A Case Study of Literary Karma
Two years ago Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Yesterday, he celebrated his 76th birthday by donating 30,000 of his books to the library in Lima, his Peruvian hometown.
Instead of “man of letters,” can we start using the phrase “hero of letters?”
It’s the centenary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s last expedition to Antarctica.
A note to all modern travelers: Scott was the second man to ever reach the South Pole. He was a pioneer and an explorer, and his hut contained bookshelves. There’s a lesson here.
From the very literary Greenroom at yesterday’s Academy Awards. Architectural Digest called on Thatcher Wine of Boulder’s Juniper Books to create a truly cinematic library:
The idea being that books are relaxing and help calm the presenters before going on stage. My library calms and also inspires with a dose of film history and nostalgia.
(via)
How New York Pay Phones Became Guerrilla Libraries
An interview with the creator
The concept, sponsored by Locke’s imaginary Department of Urban Betterment, is that New Yorkers will pick up unfamiliar titles while running their errands and then, perhaps, replace them the next day with favorite books of their own. That’s in an ideal world. Of the twoguerrilla libraries that the artist has fashioned, one has been used properly while the other has had its entire collection repeatedly ganked by sticky-fingered pedestrians. Its shelves were also stolen.
But Locke has many more libraries planned. With plywood consoles that slip over payphones as neatly as aprons, these sidewalk objets are endlessly replicable. (No doubt they’ll feature in his 2012 Columbia course, “Hacking the Urban Experience.”) I caught up with Locke over the weekend to ask him about what was and wasn’t working with these literary outposts, as well as why he started the project in the first place.
More at The Atlantic
This is an incredible idea. I’m going to try and find one pronto.
Bookshelf as bar graph? Brilliant.
Answer the questions at right by taking a red or a black book and voting “Agree” or “Disagree.” If every marital argument were settled this way, there would be a lot less divorce.
(Spotted at AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers exhibit.)
Which well-known novelist has bookshelves this incredible in his bathroom? Michael Cunningham.
More photos at our sister site Work in Progress.
A preview of the next My Library feature for our Work in Progress newsletter, arriving tomorrow morning. Some of you may remember our last one, with the dapper Lewis Lapham.
You’re probably wondering, Who owns such a nice bookshelf? One hint: this novelist really enjoys Virginia Woolf. (I fear I’ve said too much.)
Of course, Work in Progress subscribers will get first look at the photography in addition to our most exciting subscriber exclusive in months. Not to be unnecessarily mysterious or anything.
If you sign up today, I promise a veritable literary feast for your inbox come Tuesday.
Of course the FSG art department organizes the books by the color spectrum. What did you expect, the Dewey Decimal System?
Library at the Shiba Ryōtarō Memorial Museum by Tadao Ando. (via teachingliteracy)
File under “brilliant.” The Book Table by Lisa Finster (via BookRiot)
A Library With Fireplace (via {E}vermotion)
If this were my library, I would call in sick to work every day.
