburg, or... well.)

Chicory, a plant that was pointed out for me by another travelling companion on our way from the airport. I only knew this from literature before, as it was used as a surrogate for coffee during Bad Times.

It´s such a pretty thing, don´t you think?

50´s nostalgia, a Swedish hotdog stand.

Kids, doing justice to art.

The old Customs Office.

The ferry to the mainland.

The sight-seeing train, full of Americans, whose enthusiasm can be heard from afar.

Former prison, now hostel. I like the way they kept the barbed wire on the wall.

A ship store and a what - brig? I haven´t a clue, but it´s pretty.

What? Scots? University students, that´s my guess.

Antique knick-knacks. Lucky for me, I had no cash.

An old maltfactory is now the seat of the University.

The Almedalen Library. In retrospect, I wish I had explored the interior.

In Swedish politics, The Almedalen Week is an important happening every year. It started when high profile social democrat Olof Palme made speeches here every summer. Around that tradition, now all parties come here and organize seminars and there is a lot of lobbying going on.

It was nice to see it for real, as images from this place is all over the news every year. It´s a great opportunity for polititians to get points across, as nothing much usually happens in the media during the summer weeks.

Detail from the Olof Palme memorial monument.

The Almedalen Pond, in front of the Almedalen Hotel.

Oyster catchers on the lawn.

And let me finish with another picture of a couple of grey pears. Really, fruit trees make me so deliriously happy, they remind me of childhood summers and there is no such thing in Lapland, where we live, unless perhaps a small, sour, vulnerable apple tree by a protective housewall somewhere. An abundance of juicy fruit, that might persuade me to buy a cottage in Småland or somewhere when we are old and retired!

Bye, bye, Visby!

The Smallest Public Library I have ever seen

St Mary´s Library in Hughtown, Isles of Scilly.

The two libraries at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

 This is the Parker Library at the New Court. It is just too bad visitors are not allowed to enter, but at the same time I can understand it.

 

I was fascinated by the faces that "bookended" the very ornamented windows.  

 

And a more modern library, squezed in between two buildings (I seem to remember it might have been the kitchen and the dining hall).

It´s not that easy to make modern architecture harmonize with the old, historic buildings. Also, one must remember, it´s not a museum. We cannot save everything the way it was. Life must go on, and we should bring our things with us, not discard them or leave them to the nostalgics. 

Crafty librarians

Take a look at this. How cool is that?

My local library

I very rarely go down town without spending a few hours at our local library. It always lifts my spirits. There are all those books, of course, but there is also the artwork. These fantastic sculptures that hang as a centerpiece around which the whole space is set, are actually made of old, discarded reading glasses! Isn´t that a lovely symbolism?

The library is part of the new Culture House, which also houses an art gallery, two concert halls, a restaurant and a café. All sorts of interesting things go on here.

For most people, I think the library is a place to get away, sit quiet and read a book, a magazine, or just look out at the town below. The reading chairs are very comfortable and makes you feel almost embraced as you sink into them. And this is the view:


That´s the northern harbour and Luleå River. A hundred years ago the water would have been littered with huge sailing ships, going all the way up and down the swedish eastern coastline. There has been talk of turning the big parking spot you see part of to the left in the picture into a park, which would be really nice. If only the winters were not quite so long and cold!