The Magic Library

I am a book lover.

I have always loved books even before I could read myself. Even though I use the internet and social media a lot I still love to read books. It is fun to be connected to my friends all over the world digitally and E books are great for holidays when I don´t want to carry much weight. But I miss the haptic feeling of paper and the sound of a turning page. I have a lot of books at home although I reduced their number and I don´t hang on to every book anymore. I collect books of my favourite authors and all kinds of science fiction and fantasy books. I bet that doesn´t surprise you, dear reader.

I am equally fond of libraries. For me they feel like safe heavens. They are well structured, it is quiet and there is sooo much information right at your fingertips.

Books in the Fairy Tale Dimension (FTD)

In the FTD books are not very common. This is due to the fact that academia is not important in most of the fairy tale countries. People who read books are often magicians, healers or belong to governments. Most scholars own books and you can buy them on markets.

A lot of people don´t have much use for knowledge from books. Basic arithmetic and writing are taught in most villages. Beings who want to get advanced education and are exceptionally bright are sent to boarding schools free of charge. The schools maintain themselves by selling the magic objects they produce.

The magic library

A lot of books have their home at the main library of the fairy tale dimension (FTD). It is located in a separate building near the magic school I told you about. Here is the link to the blog post about the magic school should you want more information:  The Magic School

It is not the only library but the biggest one. It is connected to other libraries in many different countries. In my home in the FTD I have a small library that has a secret passage directly to the main library. Fun! Many other magicians and teachers have libraries and some also have permanent passageways to the main library.

The magic library has high ceilings and is lined with bookshelves. Have you ever seen pictures of the beautiful historic library in Dublin? It looks similar. You can take a peak here: Link to Pictures from the Trinity College in Dublin

Magic books

Books used in everyday FTD life look a lot like ours from a hundred years ago. In this post I am not telling you about these. Some of the books in the magic library are very very different:

Books can talk

Yes, you read correctly! These books can interact with you. You can ask questions about their subject and they will answer as best as they can. They can also rephrase an answer if you have not understood before. If you don´t speak the language they are written in, they will translate for you. Of course you can still read them by simply turning the pages.

They come in all sizes

There are miniscule books the size of your little fingernail and giant books about 2 meters long, a meter high and a meter wide. Some of these are big enough for you to sit in and listen to their story. Quite cosy, I can tell you.

Varieties and textures

Many books have pages made of paper. Others have silk pages or pages made of hide and things you don´t want to contemplate too closely. Some are made out of pure magic. Some are bound in leather some in velvet. There are ones that have a cover made of feathers, flowers or fungus.

Books have personalities

I wouldn´t say that the books in the FTD are sentient beings but they are certainly alive in some way. Some you have to coax into talking and others will babble away easily. A book bound in barbed wire and spikes may be more difficult to talk to than a book with a cloud cover. That doesn´t mean necessarily that the cover will tell you something about the personality of the book.

You can imagine that these books contain a lot of magic and are therefore elaborate to manufacture.

The interior design of the library

The differences in the books are the reason that the interior design of the magic library has to be different from the layout we are acquainted with. Instead of long tables where people peruse books there are nooks and crannies for the visitors. These niches are soundproofed by magic. Otherwise there would be a cacophony of voices that would be very distracting.

How to do research

To do successful research in the FTD you need a new set of strategies. For example you can talk to more than one book at once. But be careful some don´t get along too well especially when the authors have opposing views. You could end up with books screaming at each other at the top of their non-existent lungs. As a researcher in the FTD I prefer to use the oldfashioned pen and paper to record information. There are more interesting methods of doing this of course:

One method employs a species that looks like fluffy balls. They are used as living memory banks. The energy of information is their food and they are very reliable. They can even structure and file information for you. Another method is the automatic feather. This feather writes down what you dictate. She may point out mistakes you have made in the process.

Having read this I bet you can understand why I love the magic library so much. Do you have any impressions you want to share here or in the facebook group?

Picture: Pixabay

© Inge Schumacher