Monday 6 December 2010

Knowledge is power


Dave W goes to the library


I bloody love libraries and have done since I was about seven, when I rented Alvin Schwartz's In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories every fortnight without fail, despite knowing exactly how 'The Green Ribbon' ended (chilling).

So, naturally I was excited to visit the site of the most famous library in the ancient world, even if this new institution - opened in 2003 - won't contain all the sadly lost, endearingly wrong ancient knowledge that was destroyed all those times the original Library of Alexandria caught fire. Apparently, papyrus isn't fire-proof, however much the street wranglers in Cairo boast of its indestructibility.


Bibliotheca Alexandrina




I was pleased to see that the modern library is comparable to its historical counterpart, and contains the very finest examples of contemporary literature:




This undisputed modern classic, in which you can Choose Your Own Adventure for Colin Baker's rubbish incarnation of the Doctor (and which Amazon chooses not to sell any more - presumably just to give other books a chance?) contained a note stating it was:

A gift from Mohammed M Aman, Ph.D.
Dean and Professor
School of Library and Information Science
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Cheers, Prof! I'm sure the Alexandrian scholars greatly appreciate your contribution to the fountain of knowledge. You fool. Their English Literature section doesn't even have Hitchhiker's Guide, but it has this shit.



That's what I call a library. Edinburgh Central Library, eat your tartan hat



It even has an arachnobot. Does your poxy reading room have an arachnobot, Edinburgh Central Library? I think not!

Actually, is this supposed to be here? I didn't see it on the way --
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More from Alexandria tomorrow!