Being a bookish nerd means that the library is a wonderful place to work, because you're surrounded by people learning things, reading things, TALKING LOUDLY (I hate the year twelve exams, PLEASE MAKE THEM STOP) and falling asleep in cubicles surrounded by thousands of dollars of technological equipment.

But it can be a tiny bit distracting. You have to keep focussed. For example, on the way to the top level of the library, standing out prominently among the other books is a book entitled BRUNEL. An old friend of mine used to live in a street of the same name, and this BRUNEL book always strikes me as addressing a topic about which I know nothing and could learn more. The temptation to grab the fat book by its spine and read about Brunel is almost overwhelming, but so far I haven't given in to my nerdier (and more procrastinatorial) instincts and I remain ignorant. I have deduced, by the size of the book and its font, as well as the fact that there is a street named after him, that Brunel was some kind of British General in one of the wars.

There is an entire section of the library dedicated to cooking, which is often frequented (I am not making this up) by people in white hats with black aprons covered in flour. This makes me wonder about the eating establishments in Melbourne. Do they not have cook books? Are they double-checking whether the dish they're cooking has oregano in it? Are they, like the main character in Ratatouille, actually fraudulent chefs with no qualifications, getting by on instinct and the recipes they come across in the library?

Anyway, you can see what I am battling with here. The ability to be THIS distracted by the word Brunel on the spine of a book.

Perhaps our TV series will be about Brunel. And chefs. And the idiots sitting next to me who are looking up rude words in the dictionary instead of studying for their exam, about which they speak with genuine fear in between reading the definition of the word "buttock". Which is, and I remember this myself, the funniest thing ever.

I am officially a grumpy old nerd.