Regency Libraries

Free public libraries as we know them today did not exist in the Regency. Libraries were part of book shops, and a fee was required to check out books.

Most of the bookshops were concentrated in large cites, such as London. Here’s a list of booksellers in London, with their specialties: http://www.londonancestor.com/leighs/books.htm

Some booksellers kept libraries, and some had Reading Rooms only.

Two of the best known Regency libraries are Hatchard's and Hookham's. Hatchard’s, which figures most prominently in Regency romances and still exists today at its Regency location of 187 Piccadilly, had a Reading Room, while Hookham’s had both a Reading Room and a circulating library.

Libraries were not for the poor. Hookham’s yearly fee for taking out twelve books was forty-two shillings (two guineas, or two pounds, two shillings), about $150 in today’s money. Part of the large fee was due to Hookham’s location in high-priced Mayfair, but some was also due to the cost of books. Books were expensive, thanks being made from rags and also to a tax on paper, and only the well-heeled could afford to buy or borrow.

Here’s Hookham’s library catalog: http://books.google.com/books/about/A_catalogue_of_Hookham_s_circulating_lib.html?id=WJYIAAAAQAAJ

Here’s Hookham’s ad for its library: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004773836.0001.000/1:4?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

In my Love and the Library series, my heroes and heroines meet  in Hookham’s circulating library over a copy of Pride and Prejudice. Since they all like Pride and Prejudice, can love be far behind?

The books in the series so far are A Similar Taste in Books, A Mutual Interest in Numbers and A Distinct Flair for Words.

A Similar Taste in Books, Book 1 of Love and the Library, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes and other places where eBooks are sold.

A Mutual Interest in Numbers, Book 2 of Love and the Library, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes and other places were ebooks are sold.

A Distinct Flair for Words, Book 3 of Love and the Library, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes and other places were ebooks are sold.

Thank you all,

Linda

Top picture is of the British Museum Reading Room, from Wikipedia