I’ve been making the rounds of the same five or six coffee shops this summer, in search of a cozy place to do my writing and course work, and get out of the house for a couple hours.
But today, with a pressing deadline for a course assignment, and a lack of seating at three separate Starbucks, I found myself tucking in at my local library branch—it had a chair, a table and an open Wi-Fi connection, and I figured I could do worse!
Since I’ve been checking out e-books lately, it’s been some time since I’ve actually visited my local branch in person. They’ve made some improvements since I was last there—there’s a large glass-walled lounge area for sitting and reading, and the whole layout is cleaner, cozier and brighter. I was pleasantly surprised!
There were two downsides, Firstly, the sturdy wooden tables and chairs they offered for work purposes were plentiful, which was nice, but dated from a less ergomomic era. The table surfaces were much too high relative to the chairs, and after ten minutes, I abandoned them in favor of a couch with the laptop on my actual lap. I saw several others working away on their laptops, all of them with wrists angled up to reach. Bad!
Secondly, although the book-filled ambiance is very nice indeed, they are rather strict about food and drink. It’s nice to have a place I can go sit and read without having to pay a dime, but if I could smuggle in my own cup of tea to enjoy with it, I’d enjoy this as a workspace a lot more.
If I just want a place to lounge for a bit that’s not in my house, I would be happy to come back here with my Kobo and find a cozy spot. But for heavy-duty typing work, the coffee shop is a lot more comfortable, with lower tables and higher seats. Alas, you do have to fight for those seats sometimes! So, it’s the library for today for me!
