Risk factor: Libraries

Libraries are seductive places, aren't they? You get in there, eye up the comfy seats, tell the kids to scarper, travel between the tables and the shelves with armfuls of pages, then set about the playful diversions of a good flick through, skimming and licking.

OK, maybe the licking gets a bit out of control, but you should see the covers of those China Design books. They are big. I mean really oversized, full cover glossy page fantasy stuff with perfect photography. Definitely worth the stagger you have to make back to your chambers in a quiet afternoon's cultural study.

And I can do hours of this at the back of the library. Rolling around the pages in peace and quiet. Nobody bothers me at all! The kids sit elsewhere, reading fairy trash, pony trash and Sherlock Holmes, because they are writing their own story filled with mystery and suspense. The book guarder peers in every hour to make sure there's no more noisy licking going on like before. Downstairs there's a coffee shop. Computers for searching the stock. Over there, a toddler play area and junior multimedia room. More circles of seats round more tables, with the invitation to eye-spy a particularly good looking selection of Coastal Defence and slump down to gently continue your pleasures. And that's about all the distraction you face. So isn't this perfect?

You're looking for me to say No, aren't you?

I can't. I suppose I could say that Hong Kong Central Library lacks a few books I'd like to see. And a DVD section, because we watched Ice Age fifty times already. And yes, maybe it's a little weighty-worthy on the English Lit, and I could do with an affair that has a little more fun in the gutter with pointless flash and trash. But hey ho, no-one's perfect.

So I can't offer up any negatives. None at all. Basically, it's one of my preferred places to spend a few hours in peace while Hong Kong turns around me.

Now shhh. Nothing else today. Run along. I have a particularly alluring essay to read on Antiquities and Monuments. And you should see the size of that cover.