noraleah:

poochie:

Did I mention I’m off to Ireland in April? And this is my first must-see stop: The Long Room Library Trinity College.  Doesn’t it look amazing, inspiring, incredible? Can’t wait to get lost inside.

It’s inspiring, it’s incredible, but sorry to say, you can’t get lost inside it. See those green ropes? You’re limited to a small section in the middle with the other folks on the Book of Kells tour.

Even as a student studying for my M. Phil in Anglo-Irish Lit I wasn’t allowed to so much as gaze at the deeper stacks. Though I was granted permission to pour through a couple decades’ worth of John Banville’s yellowing notes and corresponsdence in an exceedingly romantic stone reading room at the top of a narrow, winding stair at the far end of the Long Room. Dublin lives up to its legend, sometimes.