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Lose yourself in the pages of this showcase of some of the most beautiful, innovative, and successful bookshops around the world. Bookshops are powerful places with the -freedom to deep-dive into their niche, from -cooking to cartoons, architecture to anarchy. - Do you read me? reconsiders the bookshop as a cornerstone of the community, where subcultures have the physical space to thrive. Bookshops are universally recognized as marketplaces of knowledge, curiosity, inspiration, and entertainment. They also promote communication and tolerance across cultures and have become destinations for both local communities and travelers. Within a changing media environment their role has been shifting, leading their overseers to pursue different ways to engage with their customers and build local--and sometimes even regional--support for their businesses. Do you read me? seeks out the most innovative and beautiful bookshops achieving this, sharing their concepts and celebrating book culture in all its glorious forms.
In 2016, the world's oldest existing library reopened in Fes, Morocco. It opened for the first time in the 9th Century. These shrines to the written word date back even further, and continue to be built today. They're a place where some of the oldest written texts are preserved and some of the newest technology connects visitors with vast amounts of knowledge. Libraries are changing, but, as places that are fundamentally free and open to all, they're also staying the same. Libraries of the World explores the most stunning examples, but it also explores how varied the idea of a library can be. It can be a grand Baroque hall with leather-bound tomes or a mid-century masterpiece, but it can just as easily be a few shelves in a repurposed phone booth.
This spectacular book is the first single volume to tell the story of the library as a distinct building type, all around the world. Throughout the ages, book collections have served to symbolize their owners culture and learning, and the wealthy and powerful have spent lavishly on buildings to house them. In its highest form the library became a total work of art, combining painting, sculpture, furniture and architecture into seamless, dramatic spaces. The finest libraries are repositories not just of books, but of learning, creativity and contemplation; they embody some of the highest achievements of humankind. This book recounts that history in text and images of truly outstanding quality.
A heart-stopping survivor story and brilliant historical investigation that offers unprecedented insight into daily life in the Third Reich and the Holocaust and the powers and pitfalls of memory. At the outbreak of World War II, Marianne Strauss, the sheltered daughter of well-to-do German Jews, was an ordinary girl, concerned with studies, friends, and romance. Almost overnight she was transformed into a woman of spirit and defiance, a fighter who, when the Gestapo came for her family, seized the moment and went underground. On the run for two years, Marianne traveled across Nazi Germany without papers, aided by a remarkable resistance organization, previously unknown and unsung. Drawing o...
Beginning with new evidence that cites the presence of books in Roman villas and concluding with present day vicissitudes of collecting, this generously illustrated book presents a complete survey of British and Irish country house libraries. Replete with engaging anecdotes about owners and librarians, the book features fascinating information on acquisition bordering on obsession, the process of designing library architecture, and the care (and neglect) of collections. The author also disputes the notion that these libraries were merely for show, arguing that many of them were profoundly scholarly, assembled with meticulous care, and frequently used for intellectual pursuits. For those who love books and the libraries in which they are collected and stored, The Country House Library is an essential volume to own.
The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux's classic and much-loved homage to train travel. The Orient Express; The Khyber Pass Local; the Delhi Mail from Jaipur; the Golden Arrow of Kuala; the Trans-Siberian Express; these are just some of the trains steaming through Paul Theroux's epic rail journey from London across Europe through India and Asia. This was a trip of discovery made in the mid-seventies, a time before the West had embraced the places, peoples, food, faiths and cultures of the East. For us now, as much as for Theroux then, to visit the lands of The Great Railway Bazaar is an encounter with all that is truly foreign and exotic - and with what we have since lost. Praise for Paul ...
Who made the first snowman? Who first came up with the idea of placing snowballs on top of each other, and who decided they would use a carrot for a nose? Most puzzling of all: How can this mystery ever be solved, with all the evidence long since melted? The snowman appears everywhere on practically everything -- from knickknacks to greeting cards to seasonal sweaters we plan to return. Whenever we see big snowballs our first impulse is to deck them out with a top hat. Humorist and writer Bob Eckstein has long been fascinated by this ubiquitous symbol of wintertime fun -- and finally, for the first time, one of the world's most popular icons gets his due. A thoroughly entertaining exploratio...
Book 1 in the Rivers of London series, from Sunday Times Number One bestselling author Ben Aaronovitch. My name is Peter Grant, and I used to be a probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth. My story really begins when I tried to take a witness statement from a man who was already dead... Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. After taking a statement from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost, Peter comes to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and othe...
Small stores are experiencing a rebirth. Driven by the personalities behind them and featuring select products, atmospheric interiors, and impeccable service, these spaces offer promising alternatives to webshops and chains.