Simon Mole - Library Gnome

A close-up image of a traumatized-looking man with short, ginger hair and round glasses holding up a mug that says "Emotional Support Beverage" in front of his mouth. The background is library shelves.

A dark blue chair on the floor in front of metal pigeonhole shelves. A handwritten note stating. "Urine damage" has been taped to it.

I've been back at work in Libraryland for the past 2 days (phased return, so very short hours). Already a little bit regretting everything 😅.

#libraryland #sickleave #deargod #work #library

An image of a bright red book with a black skull - The Skeleton Army by Alis Hawkins, set against a background illustration of Victorian Oxford and with flames and illustrations of the Salvation Army and Skeleton Army over the top of the bottom corner.

📚 Reading Diary:

Today I finished book 5 of 2026:
The Skeleton Army - Alis Hawkins.

#alishawkins #theskeletonarmy #readingdiary #booksof2026

An image of a book cover - The Mars House by Natasha Pulley against a background of Mars. A white silhouette of a city skyline is across the bottom and a mammoth and dog silhouettes are featured.

📚 Reading Diary:

Today I finished book 4 of 2026:
The Mars House - Natasha Pulley.

#natashapulley #themarshouse #readingdiary #booksof2026

sabrina carpenter singing islands in the stream w the muppets has healed me in ways i did not know i needed

An image of a book - the Folio Society edition of Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, with a background image of an illustration from this edition - white outlined images of magical items are overlayed around it. Included a side-view of the book in the slipcase as the cover doesn't have text.

📚 Reading Diary:

Today I finished book 3 of 2026:
Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones.

#dianawynnejones #charmedlife #readingdiary #foliosociety #booksof2026

5 days post-surgery today. It's taken until this morning to feel like I've been hit by a train.

(Surgery not train-related 😏).

I've been home since Wednesday and been taking short walks every day so far. Thought I'd want to spend more time reading, but have foggy brain.

The book: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia in front of a background of vines, with white paw prints, scratches and animal line-art overlayed.

📚 Reading Diary:

Today I finished book 2 of 2026:
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau - Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

#silviamorenogarcia #thedaughterofdoctormoreau #readingdiary #librarybook #dudleylibrary

It kept on giving with how many times I laughed at work every time I thought about it 😅

3 packs of Cadbury chocolate eggs: Daim, Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs, as well as a Lego frog minifigure.

I am having surgery next week (hysterectomy).

A wonderful library regular approached me today with 2 gifts. Apparently I could reject the 2nd if my sense of humour didn't align.

He found me the Lego frog.

"I bought you these. Egg replacement service. Don't report me to HR."

😂😂😂

#libraryland

Today in Libraryland ...

A colleague and I were in the DVD / CD corner. 3 grown-ass men made a beeline for the section, so I moved aside for them to look.

One of them loudly farted. They all laughed, then left.

#library #libraryland #fml

a white dog in a party hat looking sleepy.

Rollin' into 2026 like...

A view across a snowy park with an archer statue in the centre and Dudley Castle in view in the background.

Being sent to another library in the snow 5 mins into my shift isn't fun, but it is very pretty outside.

At least this one may have heating ...

#snowday #snow #dudley #library #castle

There were 3 long-tailed tits on the garden feeder earlier.

Made me happy. 🥰🐦

A picture of a book: "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie - a green cover with art deco wallpaper featuring silhouettes of a lamp, bottle, bowler hat and cigar on a dresser. It's on a stylised background and has white line pictures of a bowler hat, pocket watch and moustache.

Reading Diary:

Today I finished book 1 of 2026:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie!

#agathachristie #poirot #themysteriousaffairatstyles #readingdiary #booksof2026

A very red sunrise over a residential street with silhouetted trees and cars. Everything is bathed in a pink glow.

🌄 Sunrise, yesterday.

Kind of like the start of The Lion King, but in Dudley.

#sunrise #ominous #sky

A Christmas tree standing in front of a blue board which has a tinsel star face with Santa hat, wellington boots cuffed with tinsel, and arms made out of cardboard tubes with red rubber gloves stuffed down them (matching cuffs though). He(?) is wearing a large "Hello my name is" badge - it's Bruce, his name is Bruce. Truly cursed.

Today in Libraryland...

- A man was climbing the front of the building.
- A 2nd pair of shoes found this week.
- Found £10 in a returned book.
- Bruce the Christmas abomination is very much alive.
- I was asked for Easter stickers by a child doing the Christmas trail.

(The shift is not over yet)

A hand holding a bright red rubber glove that they're stuffing with shredded paper out of the paper shredder.

⭐ Today in Libraryland...

... We have reached this stage of Christmas.

#library #libraryland #christmas #madness

Two white pages of hand-drawn pastel Pokémon drawings - Furret and Oddish in various poses.

Photos of detectives from a Christmas crime reading quiz - Inspector Morse and Poirot with a poinsettia border.

Had kind of a b!tch of a day, but a lovely, lovely lady in the library drew me these adorable Pokémon pictures because she found out I love Oddish. (Furret is her favourite) 🥰🥰

We also got to do a crime reading quiz!

#libraryland #oddish #pokemon #crime #furret

Inexplicable pumpkin sitting on a metal filing cabinet in a library basement.

"Still Life in Library Basement" - 2025.

I threw away this pumpkin. I'm sure of it. It is December 5th.

#libraryland #pumpkin #library

An enamel pin badge in the shape of a pink, blue and white t-rex with the slogan "trans rights or I bites" written on it, stuck on a green lanyard.

Also in Libraryland, a very nice other Simon gave me this as a gift today 🥰.

Today in Libraryland ...

We had a man bring over a pair of shoes that he'd found and was intending to keep. It took at least 5 mins of conversation about how they needed to go into lost property, even if he "could use them", before a 2nd man came over to retrieve his shoes, then just walked away.

Today's rain:

"Oh, so you remembered your big coat and hat and wore both while leaving work? Will that protect your knees from being saturated if I start raining horizontally? Thought not."

🌧️🥺

Today in Libraryland...

We were horrendously busy and short-staffed all day.

The plus side being that everyone who needed an extraordinary and time-consuming amount of help with pretty much everything while I was on my own was very polite about it?

*faceplants the floor* TFIF 🏳️

I realllyyy need to get into the habit of opening Bluesky first thing in the morning. FB doubled down on what was supposed to be Trans Day of Remembrance.

It's more like people just remembered how easy it is to punch down without consequence.

😔

On a related note: I didn't need the Saturday I had, which was the type of feral you get by working in a library on a Saturday. Survived that one, somehow...

I've been feeling low recently, and needed the Friday I had, which involved racing like a large (unfit) child around a soft play with a 3 year old, who earlier had pulled my fingers, and when asked if he was trying to pull them off, grinned and said yes, as well as all my toenails. Kids are feral 😅😏

A Tiktok user has carved pumpkin of zack polanski saying vote green. It doesn't look anything like him. This is a screenshot of the pumpkin with zack replying 'I *think* i love this cry laugh emoji green heart loved up emoji' and the op responding 'by 2029 my carving skills will improve i promise smile single tear emoji

Wholesome #Halloween content 🎃🎃🎃

A no entry sign (red background, white horizontal stripe) with a red cross crudely painted over the top. Spectacular...

Bloody hell, I think we have a new winner ... 🤦🏻🤦🏻

Narrowly edging out that roundabout in Bloxwich with V For Vendetta vibes painted on a black tarmac background ...

The burnt out, rusted shell of a motorbike lying in dirt, surrounded by grass and leaves.

A grass field surrounded by orange, autumnal trees.

Went for a walk with the dog to clear my headache, found a ... fossil?

The rest of the park was incongruously autumnal.

A close-up of a dew covered spider web in front of a green hedge.

Today was a bejewelled spider web kind of day, with not a drop of colour to the sky.