The mezzanine's my very favorite place or maybe not the favorite but the most exciting and the favorite for reading out very loud or singing songs. It rises above the first floor like a halo. It is not very wide and steps up into the rooms of the second floor.

There is a light and then another and another all along the walkway high up on the ceiling so it does look very like a stage. And shelves and shelves and shelves of books this way and that and through and in between them a path of blood red plush rug that leads you on until you realize you've come this way before.

Somewhere in between the basement and the ceiling there is a sign.