A trip to the library...

It had been a while since I'd managed to get to the library, but I finally made it yesterday. See, I have this thing with books, which involves having at least three books on the go at all times, a stack of books I haven't read yet, a lot more on my 'to-read' list, yet still I borrow books from the library like it's going out of fashion (And perhaps it is... But that isn't where I'm going with this post. Maybe another time).

Anyway, I thought, since I'm making slow progress with my 'currently reading' material, I'd write about my trip to the library, and I'll make it sound interesting, even though in reality it was fairly mundane.

I spent most of my time in the non-fiction section, because I really do have enough fiction on the go at the moment - and I was also looking for some books which would be useful for school, specifically books about the use of art in religion (results of this search: unsuccessful. I'll have to try a bigger library). Anyway, as usual, I soon drifted off task and had a general browse, picking up a couple of books on web design and one  on psychology. Realising I had lost focus, I returned to the Religion section, and although I didn't find any books on the topics I was hoping for, I did find a nice little book called 'What's so Amazing about Grace', which I had heard of before (although, this is not the original version, see below for details) but never read, and since I'm giving a talk at school next week on the topic of Amazing Grace, I thought it might be a good idea to borrow it!

When I visit the True Crime section I am always amused that half the books on that particular shelf are about climate change - oh to live somewhere with a library large enough to have separate shelves for separate topics!

I made my way around the rest of the non-fiction room, and was upset to find that 'Entertainment' - covering music, TV and film, has all been squeezed into a smaller space, allowing more room for 'Sport' - but after browsing the shelf I realised I have probably read most of the books in the Entertainment section at some point already - so perhaps it's a hint that I should branch out a bit and read a sporty book...

I finally had a quick zip round the fiction sections, before self-checking out my books (which resulted in an awfully long receipt - more about that in a moment) and leaving...

I would have spent longer at the library but I had an appointment to get to... And our library insist on having a radio on at all times, which is kind of annoying. Oh, and I knew that if I picked up any more books, they wouldn't fit in my backpack.

Anyway, on to the books I actually chose to borrow.

As mentioned, before, there's 'What's So Amazing About Grace?' , by Philip Yaney, although it is in fact the 'visual version', which suits me as I'm quite a visual learner, so it's full of photographs, mirrors, and nice fonts. Next up, 'The Rough Guide to Surviving the End of the World'. I'm quite interested in theories about the apocalypse, and I usually find 'The Rough Guide' books rather good, so hopefully this one will not disappoint.

I then picked up '50 Ideas you Really Need to Know about Psychology'... Psychology is one of my big interests, and besides, there's quite a lot of psychology in the Religious Studies A-Level course, so I'm often borrowing books from this section. Having read the first couple of chapters, I can say that it's not a very thorough book. It is literally 50 ideas, it isn't exploring them in any great depth... But I think it will be a good one to dip into thanks to the clearly divided chapters.

The last non-fiction I picked up (except for a couple of web design books - I've read most of the web design books from the library and I don't intend to stop until I've read them all) is called 'Crime Scenes: Revealing the Science Behind the Evidence'. I was tempted to pick up a fairly long book called (as I recall) 'Cult Killers', but I resisted as I have far too many long reads going on at the moment to start another. The one I did borrow is a bit more of a fact-file style book than a thorough analysis, so it probably won't take very long to read.

From the 'teen fiction' area, I chose 'Me Against You', by Jenny Downham, on the recommendation of a friend. I've read Downham's critically acclaimed debut 'Before I Die' before, and really didn't enjoy it, and I have to say, I started 'Me Against You' last night and after a few chapters, I couldn't be bothered with it any more. It's just not my thing. I don't want to be too critical, since I know a few people who thought it was really good, but it's not often I actually stop reading a book, even if I'm not enjoying it.

Finally, I found Linwood Barclay's 'The Accident'. Having enjoyed Barclay's other books immensely, I am sure I will like this one too.

Anyway, I'll let you know how they go when I start reading them all. Meanwhile I'm still reading the books which you can see in the sidebar over on the right.