Your local

... library is worth checking out. Sure they've got books, but these days they loan/rent out DVDs, CDs and books on cd, have lots of computers, print stuff in color or b&w, sell USB memory sticks, plus tell stories to your children at appointed hours.

I'm not sure how other London libraries work, but in Hackney DVDs are free if they've been in the library for a year, if it's been less than a year you get the DVD for 2 quid for 5 days. CDs cost 80p for 3 weeks if they're recent (and I'm just saying it's a lot cheaper than itunes and it goes to support the library and probably some tiny fraction to the artist).

I borrow a lot of travel guides from the library. They help me plan my trips and if I'm going abroad for a just a weekend, buying a guidebook doesn't seem justified. Often I can find a travel memoir related to my trip as well. (I'm currently reading Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Cortazar and Dunlop, good fun) And then if you're interested in learning a new language while you're at it, they've got books or CDs for you. I've found with the languages it's best to plan several months in advance and you'll likely have to order the CDs and it can take up to a month to arrive. But yeah, they're free. So if you decide that Polish is just too difficult, at least you haven't spent a whole lot of money finding out that you're useless at the language. (I really liked Poland, I just couldn't get my mouth to make Polish sounds. So I was lucky I had my borrowed guidebook with me to look up words from the menu)

I'm lucky, right now I live very close to my local library. That definitely is a big factor in my weekly visits. The free books/dvds/cds factor is also a big draw. Plus I have fond memories of my library as a kid. Shoreditch library isn't pretty on the inside and I don't enjoy hanging out there, but it's the books that count, not so much the way they're presented. Just this week I found a lovely Japanese film Fine, Totally Fine which is very Japanese and very much reminded me of my visit there earlier this summer. It's slow and gentle, rather different than a lot of anime.

And many thanks to La Tur for this drawing of the library in Hogwarts, a place I would very much like to hang out.