World's Most Beautiful Libraries. All sizes | Main Hall. Hay-on-Wye - The Bibliophiles' Mecca. Home to the largest secondhand bookstore in the world, Hay-on-Wye is more than just a little town on the border between England and Wales, it’s book heaven on Earth. The history of Hay-on-Wye as the “town of books” began on Fools’ Day of 1977, when during a bold publicity stunt, bibliophile Richard Booth announced the independence of Hay-on-Wye as a kingdom of books, with him as the monarch. Ambassadors were sent to the International Court of Justice, in Hague, and a rowing gunboat started patrolling on the river Wye. Since then, he managed to establish a healthy tourism industry based on books, and thousands of visitors come to Hay-on-Wye every year, to look for whatever books they need.
Photo Credits Before Booth’s daring scheme, Hay-on-Wye was a slowly dying town of under 2,000 people, with no real economy or notable local businesses. Photo Credits Hay-on-Wye has an annual turnover of over 1 million books, and unlike other book dealers, Richard Booth doesn’t focus on any one topic. The New Stuttgart City Library. Korean architect Eun Young Yi’s proposal was selected in 1999 from 235 competition entries as the plan for the new central library of the City of Stuttgart. The building of the 80-million Euro (about $108 mil. US) Stadtbibliothek am Mailänder Platz began three years ago and the opening ceremonies took place last month. Yi has created a monolithic cube with two floors underground and nine above.
Essentially all of the building, both inside and out is white. The main library floors circle an open-plan with the levels connected by open staircases. As a cool nod to the fact that the building is a storehouse of words, the word “library” is installed in four languages on the outside walls. Yi’s company, Yi Architects is based in Cologne and Seoul. - StumbleUpon. The World's 6 Coolest-Looking Bookstores. Usually a store is just a store. But a few stores are attractions in and of themselves. So it is with these six incredibly cool-looking bookstores. Next you are in Maastricht, Beijing, Porto, Buenos Aires, Paris or Mexico City, add these stores to your list of must-see attractions—even if you don’t plan on buying a book. #1 Selexyz Dominicanen Maastricht, Netherlands It’s tough running an independent bookstore. Perhaps that’s what the proprietors of the Selexyz Dominicanen Bookstore were thinking when they decided to house their establishment in a 13th century Dominican cathedral in the center of Maastricht, Holland.
Despite the fact that the cathedral hadn’t been a working cathedral for more than 200 years, turning the space into a bookstore was an enormous challenge for Selexyz Dominicanen’s architects. So how do you create a three-story bookstore in a cathedral when you can’t drill any holes into the building or attach anything load-bearing to its walls? #2 Poplar Kid’s Republic Beijing. China's most beautiful bookshop ... in a car park. The most beautiful bookshop in China is hidden in an underground car park. "Here in Librairie Avant-Garde, reading is our religion and this place is the heaven for readers," says Zhang Xing, manager of the shop beneath Wutaichan Stadium in Nanjing.
Librairie Avart-Garde has "turned something rotten into a miracle," says owner Qian Xiaohua, 50, quoting an old Chinese maxim to explain the unusual location. Being a staffer is no small task. "Some are poets, some are writers, but we all love books," says manager Zhang. "We always kid that if all of us gather our own collections of books, we can open another book shop. We have a 30-minute staff meeting every morning -- to share a movie we saw, a book we read or other things that inspire us. " You may not find best-sellers or latest releases here, but the shop boasts the widest range of humanities books in China. "Avant-garde people are the most forward, most innovative, with a strong opinion and are not easily influenced," says owner Qian.
Palatial Theater Now a Beautiful Bookstore. Atlas Obscura on Slate is a new travel blog. Like us on Facebook, Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter @atlasobscura. With each incarnation since its inception in 1919—first as a performing arts theater, then as a cinema, and now as a bookstore—the Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has proven itself befitting of its majestic title. Having retained its original frescoed ceilings, ornate theater boxes, elegant rounded balconies, detailed trimmings, and plush red stage curtains, the interior of the building remains as stunning today as when it was first envisioned by architects Peró and Torres Armengol. In its glory days, the Teatro Grand Splendid hosted the world's greatest tango legends, before being transformed into a film house in 1929.
Architect Fernando Manzone oversaw the building’s most recent conversion into the El Ateneo bookstore and music shop. Beautiful bookstores around the world: The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World. [Editor’s note: In celebration of the holidays, we’re counting down the top 12 Flavorwire features of 2012. This post, at #1, was originally published January 31.] With Amazon slowly taking over the publishing world and bookstores closing left and right, things can sometimes seem a little grim for the brick and mortar booksellers of the world. After all, why would anyone leave the comfort of their couch to buy a book when with just a click of a button, they could have it delivered to their door?
Well, here’s why: bookstores so beautiful they’re worth getting out of the house (or the country) to visit whether you need a new hardcover or not. We can’t overestimate the importance of bookstores — they’re community centers, places to browse and discover, and monuments to literature all at once — so we’ve put together a list of the most beautiful bookstores in the world, from Belgium to Japan to Slovakia. A gorgeous converted Dominican church gives the power of reading its due diligence. All the World's a Page - 16 snaps from the El Ateneo Bookstore.
El Ateneo bookstore, Buenos Aires, 23-Jan-2013 Visiting El Ateneo, a majestic former theater converted into a gorgeous bookstore in downtown Buenos Aires, really was on my List of Things to See Before I Die. Does that mean I’m now really one step closer? No matter. More specifically, this marvel of redesign is the El Ateneo Grand Splendid, named for the theater which opened its doors in 1919.
First a performance venue that hosted the country’s leading tango voices, it was converted into a cinema in the late 1920s and in 1929 screened the first sound films in Argentina before taking on its latest form as a bookstore in 2000 when it became the El Ateneo group’s flagship store. Book-wise, it reminds me of a Spanish-language Barnes and Noble, but the feel is overwhelmingly theatrical, elegant and nostalgic.
I did browse but didn’t buy a thing. These were all taken with a GoPro Hero2, so the angles are obviously exaggerated. The next great Argentine poet. Like this: Like Loading... Top 10 Most Beautiful Places to Read Books. Mark Twain said ““In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” I am sure Mark Twain will be more than amazed with look of those beautiful libraries around the world.
Today’s article combine the top 10 most beautiful old, rustic and vintage looking libraries around the world. Every one of us will be more than happy to spend just few moments reading books at those beautiful libraries… The Libreria Acqua Alta in Venice Shakespeare and Company in Paris House on the Rock in Wisconsin New York Public Library The Royal Portuguese Reading Room The Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University The Biltmore House Library The Hearst Castle Library The University of Coimbra General Library The Library of Congress. Most Interesting Libraries of the World. The Royal library Black Diamond at the waterfront of Copenhagen owes its name to the black granite from Zimbabwe used for the facade of the building. The name was used by the public first and has been adapted officially later. Design by the Danish architects Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen. Photography by Mirage Bookmark Flickr.com. THE BOOK RIOT 50: #10 Libraries of the Rich and Famous.
To celebrate Book Riot’s first birthday on Monday, we’re running our best 50 posts from our first year this week. Click here for the running list. This post was originally a three-part series that ran in March and April of this year. As I’ve been unpacking boxes and realizing that I don’t even have enough bookshelves to put my books on, I decided to torture myself and look at homes of people who can dedicate an entire room to being a library (most likely with the help of an uber-expensive designer to organize and make it look scrumptious).
Would you like to be tortured too? Karl Lagerfield’s Personal Library: Not as cozy as I would pick for my own, but I would pay money to look through those titles… that’s a LOAD of books, folks! Diane Keaton’s Personal Library: Loving the lighting, loving the colors, the writing on the wall is pretty cool — but where are the chairs? Keith Richards’ Personal Library: This is a sweet personal library, but really… what did we expect from Keith Richards.