Why I'm Obsessed With Libraries (You Should Be Too!)

I think most of us probably visited the library as a child. I know I used to make regular visits to my local library, searching through what seemed to be endless tales of far away places, it seemed like a magical place where I could go anywhere I liked. But how many of us continue this childhood fascination with libraries as we grow older? Well, until a few years ago, I can't say I did. Now I've fallen back in love with them, and I thought I'd tell you why!

I currently have 3 library cards to my name, which give me access to a total of 43 different libraries in my surrounding area. Some of these libraries hold well over a million books inside including the second largest public lending library in Britain (Manchester Central Library). Firstly, I cannot even begin to imagine the staggering number of books I have at my fingertips. How could anybody find this anything other than completely mesmerising? There's more books available to all of us in our local libraries than anybody could possibly hope to read in a lifetime. The wealth of free information available to us is astonishing and this is why I have become so obsessed with the things!

Something you may not know is that most libraries these days have a website which allows you to login, track your loans, renew books, reserve books and search the library catalogue. This has become an invaluable tool for me, especially as a student. Say I see a book I want to read, or there's a specific subject I'm researching into, the very first thing I'll do is search the library catalogues from home to check if anywhere has what I'm looking for. If they do, I'll either reserve it or just go down and find it on the shelves myself. Because of the sheer number of books combined in the 43 libraries available to me, 95% of the time one of them has what I'm looking for. Usually, libraries within a given area will also ship books between themselves so you can pick it up wherever is most convenient. It's like Amazon - except it's free! As an art student, it simply isn't feasible for me to buy all of the books I want, but there really is no need to when I can get access to almost any book at no cost. There's also something quite wonderful about leafing through a book that has a borrowed stamp inside the cover dated from before I was even born.

Of course, there are some books that we'd just like to own for ourselves. That's fine - I still buy the odd book here and there. Maybe I like the design of it or I want to keep it on my shelf for reference, but how often do we buy a book that we read once and then never pick up again? It's refreshing to be able to borrow a book and hand it back once I'm finished so they don't just end up gathering dust on my shelves. I know I haven't been the first to read that book, and I know I won't be the last.

So maybe I sound a bit of an old fashioned, but I'm completely sold on libraries. What do you think? Do you use your local library? Why, or why not?

5 Ways To Make Use Of Your Commute

An average week at uni for me consists of full working days from Monday-Thursday, and a self directed study day on Friday (which I usually spend at home..*guilty face*). I commute to and from uni by train which takes 30 minutes each way, meaning I spend 1 hour per day on trains at least 4 days a week. That’s not even including all that time I clock up waiting on the platform! I’ll let you do the maths on that one but ultimately the result is a lot of time wasted on flappy bird. 

In fact, the average UK employee now spends roughly 4 hours 40 minutes a week on their journey to and from work. I’ll be honest, for a long time I was guilty of wasting that time on sitting, thinking about not very much, and generally trying not to make eye contact with anyone. But then I'd get home, get started on all my work and regret all that wasted time. I'm an art student, so in general the train isn't the most practical place to get uni work done, however, there are other things that I just don't get the chance to do as I always seem to be busy in the evenings. Time to make use of that 4 hours of dead time!

1. Read

Here it comes, straight in at number 1, use your commute as a chance to read. It seems like something pretty obvious, but for me its one I really need to start doing! One of my new years resolutions was to read more, and in a way I have succeeded in that I started off the year full on intent and got a few books read very quickly, more than I had read the entire previous year. However, that sort of tailed of as I reached the final stages of my a-levels and I haven't picked it back up again since. I don't think we can or should underestimate what regular reading does for the brain, and train time is the perfect opportunity to read, something many of us claim not to have time to do. 

2. Make A To Do List
I'm a big list person. A real 'lists about lists' kind of girl. In fact, you can tell if I'm really excited about something if I start making multiples lists about it. But you don't have to be a list-aholic to write a simple to do list, and your daily commute is the perfect time to do it. Look forward to the day/week ahead and go through everything that needs to be done, prioritise if it's a super busy one! Once I have a list written down in ink on paper, I find I can stop concentrating on all the messy thoughts in my head about everything that needs doing and when, and start concentrating on actually getting on and doing it!

3. Learn
How many of us say we wish we had time to learn something new, for example, a language? There are now hundreds of thousands of podcasts available to download for free, covering subjects from language to history to the arts to health to science. Even if you drive to work, this is something which you can do during your commute. Have a scout around on the Podcasts app and find something that interests you personally. You never know, you might be speaking french by Christmas...

4. Tie Up Loose Ends
I've already mentioned that as an art student, it can be difficult to compete any work I have during my commute, and this can be the case for many people in many different professions. But I am of the belief that there is always something you can be doing. Try to get all those little 1 or 2 minute tasks done that seem to build up over the course of a few days. Reply to that e-mail, return that call or do a quick google search on something you've been meaning to look up. Tying up all those odds and ends will clear the bulk of your day for bigger tasks.  

5. Play Games To Sharpen Your Mind 

And finally, if you really can't tear yourself away from games on your phone, try to swap them for something more stimulating for your brain, like Sudoku. Some researchers believe that playing mentally stimulating games such as this may help reduce the risk of age related memory loss. Not bad for a quick commute time killer!