Bodleian Library

Less than a block up the street from where I was staying is this unique building, the Radcliffe Camera.  "Camera" is the Italian word for "room."  It  was built in 1749 and is now a reading room for the Bodleian Library next door.
The Bodleian, built in 1602, started with 2,000 books.  It now has some 11 million books and 100 miles of shelving, most of it in underground tunnels.  Every book copyrighted in England is deposited here, about 400 a week.  It is a reference library that is used by all of the colleges.  None of the books may be checked out.
Even with a tour guide we were not allowed to see much of the Bodleian Library.  Our tour guide talked so low that most of us could not hear her.  We were allowed in the Divinity School, a very large, beautiful room, on the ground level.  It was used as the infirmary in the Harry Potter films (the above Camera, by the way, was not named after Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter.)
To be in the presence of such an enormous number of books, even though most of them could not be seen, was an overwhelming experience for me.  I thought of what value we place on authors' ideas  that we would save their books and manuscripts for centuries.  Again my awe of the age of things.  It whetted my appetite for learning.