A Moment of Chuffage

Photo by Lorna Toolis

Lorna and I paid a visit, recently, to Calgary's magnificent new central library. We were most impressed, me from a purely aesthetic and end-user perspective, Lorna from a much more professional viewpoint.*

The entire building seems full of light and air, all white walls and shelves with blonde wood. The shelves themselves are not tall (essentially they top out at upper chest height on me) which has a number of advantages, not the least of which is that one never feels hemmed in. Even a claustrophobic like yours truly can feel comfortable among the shelves. I can easily see spending numerous happy hours working or just enjoying in this space, and am appropriately envious.

We walked through the entire building from topmost floor to entrance (or at least those bits open to the public), and when we found ourselves in the fiction books and noticed they had a separate section for SF and Fantasy, I went on a whim to the last shelf. And what do you think we found there?

I was more than a little chuffed, and had Lorna take a couple of photos—purely evidentiary, of course. (I believe this is the only time I'll ever appear alongside Jeff Vandermeer and Norman Spinrad.)

*My friend Wallace describes the place as "an architectural achievement without enough books in it." I'm confident the latter case will fix itself, given enough time.