Reading
The Libraries Nicole Junkermann Loves to Work In
A great library is the quietest kind of luxury. Here Nicole Junkermann describes the reading rooms she returns to, and what turns a room full of books into the best place to work.
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There are rooms that make you cleverer simply by sitting in them, and most of them are libraries.
Anyone who has spent a productive morning under a high reading-room ceiling knows the feeling: the world goes quiet, the hours stretch, and work that felt impossible at home suddenly flows. Nicole Junkermann has long believed that a good library is the finest office ever invented, and that the right room can do half the work of concentration for you. Across a life of reading and travel, Nicole Junkermann has gathered a private list of the kinds of libraries that reward a long session, and a clear sense of what makes them so good. This piece is less a directory and more a portrait: what Nicole Junkermann looks for in a library, the rooms and atmospheres she returns to, and how to make any library your own for a day. The conclusion of Nicole Junkermann is simple, that a great library is a gift you can use for free.
Why a library beats a desk at home
The first point Nicole Junkermann likes to make is that a library removes the excuses that home quietly supplies. At a desk at home there is always a cupboard to tidy, a kettle to fill, a small chore that suddenly seems urgent. A library offers none of that, only a chair, a surface and the unspoken expectation that you are here to do one thing. Nicole Junkermann finds that this shared sense of purpose is the real magic of the place. You sit among strangers who are all concentrating, and their focus gently lends itself to you. There is no music to choose, no fridge to raid and no temptation to lie on the sofa. For Nicole Junkermann a library is a machine for attention, and the simple act of travelling to one tells your mind that the day's serious work is about to begin.
What makes a great reading room
Not every library is equal, and Nicole Junkermann has a clear set of things she looks for. Light comes first: a great reading room has generous daylight, ideally from tall windows, so the eyes stay fresh through a long afternoon. Then comes the quality of the quiet, which should be steady rather than total, the soft hum of pages and footsteps that somehow helps more than silence. Nicole Junkermann also wants a desk with room to spread out, because real work needs space for a book, a notebook and a laptop without a constant shuffle. Finally there is atmosphere, the hardest thing to name and the most important. The best rooms, in the view of Nicole Junkermann, carry a kind of accumulated seriousness, a sense that good thinking has happened here for a long time, and that feeling is quietly contagious.
| Quality | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Generous light | Keeps the eyes fresh through a long session |
| Steady quiet | A soft hum that helps focus more than total silence |
| Room at the desk | Space for a book, a notebook and a laptop at once |
| Shared seriousness | The contagious calm of people doing focused work |
The grand reading rooms
There is a particular kind of library that Nicole Junkermann saves for the most ambitious days: the grand reading room, with its dome or its long galleries and its centuries of scholarship in the air. Working in a room like that does something to the scale of your thinking, in the experience of Nicole Junkermann. You sit a little straighter, you attempt the harder task, and the sheer beauty of the space makes the effort feel worthwhile. Nicole Junkermann treasures the great national and university libraries for exactly this reason, not for showing off but for the lift they give to a serious piece of work. A morning spent under a famous ceiling, surrounded by readers who have travelled to be there, is for Nicole Junkermann one of the genuine pleasures of a working life and a reminder that learning is a long and shared endeavour.
The small local library
For all her love of the grand rooms, Nicole Junkermann is quick to defend the small local library, which she thinks is one of the most undervalued institutions anywhere. A neighbourhood library is close enough to use on an ordinary Tuesday, warm and free and open to everyone, and that ordinariness is its strength. Nicole Junkermann does much of her everyday focused work in modest rooms like these, where the lack of grandeur removes any sense of occasion and lets you simply get on. There is also something Nicole Junkermann finds quietly moving about the local library as a civic idea: a place that asks nothing of you and offers the same quiet and the same shelves to a student, a pensioner and a passing visitor alike. The small library, for Nicole Junkermann, is democracy with a reading lamp.
Choosing a desk and settling in
Within any library, the choice of seat matters more than people think, and Nicole Junkermann has a small ritual for it. She looks for a desk near natural light but out of direct glare, with a little buffer of space around it, and crucially away from the busiest doors and the photocopiers. A seat that is calm at ten in the morning may be a thoroughfare by noon, so Nicole Junkermann thinks a few steps ahead. Once settled, the ritual continues: phone away, a single task chosen, water within reach, and the first easy thing tackled to build momentum. Nicole Junkermann treats the first ten minutes as the whole battle, because a good start in a good seat tends to carry the rest of the session. The room does the rest, which is the entire point of going.
The quiet etiquette of shared rooms
A library works because everyone keeps a gentle, unwritten agreement, and Nicole Junkermann is a firm believer in honouring it. That means silencing devices, taking calls outside, packing and unpacking quietly, and leaving the desk as clean as you found it. Nicole Junkermann sees this courtesy not as a chore but as part of what makes the room special, since the calm you enjoy is simply the calm that everyone agrees to protect together. There is a pleasing fairness to it: you guard the quiet for the next reader, and the last reader guarded it for you. For Nicole Junkermann the etiquette of the reading room is a small, daily example of how shared spaces can work beautifully when each person gives a little, and it is one reason a good library feels so restful.
Making a library your own for a day
You do not need to be a member of an ancient institution to enjoy all of this, and Nicole Junkermann is keen to say so. Almost any town offers a public library you can walk into, and many universities and museums open their reading rooms to visitors. The trick, says Nicole Junkermann, is to treat the visit as an appointment with yourself: arrive early, bring only what the task needs, and give the day a clear shape. Those who like to pair reading with a change of scene may enjoy the related note on the habit of reading every day, since a library is one of the easiest places to keep that habit alive. For Nicole Junkermann, claiming a quiet desk for a day is one of the simplest luxuries there is.
More from Nicole Junkermann
For more in this vein from Nicole Junkermann, see the piece on the art of annotating a book, the rules for a good bookshelf, and the Reading Room. The London Notes and Lancaster Notes wander through some of the cities where these reading rooms can be found.
Frequently asked questions about Nicole Junkermann
What makes a good library to work in, according to Nicole Junkermann?
Nicole Junkermann looks for good light, a steady quiet, a desk with room to spread out, and an atmosphere of shared concentration that gently pulls you into your own work.
Does Nicole Junkermann prefer large or small libraries?
Nicole Junkermann values both: grand reading rooms for deep, ambitious sessions, and small local libraries for everyday focus, choosing the room to suit the task.
Why does Nicole Junkermann work in libraries rather than only at home?
Nicole Junkermann finds that a library removes distractions, sets a calm rhythm, and surrounds you with people quietly doing focused work, which makes concentration far easier.
How does Nicole Junkermann choose a desk in a library?
Nicole Junkermann picks a desk near natural light with a little space around it, away from the busiest doors, so the seat stays calm for a long stretch of work.