Adventures of a Cat Lady

Whilst I love a museum and I do love a museum, I don’t enjoy ‘the classics’. Honestly, I find them boring. No imagination is required to enjoy classical art, I feel that mostly its rich families showing their wealth or portraits doing the same. Of course there are some stunning classics but generally for me, it’s a no. I’ll never forget when I saw the Mona Lisa and thought to myself, ‘is this it?’ with more than a disappointed tone. I do visit museums that have classic art but its normally with an ‘meh, here we go’ attitude, knowing that the most exciting part of it will be the music I’m listening to, as I make my way around the museum. I know a lot of people spend the entire day, if not days in the Rijks. I’m normally around 1hr 15 mins at the very most, with my December visit I surprised myself by being finished just at 45 minutes, the entire museum.

Having said this, what I have always marvelled at is the library, it is the one part of the Rijks that I always looking forward to visiting. From the layout out to the library to the 1000s of books that you can see. For me, it just feels like history. Its probably part of the museum that I spend the longest admiring.

There is a small viewing area/platform, as part of the museum that allows you to have a look into the library (above). When you look down from the viewing platform, you see a small area, which is full of tables and sometimes people. I had never really thought much about this. However, when I was doing museum research in December, I stumbled upon the fact that sessions can be booked to use the library. To say that I was rather excited by this, was an understatement. It felt like my celebrity moment, when you’re about to meet someone you really admire and go into fan (girl) mode. Im not really into celebrity culture in that way, celebrities don’t excite me. However, it turns out that libraries do!

Officially the purpose of the library is to conduct research using the collections of the Rijksmuseum. I decided to do research, booked my appointment and then was pointed in the direction of the library collection, to order books that I could use whilst visiting.  There are quite literally 1000’s of books to choose from, covering a range of every topic you can think of. I originally got very excited at the prospect of having many books to read but realised that I had 3.5hours to enjoy the library, so I choose three books across different topics.

Library day arrived and I was quite excited. As I made my way to the library, I kept reminding myself not to fan girl out, to keep my composure and to remember to pretend like I was a mature adult. Adulting is such fun! Making my way to the library, even with the (semi) clear sign posting… I managed to get slightly lost… in a museum that I’ve visited more than 10 times. My distinct lack of direction never fails me but I can say that Ive never had to make my way to the library before… thats the convenient excuse I will be using for having walked past the door that I needed.

Upon arrival, it became apparent that I hadnt completed the process of ordering the books correctly, however, the staff were very nice about it and this gave me time to look around, taking it all in, whilst they ordered and waited for the books to arrive. Luckily I was the first to arrive in the library and had the entire library to myself, for all of about 10 minutes. I took full advantage of those 10 minutes.

You can pick up any of the books on the walls around you and read them. I happened to find a book on Chairs. This made me slightly giggle because it is absolutely a book I would read. There is something about chairs that I find fantastic and when a museum has a exhibition with chairs, I’m like a child in a candy store (the little weird things that make my heart happy). Its the idea that a very practical everyday item is turned into something more, more the bizarre the better for me. Years ago (before it closed for what seems like over a decade of renovations), I went to the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and they had a very large room with nothing but chairs. I practically skipped through the room with delight looking at all the chairs. Needless to say, seeing a book all about chairs, made me what was already a good experience, even better!

After roughly 30 minutes, my books arrived and Chairs was put back in place. From the 1000s of books I could have ordered, I went for a rather random mix of books.
1st: 100 posters that changed the world by Colin Salter. A book all about posters, how exciting, one might think with pure sarcasm. The book covers the evolution of poster design from their earliest forms, through to 21st century modern day posters. I have areas in my house that are covered in posters. I think people resonate with posters, looking at a poster can take them back to a specific time. I enjoyed reading the evolution and seeing how posters have progressed and sometimes repeated styles over the decades.

2nd: Grief : the biography of a Holocaust photograph by David Shneer. Its a book that looks into the Soviet side of the Holocaust, including the Nazi genocide in and against the Soviet Union.
What interested me in this book, was not only my own interest in the Holocaust and the many books I’ve read around it over the years… but what had been in recent news. It was recently the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Russia was not invited to attend. Russia instead held their own ceremony, which focused on the genocide, with “more than 27 million Soviet citizens were killed in what is known here as the Great Patriotic War”. Previous to this, I had honestly never considered the Soviet suffering during WW2 or that they has also Nazi death camps. For whatever reason, in my own mind, I hadn’t researched or read books that went beyond the Polish border. With the small bits of the book that I read within the hour that I gave myself, I learnt a few things.

3rd: Art heist : 50 artworks you will never see by Susie Hodge. I found this quite an interesting booking. It covers various art heists which have happened over the years, including the investigations, plot twists, resolutions and return of some of the art work. It also covers art heists where the work were never recovered and remain a mystery. Art and crime will always be a thing, given the value involved. It was an interesting book.

Within my 3.5 hours in the library, I gave myself roughly an hour per book and made the most of it. I properly fan girled out, felt the history of library and read a few books. Whilst this may have been my first trip to the library, it absolutely wont be my last.

* I realised after the initial posting that this was the longest I’ve ever spent in the Rijks museum as a visitor.