Foreword (Rebecca Gray) This Place Will Lend You Books For Free (James Brown) Character Building (Anita Anand) The Defence of the Book (Julian Barnes) The Punk and Langside Library (Hardeep Singh Kohli) The Rules (Lucy Mangan) Baffled at a Bookcase (Alan Bennett) The Future of the Library (Seth Godin) Going to the Dogs (Val McDermid) I Love Libraries (Lionel Shriver) Have You Heard of Oscar Wilde? (Stephen Fry) The Secret Life of Libraries (Bella Bathurst) The Booksteps (short story) (China Mieville) Alma Mater (Caitlin Moran) The Library of Babylon (Tom Holland) A Corner of St James's (Susan Hill) It Takes a Library (Michael Brooks) The Magic Threshold (Bali Rai) Libraries Rock! (Ann Cleeves) The Five-Minute Rule (Julie Myerson) If You Tolerate This (Nicky Wire) Library Life (short story) (Zadie Smith) The Lending Library (short story) (Kate Mosse) Fight For Libraries As You Do Freedom (Karin Slaughter) Afterword (Miranda McKearney)