Octagonal book building

This octagonal structure is build entirely of books. Borrowed ones. I was created for an exhibition, but I think it would be great to have a structure like this built in a library as a quiet reading area. As a child I could imagine wanting to make one of these in my room to sneak inside and read too.

More about the structure, from Inhabit:

"Architecture is knowledge, history, research and trend. This is literally evident in Book Cell, an octagonal building made entirely from books that was installed in the Modern Art Center in Lisboa. Slovakian artist Matej Kren built an octagonal framework, filled it with books and removed it, leaving a symmetrical, enclosed room of stacked literature.

Architecture is knowledge, history, research and trend. This is literally evident in Book Cell, an octagonal building made entirely from books that was installed in the Modern Art Center in Lisboa. Slovakian artist Matej Kren built an octagonal framework, filled it with books and removed it, leaving a symmetrical, enclosed room of stacked literature.

Book Cell was originally installed for six months in 2006, but the piece still resonates today. The books used for the piece were borrowed from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation onsite at the Modern Art Center and returned to its collection after use, making it a very site-specific, almost personal piece, and reinforcing the idea that you don’t have to use something crazy, new and disposable to make powerful art.

So what defines architecture? Despite all the crazy new angles and leaning towers of our modern Frank Gehry age, Book Cell seems to remind us that all buildings are ultimately bound by culture and knowledge, and while those limits can be confining, they can also lead us to create things that are simple and beautiful."

Rip off bookmarks to save your spines and corners

As a child bookmarks were always being given to me. Whenever you celebrated a birthday they were given at church with a verse on them, they were given as prizes at school with slogans on them and handmade ones with pressed flowers were always given by whoever had recently taken up the hobby. These were all saved at a time when collections were prized (I also collected stickers, stamps, soft drink cans, stones, shells, coins, Playmobile, hair ribbons to list a sample), but seldom used as I typically read only a book at a time and Babysitter Club books and Secret Seven series didn't have a large number of pages in which you could lose your place. Along the way, I lost my bookmarks and gained an ability to remember the exact page I'm up to whenever I put a book down. I've never been a dog-ear creator and dislike leaving a book face down with its pages open so it damages its spine. However, I have recently become a fan of bookmarks again. Not to collect, but to use, and the humble Post-it note just doesn't cut it when up against these:

A set of eight bookmarks, resembling book spines and perforated, so you can rip them off as needed. Available from Jack Spade.