I had to drop by my library on the way home tonight to return a book I finished, and I like that the little chute still has such a formal term like book depository on it.

The book I returned was Never Let Me Go. A few months ago I went to see the film, which is a beautiful, muted piece of heartbreaking storytelling. Absolutely crushing, but amazing. I rarely bother to read novels that movies are based on unless i'm super impressed, so I was spurred on to put this on hold at the library to eventually check out.

The book was fantastic also, and it was great to see how well the story was adapted for screen - it's definitely got the same pacing and tone. It's such a subtle story, rolling along occasionally pulling punches but generally draping you with a feeling of melancholy. But in a good way, if that makes sense. It's technically a speculative fiction story due to the nature of the character's situations, but it is absolutely about the human condition and all the craze of emotion that goes along with it. I definitely recommend the book AND movie - but make sure you have something that'll make you happy on hand once you're done.

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Every so often i'll grab a non-fiction book from the library to shift reading gears; my most recent was the Wayfinding Handbook by David Gibson. This was not entirely a random selection, as i've been interested in the concepts of wayfinding for many years now - primarily from a museum perspective.

The book is thorough - it goes over the theory and practice of wayfinding and its many aspects and applications. If I were still in university I think this would be a brilliant reference book and i'd probably have though a bit about tinkering in the environmental graphic design field.  For a while i'd toyed with the idea of trying to specialise in wayfinding for museums and heritage sites, but unfortunately I fall very short skills-wise. See, I enjoy thinking about the concepts and practicalities of wayfinding when working in or visiting museums, but it's all simply from experience and not from a broader academic skill-based approach.

I think the main idea that i've been left with from this is that I know I can't focus on this as a career. I'm not a designer, nor an architect - and it seems like you need to be one or the other or a mix of both to really be a wayfinding specialist. In a smaller museum where one person would wear many hats, it's possible that it could be something I'd do in the future - but I shan't ever be going into a larger museum as a wayfinding specialist. Similar to the fact that while I enjoy researching and putting together exhibitions, i'll never be an exhibitions specialist (unless I magically fall into it through work experience).

Wayfinding everywhere - school campuses, malls, highways, museums, hospitals - is a fascinating and dense topic. If you're interested in how we use and negotiate space, and how semiotics come into play with this, i'd suggest having a flick through this book.

But now - back to some fiction!