Braunger, Jane, and Jan Lewis.  Building a Knowledge Base in Reading.  Portland: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1997.

Reading is explored through the process of introducing it and teaching it to children.  Certain environments and tools are more conducive to creating young readers - those children capable of more than just pronouncing the words, but of deriving meaning from a text.

This research has implications on the types of spaces needed for readers.  It may be necessary to go back to the stage when we learn to read to discover how the appreciation of literature can be lost or never achieved at all.  The factor of the physical environment in the process is a relevant part; this involves both the surrounding people and the space of study.

Brawne, Michael, et al.  Library Builders.  London: Academy Editions, 1997.

Herein is defined the book, the library and their interdependence.  The functions of library as storage and library as accessible to the individual are explored through architectural essays and architecture itself.

The thesis benefits from this historical summary of the library - its origins and its evolution based on changing needs.  It explains the expectations of a library: “We may want to be where the pursuit of knowledge is celebrated.  And that celebration may well show itself through architecture; through the manipulation of space, the control of light and sound and movement, the creation of meaning, achieved by the thoughtful use of materials… the traditional pleasures of architecture” (p.9).  Recent examples collectively demonstrate the qualities of the ideal library.  This ideal necessitates an intimate understanding of the readers’ needs and the physicality of books.

Carroll, Lewis.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  London: Morrison & Gibb Limited, 1977.

A dream sequence introduces the fanciful characters conceived in Alice’s mind.  Oddities become the expected: curious landscapes, inconstant scales, clothed and articulate forest creatures, an animated deck of cards,… the lingering grin of a certain Cheshire Cat.  It is a reminder to “find a pleasure in all [the] simple joys, remembering [our] own childlife, and the happy summer days” (p.162). 

Carroll, Lewis.  Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.  New York: Avenel Books, 1976.

A chess match unlike any other: Alice steps through the looking glass to join leagues with a dynamic set of playing pieces.  A game proceeds where each move corresponds with new encounters, reams of poetry and nonsense (often in combination), and unlikely events.  It is a map that guides a return to the wonderland found in slumber.

Lewis Carroll’s fictional works became a datum - a reference point, or a (re)starting point, generating the thesis.  They instigated the notions of escapism and inspired serious thought into make-believe and how this ability withdraws with adulthood.  Curiosity, belief in the impossible, imagination - these are necessities.  These creative works lent an enlightenment to initial ideas of fiction as a means of release.  Certain passages insisted upon reflection:

·          When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one. (Wonderland, p.39)

·          Who are you? …I hardly know, sir, just at present - at least I know who I was this morning but I think I must have changed several times since then. (Wonderland, p.49)

·          Be what you would seem to be - or if you’d like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.  (Wonderland, p.114)

·          Contrariwise, … if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t.  That’s logic.  (Looking Glass, p.68)

·          Of Humpty Dumpty: If he smiled much more, the ends of his mouth might meet behind.. and then I don’t know what would happen to his head!  I’m afraid it would come off!  (Looking Glass, p.118)

They speak of reinventing yourself, reinventing your world, remembering that reinvention is an option.  Their sometimes-nonsense composition and silly imagery provoke laughter.  These effects initiate the want of similar goals for architectural definition. 

Creighton, Trevor.  Ethics of Some Modern Novels.  London: Field & Tuer, 1884.

What are the implications of fiction on morality? An overall comment is made on this subject and further elaborated through exploration of contemporary examples (of the time).

Historical context is given to the thesis.  A new perspective on the silent user is gained; the contents of those shelved users have a real history of struggle.  Accusations of inspiring immorality and subsequent issues of censorship attest to the power of the written word.  Fiction as a potential threat to blissful ignorance: this becomes a parameter of interest for the thesis.

Eco, Umberto.  Six Walks in the Fictional Woods.  Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.

Why and how we read novels, what we give up and what we gain, what we bring in from reality and what we edit out, how we invoke the use of imagination - fiction is explored through the presence of the reader.

This work confirmed and articulated how fiction is a tool for self-learning, and how it is also a prompt to see further and remove established blinders.  The reader, the user of a library space, is identified.  Their intentions as readers and their ‘change of state’ during the reading process are described.  An involved reader will subconsciously adapt to become the sort of reader that the story seems to necessitate.  “By reading narrative, we escape the anxiety that attacks us when we try to say something true about the world.  This is the consoling function of narrative - the reason people tell stories, and have told stories from the beginning of time” (p.87).  It recalls a sense of history to the thesis and provokes images of campfire gatherings and spontaneous eruptions of collective or individual creativity.  This work contributes to the imaginative spirit of the thesis.

Maitre, Doreen.  Literature and Possible Worlds.  London: Middlesex Polytechnic Press, 1983.

Expand the actual world to include possible worlds.  The device for such expansion is a combined effort from fiction and imagination, an alliance between author and reader.  It is an attempt to understand the role and consequences for all players involved in a work of fiction.

The escapist ‘plotting’ of fiction is validated and the ramifications thereof explained.  The library users adopt a state of mind that could be extruded to define the physical space.  To where do thoughts travel during reading?  What mental state do readers assume?  How is the escape provided by fiction captured by a space?  This exploration provokes these questions essential to the success of the thesis.

Travis, Molly Abel.  Reading Cultures: The Construction of Readers in the Twentieth Century.  Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998.

This volume recounts the tradition of reading, the development and expansion of reader demographics, and further hypothesizes on the nature of the cyberspace reader.  These are examined with respect to contemporary issues and themes, such as racism and feminism.

Historical references and the social role of reading contribute to the definition of the group spaces of the library.  Psychological aspects further add to the complexity of the user and the individual spaces of the library: the “reader is both herself and standing outside herself… an attempt to confront ourselves with ourselves” (p.14).  The library becomes not only a retreat for the mind, but an opportunity to renew and (re)discover ourselves.