Bibliophilia

I was planning to launch forth on a thunderous rant about a variety of things this afternoon, for I have had a rubbish morning, beginning with my cleaner turning up unplanned and some petty rules about passports.

I might come back to these points later, but instead, I wanted to extol the library service in Lambeth. Actually, that's not fair, the rest of the library service in Lambeth might be terrible, but the little library on South Lambeth road - which I joined today - was a very pleasant surprise. It has, of course, got too many DVDs and CDs, and should have more books - probably more children's books by sight. However, what it does have is quite a good stock, which avoids the standards library problem of being dated. So I was very happy to see a good selection of travel literature (and not just travel guides which seems to be the norm now), e.g., Thubron's In Siberia; a decent little history section (which is what I went in for, looking for a recent history of Ireland), which seemed to balance the local with the important; and finally - and most excitingly - Peter Brown's The Making of Late Antiquity, which is exactly the sort of book public libraries ought to have. It's accesible, yet also absolutely academically sound and not likely to be at home (though admittedly, I have a copy) and so would allow people to get at something unfamiliar for free.

I am filled with praise.