"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero (via strangerains)
(Source: theweirdthewonderful, via strangerains)
posts tagged "books"
800-year-old Church Could be World’s Most Beautiful Bookshop (via Urban Ghosts) ↘
(Image: Bert Kaufmann, cc-3.0)
The stunning Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen – Dutch for ‘Book-Selling Dominican’ – can be found in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Managed by the former Boekhandels Groep Nederland, this 800-year-old former church has featured prominently in round-ups and features of the most beautiful bookshops in the world.
(Image: Stephane Gaudry, cc-3.0)
The original Dominican church was built in 1294, around eighty years after Saint Dominic formed the Order of Preachers. Its closure is generally credited to French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte.
(Image: Kevin Gessner, cc-3.0)
His army closed the ornate stone building during the 1794 invasion, despite Napoleon’s respect for the Catholic religion’s charisma and ability to promote social order. And while the church didn’t fall into ruin, it nevertheless spent some of the next two centuries abandoned and neglected.
(Image: Bert Kaufmann, cc-3.0)
Churches aren’t typically known for providing effective storage solutions, but this one’s well-stocked past includes a stint as a warehouse, an archive and a very ornate stone bicycle shed.
(Image: Marcel de Jong, cc-3.0)
If that’s not impressive enough, the 13th century structure now houses a three storey bookshelf complete with walkways, staircases and elevators. The current arrangement was designed by Amsterdam-based architecture firm Merkx+Girod who won the Lensvelt de Architect Interior Prize in 2007 for their work.
(Image: Teemu Mäntynen, cc-sa-3.0)
Merkx+Girod chose modern black steel shelving and fashionable furniture (including a cross-shaped reading table) to compliment the church’s renovated vaulted ceilings, ornate arches and decorative frescoes. The additional shelving structure takes the shop floor from around 750 square meters to 1,200, allowing space for a cafe in the choir.
(Image: Marcel de Jong, cc-3.0)
Advertisements can often be seen hanging from Boekhandel Dominicanen’s grand stone pillars, as religious banners would once have done, and lighting has been strategically placed almost candle-like around this truly spectacular bookshop. (Explore more converted chapels and churches here.)
| this book brutally ripped out my heart and tore it to shreds then stomped it into the ground as i drowned in a sea of my tears and basked in eternal sorrow | me: |
| here read it | me: |
"Go, my book, and help destroy the world as it is."
- Russell Banks, from Continental Drift (via the-final-sentence)
(via Twitter / erik_kwakkel: Wow, 1500 followers: thank …)
Ink cat pawprints in a 15th c. book. I was just wondering today if calligraphers of the past had problems with cats walking across wet ink and ruining things.
This makes me so happy.
I want to find the person who made this sign and hug him/her until she/he squeaks.
(Source: goodoldfashionvillain, via bordertownseries)
"It is likely I will die next to a pile of things I was meaning to read."
-
—Lemony Snicket (via the-hanging-garden)
(yah, cause the pile of books fell over & crushed me.)
(Source: runa-lovegood, via the-hanging-garden)
Introvert Fairy Tales: Belle ↘
What “Happily Ever After” looks like when being alone isn’t a problem to be fixed.
Introvert Fairy Tales: Belle
Once upon a time there was a young woman called Belle who fell in love with a library. Sure, there was a guy and a rose and a particularly talkative tea set, but mostly there were books. And they all lived happily ever after.
(via cabinetdesfees)
Stephen Fry’s take on the e-reader vs. book argument.
(Source: thinkingininklings, via yeahwriters)
"Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell. Musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer – it has no texture, no context. It’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible; it should be - smelly."
- Giles
(Source: polarispot, via withoutpassionwedbetrulydead)
It’s true.
If you get me a really thoughtful book, I’ll probably melt in your arms.
truuuuue
& the cat. & a cup of tea.
(picture by Mademoiselle Coletta)
Sometimes I get ‘readers-block’, like I can’t read anything to save my life, I’ll start 10 books and stop each after seven pages because all I’ll want is to already have read that book and not actually read it and I won’t be able to focus at all and it pains me so much.
yes yes yes. I normally read 60-80 books a year (not counting graphic novels & rereads), & this year I think I read like, 10. But I started about a hundred. I just couldn’t stick with anything, even though I was enjoying them all.
(Source: cucumberbatchin)
Psychologists Discover How People Subconsciously Become Their Favorite Fictional Characters
Psychologists have discovered that while reading a book or story, people are prone to subconsciously adopt their behavior, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses to that of fictional characters as if they were their own.
Experts have dubbed this subconscious phenomenon ‘experience-taking,’ where people actually change their own behaviors and thoughts to match those of a fictional character that they can identify with.
(via friendofdorothywilde)
List of Smart People Books For Smarties ↘
The average number of these books average people have read is zero smart people books, because books are magical portals to being superior, not average. Also, taste and intelligence are both completely standardized and objectively judged. Cross off the list which books you’ve had the good sense to enjoy!
- Read Whatever The Fuck You Want
- Seriously Who the Fuck Goddamn Cares
- Only Assholes Care
- Read Some Sci Fi
- Read Some Fantasy
- Read Some Normal People Doing Normal Things
- Or Having Murder Mysteries
- Maybe People Being British A While Ago Those Books Are Nice Too
- People Having Issues With Their Parents Is Popular
- As Are People Making Unwise Sexual Decisions
- Just Read Some Stuff
- Or Don’t
- Who The Hell Cares Oh My God I Am So Tired Of This Shit
(Source: roachpatrol)
