After a long haul flight, the last thing I want to imagine is living in an airliner. Spending my days inside of a plane seems like a bad dream, but Bruce Campbell has apparently made a comfortable home out of a retired Boeing 727. After purchasing the former Greek airlines in 1999, Campbell installed the plane in the woods near Portland, Oregon. You can check out the cozy cabin in the short video below and read all about the project on Campbell’s blog.
Last year, I posted on the surprise discovery of a previously unknown annotated map of Middle Earth that J.R.R. Tolkien had created while working on the 1970 reissue edition of The Lord of the Rings (Allen & Unwin). The map had been hidden away for forty-five years in an unrelated novel owned by Pauline Bayes, who illustrated the 1970 edition of LOTR for Tolkien.
Last week, it was announced that the Bodleian Library at Oxford University had purchased the map with grant funds to prevent it disappearing into a private collection. Now we can all enjoy it.
In case you missed the Tram Bowling Championship, here’s the video.
No one seems to know who is behind The Canvas Project, which inserts figures from famous paintings into real world situations, but you can follow along with the rest of us on Instagram.
all images by christophe recoura
The grand Musee D’Orsay in Paris was a train station in its first incarnation. It seems quite fitting that images of art work from the popular museum are now gracing French trains. SNCF, the state-owned railway, is covering the walls and ceilings of regional train cars with graphic film copies of great works of impressionist paintings, as well as images from Versailles,the Cinema Gaumont, and Musee D’Orsay decoration.
Beginning on May 8th, the air will be just a little bit cleaner in Paris—at least on Sundays. The French capital’s government will ban automobile traffic along the famed Champs Elysées and on nine other roads. Another four areas of Paris will be pedestrianized on Sundays during the summer months, adding to 13 zones already designated as car-free. Tourists will be happy to discover that the Quartier du Marais and the Quartier Saint-Martin will be part of the Paris Respire project, at least for this summer season.
Rumia, Poland is a small city just outside of Gdansk. When the local government decided to revitalize the old railway station, they decided to incorporate the public library in the project. The combined transit station/cultural center has now won the 2016 Library Interior Design Award for interior space use.
The building renewal, carried out by Gdansk-based design studio Sikora Wnetrza, cleverly connects the three story library directly with the station waiting room to encourage passengers to borrow books, or just hang out and read.
Later this year, Penguin US will be re-issuing six hardcover versions of sci-fi and fantasy classics from its Galaxy Series with eye-catching typographic foil covers by New York City-based Spanish designer Alex Trochut. The iconic novels will each have an introduction by Neil Gaiman.
For countless booklovers, independent bookstores are not just retail outlets, they’re the heart of the community and a personal haven. Today, we’re marking the second annual Independent Bookstore Day across the United States. More than 435 indies, from Alaska to Florida, will be hosting parties to celebrate books and readers. Check-out the dedicated website to learn more and to find a participating shop near you.
The infographic below, created for Jonkers Rare Books, explores the nom de plume of some favorite authors. Who knew that the pop cultural phenom Brynjolf Bjarme was actually Henrik Ibsen?
Travel Between The Pages 