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So on Tuesday of this past week, I set off by train to spend a few days in Toronto. The main purpose of my trip was to see The Library at Night with some fellow Ex Libris Association members, but I went to other bookish places too. Here's some basic information about the Library at Night exhibit:

https://lighthouseimmersive.com/toronto/

Our show time was 2:30 PM on Wednesday so prior to that, some of us got together for lunch at Firkin on Harbour. A couple of people first went to a different friggin' Firkin and joined us a bit late but overall, that part of the experience went well. It was wonderful to catch up with people I hadn't seen in ages, at our first in-person event in nearly 3 years. I pigged out there on butternut squash ravioli and butter tart a la mode for dessert and didn't feel hungry for the rest of the day. After lunch, we met up with a few more people who were joining us for the show itself.

As for the show, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I'm a huge admirer of Alberto Manguel and have read a number of his books. I've also attended two different immersive Van Gogh exhibitions and enjoyed both. In those, especially the one held in Montreal in early 2020, the experience was like walking right into a Van Gogh painting. The starry starry night was all round you! But The Library at Night was a rather different sort of experience.

It started out OK, when we entered a room that was apparently a reconstruction of Alberto Manguel's own private library. From there, we went into another large room laid out like a large library reading room, with those green-shaded banker's lamps at every table. We sat down and donned some rather awkward virtual reality equipment: a set of goggles attached to a set of headphones, with various little buttons on the front and sides. We were given a few minimal instructions but essentially we controlled our experience by turning our head in the direction of the particular library (represented by an icon or crest) that we wanted to virtually enter. I believe there were about seven of them.

Anyway, I find the head is a rather, shall we say, blunt instrument for pinpointing which library one wants to explore. I started by nodding at a symbol just to the right of my straight-ahead field of vision, and "entered" my first library. When that experience was over, I decided I should do the libraries in some sort of order, which turned out to be a counterclockwise direction. Even so, I did at one point accidentally enter a library I'd already gone into and couldn't remember how to interrupt the process. I wanted to ensure I got through all of them in the time allotted (about an hour). Fortunately there was a staff member available to assist me and get me re-oriented. From there, I hit my stride and was able to get through the rest without incident.

The libraries were all quite interesting. I learned things I didn't know, even about the Library of Parliament which I have visited and toured in person and know people who have worked there. But the amount of time spent on each library was really only enough to give one a brief taste of it. And I couldn't help thinking: couldn't this be done at almost any venue, like an arcade or movie theatre in any city or town, or even by borrowing the equipment from a local public library and experiencing it at home? We basically were just sitting there the whole time on our rotating office chairs, turning around to nod at the appropriate icon. And being cocooned inside the insulated virtual-reality-headphone-goggle world, I was quite unaware of the others in my group or how they were approaching the experience. After going through the last library and removing the headsets, I was fumbling on the floor in the near-dark to pick up my belongings and leave, when I felt bits of crumpled paper and wondered if something had dropped out of one of my bags. "Oh, I guess that's part of the display," I said to one of the Lighthouse guides and she confirmed that it was.

All in all, I'm glad I went but felt the equipment provided could have been a little better and more comfortable to wear. And I would have preferred to be able to experience each library by actually physically walking through a series of rooms instead of just nodding at icons from a seated position.

In Parts II and beyond, I'll describe my other book-related experiences in Toronto, including:

The Monkey's Paw Bookstore and Bibliomat on Bloor St. West
The new improved Glad Day Bookstore & Coffee bar on Church Street
The Sleuth of Baker Street
Noir at the Bar

Stay tuned!