So your average punter has spent a good hour or so searching the stacks for enough brain fodder to keep them going for a week or so. Where the heck are they going to find the right ambience to do their reading. Sure, there’s always the good old bedroom, late at night - when something of the heft of a 10-foot bargepole is needed to keep the eyelids open. But where does one find such a reading aid, let alone instructions for using it?
Of course, there’s those lucky enough to use a ‘commute’ to work - ideal place to read? Not. At least the Poms have cell phone-free rail carriages - but what about the rest of the semi-civilised world? Even if the moron next to you on the train isn’t jabbering on inanely and incessantly about some great new love of his/her life, there’s the choom-choom-choom of personal (!) music systems to contend with.
Despite having so far resisted the urge to carry wire cutters or small nail scissors to further personalise a listening experience - by a little subtle snipping of earphone wires, nothing involving the actual spilling of blood, you understand - there are days when there is clearly a need for Noise Police on public transport.
Sure, there are Transit Police, largely responsible it seems for ensuring the continued existence of railway coffee shops; the ubiquitous Ticket Inspectors that protect the state’s fragile economy, adding to the billions of dollars surplus the government isn’t keen to actually part with; not to mention our fine, though stretched, ‘mainstream’ Police Service. But who is going to conserve a potential reading environment for those library users attempting to maximise the use of their travel time? Commuting librarians with nail scissors?
Just for those aren’t sure how to accurately and succinctly answer the question “How are you?”, this online biorhythm generator will help out with this sometimes pesky but common question: