I spent the afternoon at the East Building of the library today. It was my first time here, and the transportation is very convenient. Now, there's no need to make a reservation in advance.
The exterior of the building is beautiful, and the interior space is spacious with great views and lighting from all sides.
Appearance and Views#
Reading Space#
The reading space is huge, and there seem to be seven floors in total, but I only browsed the first three floors. There are many seats, but even more people. It's impossible to reserve a seat online; I couldn't get one for next week 🥲 I spent half the afternoon sitting on the floor, and it wasn't until around four or five that I found a great spot by the window. The sofa chairs are very comfortable.
In addition to books, there are also some calligraphy, manuscripts, old photos, and antiques in the library. When there are no seats, you can browse around to pass the time.
Complaints#
The downside is that there are too few books. The few Japanese novels and social science books I wanted to find were not available. (It seems that many modern domestic literary works are included.) Moreover, the arrangement is chaotic and messy!! It should be that readers just put them back randomly after reading. I saw a book titled "What Women Really Think" among a pile of sociology books, and then found "What Men Think" among a bunch of economics-related books. 🤣
I spent the afternoon looking at some manuscripts and a few interesting books. 🇫🇷
I miss the new building of the Xiamen Library. Although the books are old, the arrangement is very neat. As long as you have the book number, it's easy to locate it in just a few searches, and the collection is quite complete (perhaps because the borrowing is relatively low).
Overall, the environment is great, and it's very comfortable to bring your own books to read there. It's a good place to go when you're bored.