Dewey Decimal Digs

Previously, I have blogged about The Library hotel in Koh Samui, Thailand. A perfect holiday destination for sun, sand and reading. However, if you are a booklover seeking to travel to a more fast-paced and cosmopolitan location, Library Hotel in New York is the one for your itinerary.

Each of the ten floors in the building is dedicated to a different category of the Dewey Decimal System. Each of the six rooms located on each floor contain books from one of the topics of that category, with artwork to compliment the topic in the a classical modern environment.

Facilities in the hotel also follow the literary thread, such as the writers' den, bookmarks lounge and poetry garden.

In 140 characters or less

After adding Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert to my currently reading bookshelf I received a tweet from @Librarylandlady directing me to this amusing synopsis of the book:
Crybaby abates her insecurities by traveling around the world. How nice for her. The End.

I am only a tiny part into the book, and enjoying it, but it did seem quite apt.

The edited version of the book came from @tweetlibrary, where books are condensed to 140 characters or less.

I was going to include the edited versions of all the top books listed on Booktagger. However, our list is totally comprised of Stephanie Myer or J K Rowling titles, of which I could only find one edited version:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling. Kid knows magic, sucks at life. The End.

Take a look at the Booktagger list of most popular items on shelves and post an edited version of one in the comments, or tweet it to @booktagger (I'm sure tweetlibrary wouldn't mind hearing from you too). Or maybe compose one of the last book you read.

Reading in rhymes

I love these reproduced vintage reading posters. The simple images and the expressions on the characters faces work so well. The text is, of course, reworked version of popular nursery rhymes.

My son loves acting out little Miss Muffet, as he loves to scare me with a pretend spider. He is also particularly intrigued with Wee Willie Winkie, whose taps can always be heard on the nights Oskar is taking a long time to settle down to sleep ;)

Book interiors for decoration

Old hardback books can be difficult to recycle, due to the adhesives they contain. Artist Laura Cahill has found a novel way to reuse such books, by turning them into vases.

The books are cut to shape and wrapped around a test tube, so they can be used. I even found instructions online of how to make a version yourself. Unfortunately, hundreds or test tubes at work were thrown out a few month ago and I didn't know of this use for them at the time.

Laura also reused book to make this table and the base of a reading lamp.

Lit up for literature

This colourful bus won the Library bus of the year award by the Swedish Librarian Society. It was designed by the company Muungano, and has also been nominated for advertising and graphic design awards.

The bus contains books and digital media. The interior is just as colourful and in the dark, which is a significant part of the winter in Sweden, it lights up like a lantern.

Big and cozy books

I love seeing book-inspired furniture and these large and cozy pieces look very inviting.

Although the pieces look fantastic individually, the larger arrangements create great communal reading spaces and book spine pieces can decorate the walls to complement the overall theme.

The products are available from the aptly titled company Big Cosy Books.

Penguin Classics as notebooks

A fan of lists and notebooks, in addition to books, these notebooks with Penguin classic cover are very appealing to me. The blank notebook contain 200 pages and include an elasticated bookmark and pocket. There are a range of covers, and the one portraying a collection of spines looks good too. And the matching pencils!

The range can be purchased from Notemaker, and I must comment that the link was found when I checked out the blog of one of our new Twitter followers, krissyb.

Recent reads

Remember I blogged about reading the short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, on my iphone? I have now finished reading Emma by Jane Austen the same way and am still surprised that I found it even easier to follow than a paperback. I have now downloaded a number of other classics to consume through BeamItDown. I'm still unsure I would enjoy it as much with another ereader, as I love the autocue style.

Up until last year I hadn't read any Jane Austen, and one of my reading goals is to get through them all. I received The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler via Book Relay a couple of years ago and hope to read it once I know am able to appreciate more of its subtleties, which I know were lost on me in the movie.

Yesterday, I also finished The Associate by John Grisham. I enjoyed it until close to the last chapter. While the ending probably portrays reality, I usually enjoy how an author cleverly packages everything up quickly and unexpectedly. I don't mind some open endings, but there were just too many. So many that I will speculate this is the first book John Grisham will write a sequel for, and I am guessing it will be called The Mole.