CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Book Mural At Circle City Books, Pittsboro, N.C. 

From the LA Times:

Circle City Books in Pittsboro, N.C., has just completed an eye-catching mural: a side of a building covered in books. Huge, oversize books, with titles that even this myopic passerby could read.

What’s on it? Forty-eight titles, some of which are widely known: “Light in August” by William Faulkner, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, and “Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier.

Click here to see the complete list of books on the mural!

Starbucks Pop-up Library

From World Architecture News:

A pop-up coffee shop which appeared for three weeks in September offers an inventive take on the concept of take-away coffee. Nendo’s pop-up Starbucks in Toyko was a haven for book enthusiasts, transforming the space into a library where each (empty) book sleeve corresponded to a certain type of coffee.

Customers selected a book which corresponded to their chosen drink and, after reading the informational cover, took it to the cash desk to swap for a coffee. The sleeve was then slipped onto their take-away cup, ensuring that the customer could retain the information.

The Reason Old Books Smell So Wonderful

Abandoned Wal-Mart Transformed Into A Functioning Library

Taken from the L.A. Times Blog:

A vast building in McAllen, Texas, was once home to a Wal-Mart — but no longer. When the discount superstore moved to a larger location, it left behind a vast empty building. The community took advantage of the space and converted the warehouse-like building into a public library.

The size of more than two football fields, the McAllen Public Library is the largest single-story library in the country, the website PSFK writes. Its conversion from vast warehouse space to functioning library has recently made it the winner of the 2012 Library Interior Design Competition by the International Interior Design Assn.