What does it take to be considered a nerd? I like libraries and math--I think those are 2 of the main ingredients...

On Saturday I went to the British Library. Not to read books (you need a special pass to use the facilities and no books may be checked out anyway) but to browse their collection of old manuscripts and artifacts.

It's pretty amazing how old some of these items are. They have the oldest complete Bible in existence--350 AD, along with other 'illuminated' (illustrated) Bibles from around 700 AD. There's a King James Bible from 1611 and a Gutenberg Bible from 1455. Other non-religious items include the Magna Carta, Shakespeare's poems, The Canterbury Tales, and Beowulf (1000 AD). A section focusing on music has works from Mozart and Handel to the Beatles. It's too bad all these things are encased in glass because it would be so cool to touch the pages of books so old.

Visiting the British Library is probably not on the top of the list of things to do in London for visitors staying only a few days--it took me 6 months to make it there, and I really like books! So, if you think you might want to look at any of these books yourself, you can go to this website. For some, there's a cool feature that allows you to open the book and turn the pages to see/read inside. The British Library Highlights Tour