one step forward two steps back

Overcast skies today. It took me over two hours to get to the National Assembly library. Bus then subway then walking. In the rain. What a forlorn place with its empty avenues paved in grey granite. At the library you can't go into the stacks and instead they send you books down air chutes built into the ceiling and down the walls. Reminds me somehow of Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland. The quiet swoosh of invisible machinery at work. All of it makes me feel very disconnected with the world outside.