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Reading Allowed
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
16 posts | 8 read | 48 to read
'Paling's deftly drawn vignettes are frequently funny, sometimes sad and occasionally troubling . . . Borrow a copy from your local library, if you still have one. Better yet, buy it' Neil Armstrong, Mail on Sunday 'Not only was I captivated by Paling's lovingly wrought series of pen portraits, I was amused, moved and - perhaps most surprising of all - uplifted' John Preston, Daily Mail 'There are many detractors who question whether libraries are still relevant in the digital age. Paling's keenly and kindly observed account of his encounters offers a gentle insight as to why they still are' Helen Davies, Sunday Times Chris works as a librarian in a small-town library in the south of England. This is the story of the library, its staff, and the fascinating group of people who use the library on a regular basis. We'll meet characters like the street-sleepers Brewer, Wolf and Spencer, who are always the first through the doors. The Mad Hatter, an elderly man who scurries around manically, searching for books. Sons of Anarchy Alan, a young Down's Syndrome man addicted to the American TV drama series. Startled Stewart, a gay man with a spray-on tan who pops in most days for a nice chat, sharking for good-looking foreign language students. And Trish, who is relentlessly cheerful and always dressed in pink - she has never married, but the marital status of everybody she meets is of huge interest to her. Some of the characters' stories are tragic, some are amusing, some are genuinely surreal, but together they will paint a bigger picture of the world we live in today, and of a library's hugely important place within it. Yes, of course, people come in to borrow books, but the library is also the equivalent of the village pump. It's one of the few places left where anyone, regardless of age or income or background, can wander in and find somebody to listen to their concerns, to share the time of day. Reading Allowed will provide us with a fascinating portrait of a place that we all value and cherish, but which few of us truly know very much about ...
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Born.A.Reader
Born.A.Reader
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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An absolutely delightful, charming book with stories, anecdotes and observations about life in a library. The author writes with description and wit, and I found myself wanting to sneak read while working, to see what other happenings transpire. #libraryreads

16 likes2 stack adds
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Eggs
Eggs
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ a visit from the inimitable and magnanimous @Soubhiville this fine morning ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ all these books (many are for #authoramonth2021!) plus a beautiful bookmark 🔖 to start a new reading year!! Thank you ever so much Soubhi for this generous prize 🤗 for #authoramonth2020

tagged users iconAlwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Deblovestoread That‘s a great looking stack of books! Congrats!🎉 4y
Eggs @Kdgordon88 IKR?!! Thanks 🙏🏻 4y
TrishB Lovely 💜 4y
See All 8 Comments
AmyG Great books! 🙌🏻❤️ 4y
Crazeedi That is an awesome prize, and you deserve it!! @Soubhiville you are very kind, and Sher enjoy reading!! Congrats!!🎉🎉 4y
Eggs @TrishB @AmyG @Crazeedi Thank you 🙏🏻😘🥰📚 4y
Soubhiville I hope you‘ll enjoy them all! ❤️ 4y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Yay!!!! 4y
72 likes8 comments
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Tove_Reads
Tove_Reads
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Cathythoughts 👍🏻💕💕💕 5y
40 likes1 comment
review
squirrelbrain
squirrelbrain
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Bailedbailed

I hardly ever bail on books but fortunately this was a library book so I did...

I imagined it to be mildly amusing but it turned out to be a litany of snide tales about the more unfortunate members of society who used the library.

Example: A woman apparently faints but on reviewing the CCTV they see that she has deliberately laid herself down on the floor. ‘Ms Munchausen presumably got what she came in for‘

At that point I bailed....

TrishB 😔 6y
Cathythoughts What !!! 😡 6y
squirrelbrain @TrishB @cathythoughts - that was after the homeless man who smelled, the ‘effete‘ man who had a shiny suit, a 20 year old man (with his carer) who has the demeanour of a ‘hyperactive 3 year old‘ and the Down‘s syndrome man.... fortunately he didn‘t have anything bad to say about him but still, why make him part of a book? 😡 6y
See All 6 Comments
TrishB That all sounds so sad 😔 why is any of that funny. There are probably a million funny stories without actually having to make fun of peoples lives. 6y
Caroline2 Ah that all sounds really mean. 😔 6y
Megabooks Terrible! What a mean person! 6y
66 likes6 comments
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Eggs
Eggs
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Happy Friday

tammysue Lovely 😊 6y
JoScho 💙💙💙 6y
Eggs @whatshesreadingnow @JoScho ♥️💙♥️💙 6y
86 likes3 comments
review
Jeg
Jeg
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Pickpick

Delightful. Loved all the stories. Amusing, surprising and uplifting. The author worked for sometime in the British library system. @MrsMalaprop

18 likes5 stack adds
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4ravens
4ravens
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Saw this graphic shared on Facebook, wondering what the Australian statistics are.

LeeRHarry Possibly pretty similar - which is pretty sad .... 7y
1 like1 comment
review
Readaholic35
Readaholic35
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
Bailedbailed

I know some people insist on finishing every book they start whether they like it or not. I'm not one of those people. I had high hopes for this one as I thought it looked like the perfect read for me. It wasn't. The stories he told about the library were dry, disjointed and at times the descriptions of customers seemed a bit mean. I tried to keep going but it just didn't hold my interest so I gave up!

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Readaholic35
Readaholic35
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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A change of pace from the fantastical book I finished earlier but I love books about books and often daydream about working in a library or bookshop so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into this.

1 like
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Kirsty1
Kirsty1
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Gorgeous day on the east coast (uk) today, loving this book and finding myself nodding in agreement to every other sentence! #tootrue

12 likes1 stack add
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Yeah_I_Read
Yeah_I_Read
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Hit 1k on Instagram... must be my lucky week 🤗🤗🤗
With all these new book people here and on #bookstagram, I am in my glory 😊
Both are such awesome communities of readers and I'm so glad to be connected with everyone 😊
The only drawback being that I've bought a s***ton of books in the last few weeks 😬😬😬

Laura317 Congratulations!! 🎈🎉Yeah, those #blamelitsy purchases can add up! 8y
Yeah_I_Read @Laura317 I never knew about thrift books before 😫😫😫 now my husband keeps asking me, if it's cheap why are you spending so much lol 8y
minkyb Thriftbooks is a menace lol! 8y
See All 11 Comments
Literaryunicorn Congrats! This is an amazing community for sure! 👏👏👏 8y
Graciouswarriorprincess Congratulations!! 8y
Redwritinghood 👏👏👏👏And on the book buying, same here. I went on a buying binge after joining Litsy. Now I'm trying to read what I have but it's addictive. #blameitonlitsy 8y
Yeah_I_Read #blameitonlitsy 😂😂😂 and #bookstagram. Yesterday I said babe lets go to the book store and he said didn't you just order books, I'm like yeah but they're not here yet, he said damn babe I feel like we are paying the b&n managers salary 😂😂😂😂 8y
mjdowens My husband is threatening me with a book ban if I don't slow down on my book buying. I said so you want me to just breathing too? 😂😂 8y
DogMomIrene Your post made me snort! 🤣I've had the same problem with buying books which I rationalize because I am reading more regularly than last year. 8y
Yeah_I_Read @mjdowens 😫😫😫 exactly! 8y
Yeah_I_Read @ocdIrene 😂😂😂 8y
106 likes11 comments
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Birdsong28
Birdsong28
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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https://pro.teechip.com/qbook-read

5 likes
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Birdsong28
Birdsong28
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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4 likes
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scripturient
scripturient
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Bailedbailed

Um, sorry Mr Paling but you totally destroyed a book that could have been perfect and I'm a bit mad at you now. I was hoping for something along the lines of the 'Weird things customers say in bookshops' and 'I work at a public library' books but all I got was a rambling monologue that jumped from one unfunny/banal 'anecdote' to something that was completely unrelated. I couldn't deal with this lack of structure and was bored to death. Bail! :(

LeahBergen Really?! Oh, no! I thought this sounded like it would be good. 8y
minkyb Oh so sad but it is a good cover to photograph. 8y
SaturnDoo Rats🐀🐀🐀 I was hoping it would be good. Thanks for letting us know. Will be removing this from the tbr mountain. 😀 8y
elkeOriginal I tried the ebook sample and worried this might be the case. Thanks for taking a hit for the team and alerting us! Our TBRs thank you 👍 8y
93 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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scripturient
scripturient
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Starting on this pretty little thing tonight. :)

britt_brooke Nice photo! 📷👌🏻 8y
BookHermit Due to gross mismanagement of natural resource revenue, our provincial government just cut library funding to shreds, effectively destroying our interlibrary loan system and forcing many libraries to lay off up to 2/3 of their staff. Our elected officials have no concept of how libraries serve local communities. I wonder if this book might enlighten them and melt their frozen hearts. 8y
Suet624 @BookHermit I am so sorry. 8y
See All 6 Comments
RealBooks4ever @BookHermit Stupid government! 😢They know not what they do. 8y
minkyb @BookHermit so so awful 8y
scripturient @BookHermit Oh no, I am so sorry. That sucks. I wonder when governments will realise that investing into education should be one of their top priorities - libraries, schools, universities: they should all be supported. Personally I think every politician should be forced to join a library and visit it regularly to see what they do for communities. 8y
139 likes20 stack adds6 comments
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TheLondonBookworm
TheLondonBookworm
Reading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library | Chris Paling
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Stories about libraries? Um yes please!!! 😻😻😻😻😻

LeahBergen Ooo! Want! 8y
MrBook Need! 8y
MrBook Of course I would need it after @LeahBergen wants it. 8y
71 likes15 stack adds3 comments