I like winter but on very cold days like today (it’s -15C/5F this morning) I warm myself up by thinking of people who are often colder than I am.
So today my mind turns to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station libraries in Antarctica.
Entrance to Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (photo via wikipedia)
In their winter months, the scientists and other inhabitants of the station find themselves pretty much forced to stay indoors.
The little libraries, or reading rooms, offer a peaceful place to recharge and mentally escape through the pages of the books on offer.
photo via icecube.wisc.edu
Besides the obvious books on the history of Antarctica, the libraries offer recent bestsellers, magazines, some audio books as well as music.
I imagine I would spend a lot of time there.
Andre Grissell (left) a construction worker, and Mike Rodgers, a hazardous equipment inspector. Photo by Emily Stone, National Science Foundation
reading interrupted. 
Beautiful! But I prefer a beautiful, sandy, and tropical palm tree beach… đ
Reading on the beach with one’s toes in the sand isn’t bad either!
Hurray for libraries wherever they are. This does have a snug, bunker like feel.
Snug, bunker feel, exactly. Can imagine getting a lot of reading done in one sitting, right?
I love libraries. In Finland our weather has varied very much. For example few days ago near to the Arctic Circle the temperature was 4ÂșC / 39.2ÂșF.
Happy weekend1
It’s strange to think that NYC is colder today than it was in the Arctic Circle a few days ago. I will try to stay in a warm library today.
Hope you have a good weekend too!
I did not know they had such a lovely room at the Admunsen-Scott center – Almost feel like going! Specially today when we are having such low temperatures!!!
I can see the two of us there, especially today, protected from the cold, reading a good book!
Anywhere there’s a good book (or a good blog post like yours) there’s is a snug and warm feeling. Hope your surroundings warm up soon!
Thanks Liesa! I imagine it is quite chilly where you are as well. Let’s both have a cozy weekend with a good book!
Wow! A respectable collection for the bottom of the world.
Right? People bring books with them but then leave them behind for others no doubt.
I can’t possibly imagine going there!
I’ve read a couple of books by people wintering there and there’s a small part of me that is intrigued and toted by that odd experience, haha!
But how hard is it to get help? Like, how desolate and all is it? (Maybe I’m just imagining it wrong! lol)
No you’re so right. In the winter they are completely isolated from the world. I read a memoir (the name escapes me right now) about a doctor who lived there for a winter and realized she had cancer and had to operate on herself (with help via Internet etc) as they couldn’t get her out until Spring. Like being on the moon for a few months in a way.
Wow!!! Yeah, I’ll pass! lol
I’d hang out there, too if I lived in Antarctica. Brrr… (Then again, it was -2 F where I live this morning.
) Of course, I’d hang out in a library in any degree weather!
Brrr indeed! You are in your own Antartica today! Stay warm and run some extra laps on your treadmill to stay warm!
And thanks for the tweet my friend!
My pleasure. đ
What’s their favourite publishing house? Penguin!
Hahahahahahahahaaaa!
I can’t believe I was the first.
Haha, brilliant!!!! Wish I had thought of this đ
Sometimes you can’t see the icecap for the glacier.
I had my nose buried in the ice đ
Or maybe she was lost in the cubes.
Haha!
Do you think the seats come with tush warmers?
Great idea! I’ll see if there’s a suggestion box!
Oh I would pay money to go to the South Pole Station just to sit in that library and read! Sounds like pure heaven, I had no idea such a library existed! Letizia, you find the most interesting places and things to write about, just wonderful đ
Let’s go on a literary expedition to the South Pole, Sherri. Reading books about Antartica on our way and finishing in the little library!
What an amazing adventure that would be Letizia…count me in…but first, I have to come and visit you so that hubby can build you your summerhouse đ
So many adventures!
đ
I love how books warm up a room and make it feel so cozy. That’s nice that they must leave the books for others to enjoy later so the library is continually updated. Antarctica doesn’t seem so bad right about now. I hope you’ll will stay warm with some great books this weekend!
Books do make a room cozy, that’s so true, Sheila. I imagine you could use some warmth and coziness with all the snow you’ve been getting lately! I think of you every time the weather report announces more snow up your way.
oh, and thanks for the retweet, Sheila!
My pleasure – I love your posts. More snow on the way today and the driveway is starting to look like that bunker. đ I’m happy as long as there are books to read!
Let me know when you can’t open your front door anymore and we’ll all come up and dig you out!
Sounds good – come on down! đ It’s up to my waist so we couldn’t open the door for a while. Hope you’re having fun with the snow too!
Couldn’t open the door – that’s something! We haven’t had that much snow, just the bitter cold.
Isn’t that brilliant and civilised? Captain Scott would be very impressed.
He would! Here’s a link to a 360 view of his hut if you’re interested and want to feel cold: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Scott's+Hut/@-77.63618,166.417334,3a,39.4y,64.51h,92.95t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sAfGF5tFC13NdN-qI2yHC8Q!2e0!3e2!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x25b7191e2087b574?hl=en-US
I bet they are watching the weather reports and glad they’re not in Boston. I’d like to send them a few books, but don’t know the address, ha.
Boston probably looks like that first picture, right?
I wonder what the ‘street’ address is, haha! 0 South Pole Lane? 1 Penguin Pole?
Wow! That entrance is freaking crazy. I feel like I saw entrances somewhat close to that in Milwaukee last winter.
Sending you high 50s temps from Portland! Did it work? đ
I feel warmer already, thanks!
5F! I guess I should be basking in our 60F cloudy day. I thought everyone in Natarctica would be hooked to the Internet. Nice to see that they can refresh with books, too.
Antarctica!
I was going to correct your typo but I love the word Natartica!
Maybe the Internet is slow or they like the ‘warmth’ and comfort of the books. Just like we do.
That looks very snug. A library in a snug maybe. I was trying to find a list I had seen somewhere of the books that Captain Scott took to Antarctica. I can’t locate it but I did find the reference to the Encyclopedia Britannica which was so useful on the Shackleton expedition. http://www.oneworldmagazine.org/focus/southpole/histdet7.htm
I love reading about Shackleton, thank you. I’ve read so many books but never tire of reading about his adventures.
It’s an amazing story isn’t it!
You got me when you wrote “library.” I lived in Northern Canada! I looked forward to the long winter months when I could enjoy marathon reading sessions.
That must have been quite an experience! How far north did you live? I can just imagine how much reading you got done during those long, long winter months….
Okay I would totally stay inside with books if it was cold and snowy outside đ Any excuse actually to do it… !! Stay warm, Letizia!!
That’s the best part of winter, isn’t it? Gives us (yet another) excuse to cuddle up and read!
I wouldn’t leave ever, imagine just holing up to read for days on end without all the other annoying stuff life entails. I’d make sure I got my sciencey stuff out of the way really quickly so I could go relax with a book, I’d probably bring a ton of my own as well or at least send a request list before I arrived. I wonder if they like watching The Thing as well, that’s guaranteed to make things interesting.
‘The Thing’! Would you read ‘The Shining’ as well? I would stay away from all of Stephen King’s novels during my stay.
Ooo no, I love a bit of grim, being a method reader, the more immersed I am, the more I get into a book…a review from the Antarctic would be awesome to do!
I would love to read one of your reviews from Antartica.
I may set up a web page for donations, it could make a good travel book as well!
This is the perfect library. Not only does it look extremely cosy, but it also offers the sense of isolation every reader craves when they’re really engrossed in a book.
How well put, Zen, ‘the sense of isolation every reader craves’.
A hot air charm would make for some soggy reading though! Aeris Grauis Exustos!
Haha!
Just one more reason I’d like to go to Antarctica! A Reading room! I’m a very active Bookcrosser and every once in a while I see that someone has released a book in Antarctica. I wonder if this is where they end up? Interesting…
How fun to find a Bookcrossing book in Antartica!
Nothing better than to be surrounded by books when it is so cold and snowy and oppressive outside. Add a crackling fire in a fireplace, shortbread, and some hot tea, and I’m there!
Oh that sounds like paradise indeed!!!
Perfect Library, warm inside and too cold to go outside, so I could read all day. Love the stuff you find Letizia.
That sounds kind of wonderful, hunkered down for the winter in a library. Until of course you had to go outside to go home.
Yes, being outside in Antartica in the winter sounds like quite an experience. But I think they all wait until the Spring, emerging as if from hibernation. What a sensation that must be, to rejoin the rest of the world.
You’d really have to make sure that you remember to return your loans before leaving. Imagine the fines!
Ha, yes!
You know…I wouldn’t mind a winter locked indoors with nothing to do but read…hmmm. đ
There’s something very appealing about a literary hibernation, I agree!