Shhhssh!
I was a middle-class boy with a bedroom of my own and a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, but some of my schoolfriends weren't so fortunate. Where do they go now?

Naturally I'm all for democratic spaces and life-affirming entertainment. You might think, though, that one of the greatest benefits our free library service could offer would be space, books and the silence in which to read them.

D J Taylor The Guardian 9 February 2004