Who needs a free newspaper anyway?
On the first day that Londoners had to cope without the now defunct London Paper, Bookhugger’s Simon Appleby encountered an unusual new source of reading material on his way home.
When the Circle Line train pulled in to Great Portland street I could not help but notice that there were numerous books occupying the seat-backs, in the place where hardened travellers are used to finding discarded free-sheet newspapers. The selection was truly diverse, from Conan-Doyle and Thomas Hardy to China Mieville and Clive Cussler. Part of a one-day experiment to provide Londoners with alternative reading matter for the Tube, all the books contained a slip exhorting them to read the book until the next stop and leave it behind, or take it with them and return it in to circulation later.
I nabbed a copy of a book about breaking stupid laws on a road trip across the United States (it is illegal to fall asleep in a cheese factory in South Dakota, etc.), which I had consumed half of by the time I got home, and I shall be returning it to circulation soon. Some fellow travellers seemed enthused, others bemused, but one thing’s for sure, the selection of books arrayed behind the seats was far more welcoming than tatty old newspapers, and it brings a whole new meaning to the concept of a mobile library.
Find out more about the experiment at www.thelondonpaperlibrary.co.uk – and if you were in London today and saw the ‘library’ in action, tell us what you thought by leaving a comment.
