Is there such a thing as a library-spotter? by Tracy Darnton

I'm not sure how it happened, but I have become a person who likes to visit other country's libraries and take pictures. 

If there's such a thing as a library-spotter, I appear to be it. 

Last month I shared my library photos on the dark academia theme, but I have been popping into some amazing modern ones while on holiday. 

So here are a few of my summer shots:

Helsingor (Elsinore) in North Zealand in Denmark is a very lovely town, home to the castle of Hamlet fame. I wish towns of a similar size in the UK had our own equivalent of The Culture Yard and a striking public library. The kids' floor was brilliant; full of imaginative play and reading spaces. 

Sneaking in an old library here - attached to the stunning modern  The Black Diamond of the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen is the reading room from 1906 and a very lovely library garden. 

Here's the mini summer library in a modern shopping plaza in Tallinn, Estonia, to illustrate that some cities make the library come to you. 

I'm finishing with the ultra modern library I swooned over. This is the one I'd like to have rammed in my suitcase.

Helsinki's library: Oodi 

Maybe it was the chess tables full of players on the ground floor, or the creative spaces where you could record music or use 3D printers, or the shelves of board games, or the events programme, or the cafes, or the terraces, or the way it was flooded with light, or packed with children in the amazing kids library, or the very long opening hours, or a whole floor of books. Sigh. 

Maybe it was because it's the place where I'd have loved to hang out as a teenager. 

Or now. 

Tracy Darnton is the author of YA thrillers and picture books known for their twisty endings. If she ever achieves world domination, she will build libraries. 

You can follow Tracy on Twitter or Instagram @TracyDarnton