Delightful "squirm factor" explains the tv show beautifully, Rowan.

In my first week working at the library, back in 1979, I was totally appalled to see one of the library attendants diligently working his way through a wall full of books, tearing them up and throwing them out. It wasn't helped much by being told that I could put aside the ones I wanted and get them signed off as cancelled items so that I could take them home. I couldn't possibly take them all home.

The first set I claimed was a Websters dictionary in two parts from about the '30's. Both books are big enough for Tony Hancock's library sketch: a man asks to use three or four well known hefty tomes, and when the librarian commends him on being so erudite he says that he uses them regularly, as stepping stones to reach the top book shelf.

Helen