Librarians deal in dreams, I think. We may not sneak into your bedroom and sprinkle them into your subconscious - which quite frankly would be weird in the extreme and might lead to arrest and incarceration - but we dispense books, and books inspire dreams.

Look at Linda, for example. She learned plenty of her cooking skills from her mother and via trial and error but if she’d never watched a cookery show, read a cookery magazine, or leafed through a recipe book her talents wouldn’t have led her to become the most sought after wedding cake baker for miles around. Of course I’d prefer if she had set her heart on being the best senior librarian in the county, but hey not all dreams come true.

I see it most in our youngest readers. I’ll spot a boy reading a book about Firema...

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