Interesting Links

My links today are sort of all over the place, but are more about architecture than books.

Via Shelf Awareness: Near the Library, D’Espresso’s Bookish Coffee Bar.

Via (sort of surprisingly) Go Fug Yourself:
10 music videos set in libraries and bookstores.

Via archinect: Should you build your own home? Loved this! FYI, home in this context, refers to your website, not to an actual house.

At the NY Times, AT HOME WITH PATRICK DOUGHERTY: Building With Sticks and Stones. I've written about the artist previously.

Book Links 9/02/10

Just read a great appreciation of Robert Heinlein by author Jo Walton: “Out far, and onward yet!” Heinlein’s future history stories of the thirties and forties. It's part of Tor.com's celebration of all things Heinlein, in honor of his new biography. [Via Whatever]

I quote from my friend and fellow blogger Laura: If you were a superhero, you'd need to have this as your fortress of solitude. Of course you might not come out to fight crime. She is referring to The Giant Fort Of Books.

From Shelf Awareness: a cool bookcase/sculpture. As they put it, this makes on "look at the square states in the middle of the country with new appreciation."

On a non-book related note: those of you who are the right age/demographic, you might get as big a kick out of today's date as I did. In which case, you should check out Go Fug Yourself today and their celebration of all things Brenda, Brandon, Kelly, Steve, Donna, and David.

Links

Some random links of interest, of various kinds:

Via Shelf Awareness, Bookshelf Porn. I like Read More Books than Blogs (on a blog, of course). Which one is your favorite?

Here's probably the heaviest coffee table/book storage ever built, at dornob.

Courtesy of a thread off Librarything, one of the most amazing bookstores I've seen: Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires.

I love these pieces from Depot Visuals - though imagine how much cooler they'd be if they were real.

This is what I imagine it would look like if Hobbits built a shed: The Composting Shed at Inverleith Terrace by Groves-Raines Architects.

For Laura: photos of Venice's cemetery, which is not, of course, in Venice.

Sorry for the lack of images. I am lazy/busy today.

Happy (Early) Birthday, Ray Bradbury!

Years ago, I lived in LA and drove up to the Bay Area every other weekend to see my (then) boyfriend (now husband). The only thing that made the trip bearable was listening to audiobooks. After listening to everything worthwhile at my very small, local library branch, I started to venture out to some of the larger libraries in the city to find books.

One random night, after work, I stopped by the Palms/Rancho Park branch to see what they had in stock. When I arrived at the library, I was surprised to find the parking lot packed, every light on and a big crowd inside, so I asked a librarian what was going on. Ray Bradury was there, giving a talk and signing books. There was no special occasion or reason why that I could see, he just liked to do this every now and again to support the library. (Donations were being accepted but otherwise there was no fee.) He was great to hear and the evening was just a real treat for me.

If you would like your chance to hear Mr. Bradbury speak, and support the library at the same time, he has several upcoming events going on in honor of his 88th birthday (which is actually on August 22). The LA Times blog Jack Copy has information for several Bradbury birthday events.

Bookish Stuff

Here are some book related links that caught my eye as I cleaned out my Reader this past weekend.

The Johnson County Library in Kansas had the Barkley Ad Agency whip up some snazzy courier trucks (pro-bono) to help promote the library, classic lit, and reading. [Via Nicolette Mason]

Awful Library Books is a collection of the worst library holdings. The items featured here are so old, obsolete, awful or just plain stupid that we are horrified that people might be actually checking these items out and depending on the information.

And my favorite - book art:


The work of Guy Laramee, including this fantastic sculpture of Petra.
[Via Jezebel]

Architecture Links ... and a Secret Room

Here's a wonderful post of beautiful libraries from Curious Expeditions. I've written about a few before, including the Boston Copley Square Library and Beinecke Library at Yale.

More ecclesiastical design from WebUrbanist - this time, it's 15 Amazing Monasteries, Sanctuaries and Abbies. I'd like to point out, though, that there are really only 14 on the list, as the Monastery at Petra is not actually a monastery.

What's behind the bookcase?


Find out at Apartment Therapy.

I also found online directions to build a bookshelf door for your very own secret room.

Libraries I Have Loved: Part 2, Boston

After college, I lived in Boston for a few years. For me, one of the highlights of living there was the wonderful libraries, especially the Boston Public Library Central Library in Copley Square. For more on this wonderful building, here is the library's information page and here is the Wikipedia entry. (Photos from Wikipedia, unless otherwise noted.)



There are two parts to this wonderful building - the historic library designed by McKim, Mead & White and the modern section by Philip Johnson. The Johnson building is very utilitarian in appearance, especially in comparison to the McKim building, but houses an amazing collection. When I lived there, I loved to wander around the stacks, pick up a few books, then head into the McKim section to find a place to read. In good weather, I would find myself in the courtyard.



A view after its restoration, from the BPL website:



In cold weather, I'd try to find a seat in one of the reading rooms. Sadly, I never got to use this one, Bates Hall:


I visited the BPL about once a week when I lived in Boston, more sometimes in good weather, as I loved to walk there after work, browsing until it got dark, then hopping on the T to head home for dinner.

Libraries I Have Loved: Part 1

Reading The President's Daughter reminded me the library in town growing up. I thought I'd share a little of my memories of some of the wonderful libraries I've used over the years this week.


Growing up, I had the privelege of being able to walk to my local library. Sorry to get all "back in my day," but walking to the library was one of my favorites things about our town. We'd go after school or when we were going to or coming from the pool during the summer. I'm sure it was one of the reasons my mom picked that house.

The Springfield Free Public Library was completed in 1969 - and it shows. It's a low-slung, little brick building, tucked behind some trees. So really, not much to look at. But that's not why I went there, of course.



It looks a lot more crowded in that photo than it does in my memory. If I recall correctly, the main desk is straight ahead in that photo and the children's desk is out of view to the right. On the far side, past the main desk and entry (which you can also see in the little drawing logo), is the periodical section and the boring part of the library I never went to (aka, reference - hey, I was a kid).



When I was in college, I loved to visit the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library, right next to the architecture school. I didn't go there too often, but when I did, I loved to sit in one particular corner window that looked out on the courtyard between the school and the library. It was a very popular place to sit, though, so competition was fierce to get there first.

This was also the only library where I ever worked. I was a desk clerk for one semester, my last semester as a 4th year. While I loved being in the library, I was a terrible employee. I was late for my shift at least once a week, and I was more interested in reading the books on hold behind the desk than in actually working.

to be continued...

Staircase/Library

Check out this cool staircase/library on Apartment Therapy.

Secret Library

Wow! A (mostly) secret library in a regular house! Okay, sure, the people who own it are probably fairly well-to-do since she wrote a series of books that were recently made into a movie, but still, its cool. It makes me feel like maybe someday I really will have my own secret library.

Thanks for the link, bookshelves of doom.

Haunted Libraries - Boo!

Haunted libraries from the Britannica Blog. (Thanks to Bookslut for the link.)

Any of you librarians out there have a ghost at your library?

Secret Rooms and Passages

WebUrbanist has a great story today about secret rooms and passages. Some of them are well-known, and most are kind of gory (like the secret murder room constructed by H. H. Holmes, which you can read all about in The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson). The coolest one, I think, is the secret bookcase door at the Mont Sainte-Odile convent library (see photo above). I definitely need one of these for my dream library!

My Library

As a follow-up to Lisa's comment to my previous post about keeping books, I thought I'd post some photos of my little "library." Okay, so its actually my dining room, but we use it for books much more than for eating, really. (Sorry for the awful quality of these photos!)

In addition to these three bookshelves (which are double-stacked and have piles on top, too), we also have two bookshelves in our living room.

(Yes, that's a replica of a human skull. No, we're not weirdos; my husband is an anatomy professor.)(Okay, we're a little weird, but not because of that.)

Our house is tiny, only 800 sq ft, so we go vertical as much as possible to fit all our books in. Someday I'll have a real library!

Rem Koolhaas & Howard Roark

The Seattle Times has an interview with Rem Koolhaas, who designed the Seattle Public Library, which opened four years ago. Its a great building, but that's not why I am posting the interview. My favorite part of the interview is this exchange:

Q: It was a large project to undertake when you had so much skepticism.

A: Yes, but of course we were not alone. And I think that is kind of actually one of the difficult and distorting things at the current moment, is that basically some architects are seen as kind of almost bullfighters who somehow have to kill an animal, but you're part of a much larger enterprise.

Q: I think there's a reason for that: too many people have read "The Fountainhead" and it's ruined them for life.

A: Yeah, exactly, exactly. And I think that's actually extremely inconvenient, because there was Deborah (L. Jacobs, former City Librarian), of course, and there was also a board, and we had a lot of bonding in the beginning. So it's definitely not an ego thing, you know, and it's definitely not where you kind of are looking for morons or ever think that somebody — you realize that some of the criticism is unfounded or naive or not particularly kind of ... benevolent, but it really comes with the territory and it's not something that you kind of respond to in egotistical terms.

Don't get me wrong -- The Fountainhead is a great book. But, as alluded in my review of Loving Frank, it is a very particular view of architects and the act of building. It is, also, a very incorrect view. If even Rem Koolhaas -- who is probably (with, maybe, Frank Gehry) the closest thing we have in this day to Frank Lloyd Wright or Howard Roark -- thinks the idea of the "hero-architect" is a fallacy, I assure you the rest of us think its total B.S. It is fun to read, though.