I love a good story about a creative way to bring books to people. Thanks to the town of Norrtälje all residents in Stockholm’s far-flung archipelago of islands have access to free reading materials by way of the Bokboten library.
The aquatic library specializes in children’s literature, but also offers a variety of books for adults on long term loan. Island residents can even order specific titles online and pick them up when the book boat docks.
The book boat has its own Facebook page
By now, you have likely seen photos of Banksy ‘s latest work painted on the wall of a historic British prison. The elusive street artist officially owned the piece by posting some footage of Bob Ross narration from The Joy of Painting dubbed over video (see below)that shows the street artist painting an image of an escaping inmate on the wall of a former prison in the dead of night.
The artist chose this jail because the writer Oscar Wilde served time there in 1895 on charges of gross indecency. Along with being a tribute to the persecuted author, the work is in support of a campaign to renovate the prison to serve as an arts center and museum.
I wish we had an amazing institution like the fantastic Karabuk University’s library, in Karabuk, Turkey. Designed to look like a row of giant books on a shelf; it’s obvious from a distance what the building has to offer.
Renowned American architects Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour coined the term “duck architecture” in their 1972 book Learning from Las Vegas to describe structures whose designs reveal their functions. Here in North America, we used to see many examples of this in kitschy roadside shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, commercial architecture has become boring and uninspiring.
When I think of the celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami fashion does not come to mind. However, it seems that the author is much more interested in style than his novels such as 1Q84 and Norwegian Wood suggest. Murakami recently collaborated with UNIQLO to create a line of men’s T-shirts. He also plans to release a nonfiction book later this year on the subject of apparel.
The quirky range visualizes abstract objects and characters from the books on T-shirts and pins. Illustrating 1Q84, for example, is the phrase, “Don’t let appearances fool you,” backwards, nodding at the text’s focus on alternate realities.
The Kafta on the Shore-themed piece, on the other hand, displays silhouettes of a perched crow. The text, “You will be the toughest 15-year-old boy on the planet,” is printed in Japanese across the artwork.
Murakami is also known for having his own jazz radio show, and a tee inspired by it showcases three of his closest allies. “Books, music, and cats have been my friends from way back,” reads the back of the shirt.
Meanwhile, t-shirts paying homage to Norwegian Wood and Pinball, 1973 revive the books’ covers and styles. Not for purchase is the special-edition tee for Hear the Wind Sing, Murakami’s debut novel; only 120 pieces of this design will be made available for lucky shoppers who purchase a Murakami-themed item.
The collection also features pins imagining the ‘Sheep Man’ from A Wild Sheep Chase, a scene from Dance Dance Dance, as well as a charming Murakami-themed sticker sheet.
THE END OF THE LIBRARY
Weldon Kees
When the coal
Gave out, we began
Burning the books, one by one;
First the set
Of Bulwer-Lytton
And then the Walter Scott.
They gave a lot of warmth.
Toward the end, in
February, flames
Consumed the Greek
Tragedians and Baudelaire,
Proust, Robert Burton
And the Po-Chu-i. Ice
Thickened on the sills.
More for the sake of the cat,
We said, than for ourselves,
Who huddled, shivering,
Against the stove
All winter long.
It may not be politically correct to profess admiration for the comedic genius of John Cleese these days, but I for one still find his work to be side-splitingly hilarious. I was surprised to recently learn that Cleese’s own favorite sketch was not from Monty Python, but from the lesser known At Last The 1948 Show. I think that you may also find that The Bookshop sketch (below), which features the comic brilliance of the late Marty Feldman, to be up there with the best of the Python pieces.
This new mural by the award winning young Dutch artist JDL (aka Judith de Leeuw) in Amsterdam’s grand Central Station is appropriately titled Closer in Distance. The tryptic mural reads like stills in an animation, with two hand gradually getting closer to one another, loosely wrapped in bandages. The artwork is intended as a temporary placeholder for the new HIV/AIDS monument that will be installed soon at Amsterdam Central Station. JDL says that she is depicting the relationships between people who are ill and their loved ones. “Illness often isolates, but also brings people closer together,” says the artist. “This piece is a symbol and a celebration of the love that grows at the edge of the abyss.”
The three separate frames will be placed around the station at the projects’ end.
I recently ran across a treasure trove of vintage Japanese travel posters from the early 20th century. As you know, I’m a little bit obsessed with travel related advertising, but I think that early travel posters managed to do a better job of inspiring armchair tourists than modern agency art work.
If you land on TBTP on a regular basis, you know how I feel about bookmobiles, traveling libraries, and itinerant bookstores. So, you won’t be surprised by these two stories about mobile booksellers from opposite sides of the globe.
I was excited to discover Queenstown, New Zealand’s newest bookstore, which happens to be a van-based, mobile purveyor of secondhand books. Bright Ink is a crowdfunded project created last year by two bookloving friends with a shared vision of owning a bookstore and recycling used books. Natasya Zambri and her business partner Annie Buscemi turned to crowdfunding, using PledgeMe, a Wellington-based platform which offers project and equity crowdfunding to bring their dream to life. By December 2020, they had raised enough money to buy a van and outfitted it with shelving. The partners cleverly collected donated books to develop their inventory.
Besides functioning as a secondhand mobile bookstore, the duo plan on sharing the space with local artists and to promote their work as well as hold poetry-reading sessions, guest speaker engagements and workshops.
The second mobile bookselling project comes from New York City resident Latanya Devaughn who is on a mission to bring a bookstore on wheels to her Bronx Borough with Bronx Bound Books. Now, after two years of soliciting donations for books and funds, Devaughn recently announced the acquisition of the bus that will bring her passion project closer to reality.
Devaughn aims to provide access to affordable books in an effort to increase literacy rates is sorely needed in the Bronx, where 70 percent of third grade students in the South Bronx cannot read at grade level, just over half of high school graduates are adequately prepared for college, and 41% of all Bronx residents lack basic prose literacy skills.
Devaughn is still raising funds so that she can hire a local artist to create a mural that would grace the exterior of the bus. “I love my community and strive to always hire within my community. We have so many talented and creative people living in The Bronx. It brings me great joy to showcase this.”
To donate or to learn more, visit the Bronx Bound Books website.
Travel Between The Pages 