Library

Today I got to do more adventuring. This morning, for my class "Intellectual History from Antiquity to the Renaissance" (pompous points +10!), I had to visit the library to get the necessary books for my next lecture, which is on Aristotle (pompous points +3!). Now, I have visited the University of Edinburgh Main Library once so far this year, but it was mostly to confirm that it did indeed have a coffee shop inside of it. Today I had a chance really check it out, and oh, the joy of it all! The building has most of its books primarily on one floor. That's right, a full size college library, on one floor. Oh the Stacks! It was a thing of beauty. One could, if one wanted to, walk from Library of Congress subclass AC - collected works, to ZA50 - Government Information. And that's awesome.

So, I have a confession to make. I am a nerd. And not like a "lets bust out our Star Fleet uniforms, Vulcan Ears and Klingon-to-English dictionary and go see Leornard Nimoy at a Trekkie Con". I am, at least what I would consider, a nerd in the more classical sense. Now don't get me wrong, I know my Yuuzhan-Vong from my Troydarians, I know which chapters betrayed the Imperium during the Horus Heresy, I grasp the depth of the sadness from the Kinslaying, I know who planned the Kwisatz Haderach, and I am practically a card-carrying member of the Browncoats. But where my real nerdiness (spellcheck tells me this is not a word, nerdiocity then perhaps?) comes out, and splays its cephalapod tentacles, is in libraries and books. I am probably not this guy:

 But, give me the chance like today, to grab some books, and I nerd out totally. Rare book collections? Sign me up? Ancient Manuscript section? Show me the way? Microfilm? Yes, please! Of course, the irony is that I am not really all that well read. I've never read War and Peace, I can't really stand Dickens, Shakespeare is kinda a bother to me, the Iliad I find really kinda boring, don't even get me started on the Bronte Sisters, and there are entire sections, genres even, that I avoid like the plague. Like for example, almost everything written by Germans. Nothing against them, its just some things get lost in translation (like the ability to have any idea what they are talking about).

But, I like books. Alot. So today, exploring the library was such a treat. The University of Edinburgh library has like 8 floors, several devoted purely to reading. And while they do have the obligatory wooden 1930's era desk and chairs designed by a guy who hated Chiropractors, they also have a whole room filled with this comfy chairs that have a built in mini-desk and laptop charger build into them, swiveling around and all lined facing the southwest wall, which is all windowed and gives one an awesome view of the city. When I finally found the books I was looking for, I ended walking out with two classic tomes by Aristotle, his Politics and Nicomachean Ethics. Both of the books are over 100 years old. Not just the copyright. Like, these books were printed during the days of monocles and when men could get away with names like Allistor Willingham III, and the library has kept the books ever since, rebinding them every couple of decades. That gives me goosebumps of awesomeness just thinking about it.

Even the librarians were cool. While they are not the dream librarians of every nerds dreams (not one bookish girl with horned-rim-glasses in sight), they were the next best thing, which is ancient Scottish men who could tell you all about where to find books about David Hume (personal friend of the family you know laddie) or the Second World War, because you know, THEY LIVED THROUGH IT!

Anyway, I will wrap up this long post with one last thing. While today I visited the Main Library of the University, one can visit the old library, known as the Playfair library, which now just holds mostly the spill-over from the School of Divinity Library. It looks like this:

Thats right. It is lined with busts! Busts! Like something out of Laura Croft's house. I must visit this place.