Thursday 10 July 2008

My Dream Library - Anne Cassidy

My dream library should look like a beautiful department store (John Lewis). It should have space and style. It should be light and airy and have lots of people round who are waiting for my custom. May I help you? A smart woman would ask. I'm here for the latest Alexander McCall Smith book which was published a few days ago I would say. Let me show you the way, she would say and guide me to a shelf of a dozen or so copies of this book. We bought lots because we knew there would be a high demand! she would say. Have a nice day!



And I would have a nice day because in this beautiful library there would be a choice of book groups running that I could dip in and out of according to the book chosen. There would be a coffee bar where I would see fellow bibliophiles and chat while eating home made cakes. Big leather sofas on which I could sit and read books. There would be visual stuff too, a theatre group performing scenes from a book; wide screen TVs where I could watch biographies of writers and films of the books; Real Writers giving readings or surgeries on writing. Illustrators giving masterclasses on their work.



The librarians would choose a WRITER OF THE DAY to promote and it could never be the same one twice in a period of five years. That writer would have his/her books laid out flat on the table and there would be pics and info about them dotted round.



There might even be a small bookshop for people to buy the books. In short it would be an Eldorado of all things bookish. Anyway, sigh, I'm off to change my library books...

3 comments:

Lee said...

And mine is online, where even indie writers like myself are considered real - Real Writers, that is!

Cathy Butler said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anne Cassidy said...

I did start ABBA but it quickly moved from a scrap of an idea to a brilliant, professional looking and efficiently run must-read blog. This is one of the many ways in which writers can cooperate to help ourselves and our books. Isolation is a killer for writers. Getting together we can pool our expertise and reach out to readers. THE HISTORY GIRLS and GIRLS HEART BOOKS took the baton and ran on with it. Any other ideas anyone?