Hey, So, I just bought a membership to the Lit & Phil in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (my hometown) and it seems perfect for my needs. They have over 160000 books from 1850 onwards, quiet areas where you can sit and work (on my novel, in my case) and they even have free WiFi. All in all, I think it's a perfect little place to get your head in the game. I've decided that there are far too many distractions in my own home, and so I'm going to aim to go here around once a week and just sit and write. I think the atmosphere of the building will be especially motivating (I have heard countless stories and spotted many videos which claim that it's haunted, but y'know, fuck it). I was wondering if anyone has ever been here, and if you have, did you enjoy it? A note on the membership- it is a little steep (£115 for a standard membership) but I'm under 18 so I picked one up for only £12. For that price, I thought that there's no point in missing out, and they have a load of Bukowski's work in which I'm going to go and pick up tomorrow. You can check it out at http://www.litandphil.org.uk/ and if you live too far away then at least you can drool over the pretty books. I'm really excited to go and check it out, should be an interesting (and hopefully productive day), as long as I don't get murdered by a ghost.
Interesting. As far as I know, we don't have anything like that here in the US. If we did, in my area, I'd definitely join. In my state, public libraries are organized by school district, and if you don't live in that district, you can't join the library or check out books, though they don't check ID at the door, so you can use the facilities. In some cases, you can pay for access. Inter-library loans of books are also possible. Take some sage along for that ghost thing.
Huh, that's an interesting system. The inter-library system is similar over here, though the government run the libraries (the Lit & Phil is privately owned though so it's different from the vast majority of UK libraries). In fact, I renewed my library membership the other day and it's entirely free in the UK. With the card they gave me (which took literally 30 seconds to sign up for) I can go to 12 libraries in the area, and loan out upto 20 books and 20 CDs/DVDs. I was surprised by this (although, to be perfectly honest, my local library has a pretty dismal collection, on the whole, which is one of the reasons I joined the Lit & Phil).
So, I went to the library today and it was crazy! Absolutely huge, really friendly, TONS of books (I picked up an original print of a book by Joseph Stalin) and it just had a really nice atmosphere. Here's the main library. I spent a good 3 or 4 hours in there, I'm going back through the week with my laptop to work on my novel. No distractions there!
YES! I love that place, and I go there practically every time I go to Newcastle. It's a fantastic place, and walking around the endless 17th, 18th, and 19th century books is amazing for someone who (like me) has antiquarian leanings. You might even see me, I'll be the guy walking around them on the top floor.
