I've got a temporary library card, and I know how to use it...

As a child, I was an avid reader of books. I spent much of the summer of, I think, 1971, in the library at Notting Hill Gate, ploughing through the "Thomas the Tank Engine" series. And I still enjoy reading, assuming that I can carve out the time to do so.

But you know how it is. There's so much information, news and stuff on the internet, and it's all in the palm of your hand. And so, I spend too much time online and not enough doing the panoply of other things that I could occupy myself with.

But I can't entirely believe that this is good for me, and the internet is often a bit "short attention span", whereas a book allows an idea, plot or story to be extended, developed. And so, I found myself in the Ipswich County Library in Northgate Street yesterday afternoon, signing up for a library card.

In Creeting St Peter, we did have a library of sorts, the Mobile Library, which came to the village every fortnight at 11.45 a.m. on a Friday. Not terribly convenient for those, like me, with jobs, and if you wanted something other than the obviously limited range that a medium-sized bus could hold, you had to order it in advance and hope that they could get it onto the bus in time. Alternatively, you could travel into Stowmarket and use the library there, but I wasn't often in the town, and you really need to return books on time - are you really going to make a special trip to do that?

However, the library is now a gentle eight-minute walk away, and it's open seven days a week, so taking books out is not only viable, it's very easy. Getting a temporary borrower card was the only immediate option, as I apparently need proof of my address to obtain the full range of services (note to self, find something with both my name and address on it...). But it did allow me to borrow up to three books immediately so, I thought, let's make a start.

Accordingly, I drew out two books, "Nation" by Terry Pratchett and "Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine" by Anna Reid and took them back to the desk to be recorded and stamped out with a date stamp redolent of my days as a Senior Library Prefect at Kingsbury High School.

I've got until 12 October to return them so, if you'll excuse me...