:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 ::

In the Bookbarn

I posted about the free-for-all at the Bookbarn a couple of weeks ago. The opening of the doors at the Bristol book warehouse made national news.

The capitalist past of me was offended that all of those books, some of which were mine that I had taken there for them to sell on my behalf, were just being given away. I felt better about this once I'd visited and made up for my losses.

The anarchist past of me loved the idea of the free distribution of knowledge.

The liberal part of me loved the fact that all sections of society were represented, from charities, to students, to squatters with dogs, to opportunistic wheeler dealers, to pensioners with walking sticks, all picking through the mess.

The English part of me loved how polite everyone was. There was no barging, no shouting, no fighting over anything. Just a melancholic air of acceptance of the literary post-apocalyptic feeling that pervaded.

If ever anyone wanted to stage an intellectual coup d’état in the UK all they would need to do would be to spray all the books in a warehouse like this with legionnaires, open the doors to the public and leak the story to the press. You would wipe out every free thinker in the area. I'm sure there's a book in that.*

* Idea published under a non-profit creative commons licence, thank you very much.

Labels: Books, Bristol, Flickr, Literature, News, Photography

:: Dan 10.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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