My new favoraite place

This is a seat in the Reading Room of the British Library. Actually its at the British Museum, which used to surround the British Museum. It is a circular temple of knowledge inscribed within the square of the Museum. Of course the Library holdings completely outgrew the circular space so the Library itself moved up the road to the Kings Cross-St. Pancras neighborhood.

But the Reading Room remains at the center of the British Museum. It now has a beautiful glass dome connecting what I presume used to be a courtyard to the Museum itself. The dome is beautiful--lacy, airy and inviting. Plus the whole thing is FREE! Crikey, it is FREE to walk into that museum and stroll around through the amazing collection. OK, it is plundered from all around the world but, whatever, its astounding to just see all that stuff in one place. And then in the middle there is this library. I love libraries. Particularly old ones, with books. I could and do spend hours just wandering around looking at the books, thinking, "Maybe I really should read this volume on Textiles of Abyssinia?"

The point is this is my new favorite place in London; Seat E5, just near the little bit of a history section that the British Library has thoughtfully left there.