It’s not all quiet in the weird world of libraries

Reading Allowed Chris Paling Constable €17.50

The subtitle of this gem sums it up nicely: ‘True stories and curious incidents from a provincial library.’ Novelist Chris Paling took a job in a large public library ‘to maintain the pretence that on my days off I would continue writing the next novel’.

In fact, what he wrote next was this book, a series of beautifully observed dispatches from the front line of fiction, non-fiction and children’s. If you still think of libraries as cathedrals of learning, you’ll be swiftly disabused of the notion by Paling. As he soon realises, ‘the role of a library officer – beyond supplying and receiving books and information – encompasses that of counsellor, confidant and mediator’.

The episodes he recounts span a year and revolve around his dealings with ‘regulars’, among them: malodorous rough sleepers, furtive junkies, belligerent boozers and selfish students. There is Startled Stewart, who never borrows a book but loves to chat; Sons Of Anarchy Alan, a young chap with Down syndrome obsessed with a TV show about Hell’s Angels; the sinister Thin Man, who stalks the female librarians. Paling’s deftly drawn vignettes are frequently funny, sometimes sad and occasionally troubling. A dreadfully underweight woman repeatedly borrows Cry Of Pain: Understanding Suicide And The Suicidal Mind.A borrower with severe learning difficulties has been nicknamed ‘Goofy’ by his hard-faced carer. And the threat of swingeing cuts hangs like a pall throughout the whole book, giving it an elegiac quality. Borrow a copy from your local library, if you still have one. Better yet, buy it. ★★★★★