From one librarian to another

Those of you who are regular devourers of material on the blogosphere may remember the recent and possibly continuing meme doing the rounds, where other bloggers have taken the opportunity to ask fellow bloggers some questions about themselves. Following on from Reed’s  interviewing of the Singing Librarian, I decided to ask the Singing Librarian if he would be kind enough to ask me some questions. I probably didn’t actually phrase it so politely and made his life difficult (as far as this meme goes at least) by being someone he knows in real life. However, he has dutifully provided an interesting selection of questions for me to answer. Thanks, Singing Librarian. So, now I just have to do my bit…

1) You and Florence clearly have a long history together. Do you have a
favourite piece of music that you’ve played with her, and does she agree
with you on that? And are there any particular pieces of music that the
two of you are longing to play, or that you hope you never have to play
again?

Prélude  à l’aprés-midi d’un faune, by Debussy, is probably a predictable answer to the first part of your question, but it is a beautiful piece for flute. Florence and I haven’t played it for a while, but as far as I remember we both enjoyed it. When Florence is enjoying a piece I tend to enjoy it more as well. I find things much more difficult, and therefore less enjoyable, to play if Florence is also struggling with the notes. Florence and I have always regretted that the flute isn’t really a big band instrument, as we both like to play swing and jazz music, but we don’t have a longing to play any particular piece.

As for pieces we hope never to play again, I think we both agree that the Star Wars theme music was a bit too much of  a challenge for us. There are certain hymn/song tunes that neither of us are particularly fond of, due to their very long top notes and lack of breathing space, but they’re probably good for us, so we’ll keep practising!

2) You have travelled to sundry assorted nations while you’ve been
blogging on WordPress and Blogspot. Would you like to visit any of them
again, or is there anywhere you really wish you could visit? And what
would you do in that place or those places?

I think I’d like to visit all of them again! I’d like to go back to Malaysia and Singapore and spend some more time exploring, particularly in Singapore as this part of the trip was cut short due to passport complications (don’t ask!). There are lots of places from Mr C’s youth that I haven’t seen, and which he’s very fond of, so I’d like to go back and visit them with him.

Norway was beautiful and relaxing and I’d love to go back there. I’d go back to the Lofoten islands and rent one of the cabins on the waterfront and just potter about, do some writing and reading, and maybe take Florence along for some practice time. Even the thought of it makes me feel relaxed! I’d quite like to go there in the winter, to see the Northern Lights, but I’m not sure how practical this would be!

Other places I’d like to visit include Australia (to visit family), New Zealand (for the scenary), Athens and Rome (for the history) and I still want to do my railway/other form of public transport journey across the USA. If I don’t manage that I’d like to visit a selection of American states, just out of curiosity, really. I want to see what America feels like. 

3) Your garden is clearly important to you as a place to be busy and a place to relax. Assuming that you could conjure up the necessary weather conditions and eliminate any slithering or crawling plant-eating
machines in a humane way, what would you grow in the garden, and why?

With every rose that blooms my soul is assured 
Every December Sky, Beth Nielsen Chapman

Roses that smell of turkish delight. My dad grows these in my parents’ garden and they are beautiful to look at and smell gorgeous (if you like the smell of turkish delight!). Roses of any kind are lovely. To me, they are as near to perfect beauty as we’re going to get on earth, and they always remind me of the line from Every December Sky.

Other than roses, and assuming that space was unlimited (is that allowed?), I would grow lots of trees, because I find them comforting. In a more realistic scenario, I would grow lots of fruit and vegetables, because they always taste nicer off the garden, as my dad would say. I saw a pineapple plant at the garden centre the other day. I’d quite like to try growing one of those, just for the novelty value.

4) Are there any books which you’d secretly like to sneak on to the
800s/900s trolley the next time you raid it? Or, for that matter, any
books which you would refuse to read even if they were the only
selection on the trolley?

I needed to check the library catalogue to answer this one! I’d like to read The Name of the Rose again, and I don’t own a copy, so if that turned up ‘accidentally’ I would be quite happy. As far as things I’ve never read go, I’d be quite happy for any sort of classic novel I haven’t yet read to turn up on the trolley, even if it’s one I didn’t particularly want to read, because it would make me read it.

I would refuse to read anything by Stephen King or any sort of horror novel (I don’t think we have many of these in the library anyway!) and I would never, ever read All He Ever Wanted, by Anita Shreve, again. It made me really angry and had a detrimental effect on my marriage! Fortunately, we don’t stock it in the library.

5) The Library of Doom. Would you have thought of that as an
appropriate name for the place if it hadn’t already been known by that
name on the internet? And if you could change just one thing to make it
less doom-laden, what would it be and how would you go about it?

I might well have thought the name to be appropriate after a while. I haven’t experienced all of the things that gave it its name, such as the flooding drain (although there was the leaky ceiling the other week!) so I might not have given it the name quite yet. Give me another couple of weeks of an airless office, though…

For me, it’s not necessarily the building itself that makes the name ‘Library of Doom’. Instead, it’s things like the rubbish pay, some aspects of management and the resulting low staff morale that make it doom-laden. Therefore, if I can only change one thing, it would have to be a change in managers’ attitudes so that they were more receptive to the opinions and needs of library staff. If we could all get a massive pay rise, that would be great as well!

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1. Leave a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. Please make sure I have your email address.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment, asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.