Tales from the Folly

by Ben Aaronovitch

the perennial problem for all retailers the world over are the customers. Not only do they clutter up the shop, but they also demand to be reminded of the title of a book they read a review about in the Telegraph, given directions to The Lion King, helped to find a book their mum will like and, occasionally, purchase some actual merchandise. All of this customer-facing activity gets in the way of the shelving,

books have the same effect on vestigia as those egg-box shaped bits of foam have on sound. It was a phenomena much commented on in the literature, or at least in the literature I’d managed to skim through that afternoon. Most practitioners cite the effect as the reason why it was much easier to have a nap in one of the Folly’s libraries than in the smoking room where they were supposed to.

with my constabulary duty still to be done.

‘Not only am I intensely curious to see what you boys actually get up to,’ she said, ‘but also you cannot leave these university types unsupervised amongst your stacks.

‘Whoever knew this job was so dangerous?’ I said ‘Ah, yes, librarianship,’ said Ms Winstanley. ‘It’s not for the faint hearted.’

our strategy was to leave at least one person at the base camp while the others went out as a single group and didn’t split up under any circumstances. Team Folly was not at home for Mr Scooby Doo.

I asked why, if it was so intriguing, it hadn’t been catalogued yet which caused Ms Winstanley to snort. ‘There’s never enough people to get through your backlog,’ said Postmartin. ‘That’s the curse of librarianship. If your library is of any quality at all, then its collection is going to outpace your manpower.’

the kind of heavy engineering required to keep 165 kilometres of shelving at just the right temperature and humidity. Plus the humans using the building above, of course, but that was pretty much an afterthought.

Or, more seriously, should you allow books to be damaged, death by librarian.

So the wedding went remarkably smoothly, apart from the one incident with Aunty Leda and that rogue swan and I’ve promised never to tell anyone about that.