Bookstores, libraries, ...

[Bottle Rocket]

As I recall, Foyle's had already cleaned up their act a decade ago. But I'm glad I got to see it before that happened ... similarly, in NYC, The Strand went bland when it expanded from 8 to 18 miles of books. And, tragically, their Fulton St annex is closing. Not as tragic as the loss of Gotham Book Mart, nor Coliseum Books, within the last couple of years, but still a loss.

Re New York: yes indeed, the loss of the Gotham was a real pity ... there ought to have been some way to save it. I agree with you about the Strand as well, but it's still pretty amazing if you have the time and patience to sift through all those shelves. There are also a whole lot of first-rate specialized bookstores on travel, cooking, and the like, as well as foreign-language places (I love browsing one Japanese place even though I don't speak the language). For those who like graphic novels, sf, and comics, Forbidden Planet is about a block from the Strand.

In London, one of my favorite haunts is Maggs in Berkeley Square, (although I "Rare"ly can finance the books I really want).

The New York Public Library system is a marvel (and can be searched pretty easily via computer -- circulating volumes can be reserved from any branch library and delivered to the branch nearest you, which is great) ... the trouble is, with 50 million items to keep track of, it's very hard to keep the catalog up to date except for the closed and closely monitored special collections.

One great benefit of attending a university with an outstanding library system is that you can maintain alumni library privileges pretty cheaply. My own almae matres have magnificent collections, although the rules have tightened up a good deal as regards open stacks, which is a pity. When I was researching my thesis, I kept running across unexpected volumes which would distract me for hour after hour; frequently I'd be the first person in a century to check a particular title out, which was just too kool for skool.


BR

 

[Eric]

I'm very fond of the Stockholm Public Library and its flat-roofed cupola (if that is not a contradication in terms). The trouble is that the "let's change something, just for the sake of it" philistine architectural morons in Stockholm keep wanting to change something, just like they did with the Klara district in the 1960s, turning it into the Desolation of Smaug, to use Tolkienien terms. A dictator would demolish the five tower blocks at H?torget, plus the inaptly named Kulturhuset, and rebuild. But obviously such plans, resembling the megalomania of Ceausescu (who was Hjalmar Mehr, by the way?), are not viable. We're in a recession, and no one has any plans to make Lukashenka the Mayor of Stockholm.

If I ever meet the Swedish Minister of Culture, I hope I will have the guts to tell her that the current policy for various aspects of Swedish culture is a little populist and unimaginative.

The Kpjayan / Waalkwriter picture is the sort of thing you get when postmodernist obsessives, who cannot imagine actually borrowing books, turn a library into a Borgesian fetish.

Johan, do tell me where R?da Orm is. I occasionally visit R?nnells and often Alfa in the capital, but I have never discovered R?da Orm in your neck of the woods. Alas, I visit Gothenburg so infrequently. Around 1980 I attended a couple of translation workshops there, and like the city. But that is now ancient history. I like that street that sweeps up to the art museum (?) with its pavement caf?s. The sort of Drottninggatan or Karl Johan of Gothenburg.

 

[Johan]

Speaking of Borges, how about a public library with the books arranged geographically, as in the famous Umberto Eco novel? I did that at home for a while. Good fun, but I quickly ran into problems with immigrant authors and such.

It's in Haga, the formerly working class, formerly bohemian and currently horribly expensive neighbourhood of tiny wooden houses: Antikvariat R?de Orm G?TEBORG - Gula Sidorna p? eniro.se


You must mean Avenyn(yes, singular). It may have had its charms 30 years ago, but these days it's just loud, expensive and full of tourists, though the art museum displays a decent exhibit now and then. The public library can actually be found next to the museum, unfortunately in the shape of a typical 60's functionalist monstrosity.

 

[Sif]

Speaking of Borges, how about a public library with the books arranged geographically, as in the famous Umberto Eco novel? I did that at home for a while. Good fun, but I quickly ran into problems with immigrant authors and such.

Thats how my personal library is arranged at the moment and yes! The whole concept is rife with problems! Immigrant authors as well as authors from countries that no longer exist or countries that have changed borders. You have to make some really tough calls sometimes. That said, I love having all my Scandinavian books in the same place, all my Russian books, German books. I don't know how long I can take the pressure of having to decide whether Milan Kundera should go with the Czechs or the French (I have him with the Czechs) or where the heck Arthur Koestler should go but for now, I'm sticking with it.

 

[miercuri]

Thats how my personal library is arranged at the moment and yes! The whole concept is rife with problems! Immigrant authors as well as authors from countries that no longer exist or countries that have changed borders. You have to make some really tough calls sometimes. That said, I love having all my Scandinavian books in the same place, all my Russian books, German books. I don't know how long I can take the pressure of having to decide whether Milan Kundera should go with the Czechs or the French (I have him with the Czechs) or where the heck Arthur Koestler should go but for now, I'm sticking with it.

I have the same kind of arrangement on my shelves as well. I find it more logical when looking for a book. I've split my Nabokov between Russians and Americans though.

 

[waalkwriter]

I have the same kind of arrangement on my shelves as well. I find it more logical when looking for a book. I've split my Nabokov between Russians and Americans though.

I'm afraid my order makes no sense. I randomly assemble authors, and then organize the individual authors books alphabetically by title. Of course, 70% of my books are in various boxes, only about 30% on the bookshelf in my room, and those there are mostly glimpses of popular authors I have been very interested at one time or another, and are all hardbacks, except for a few trade paperbacks in the middle of the middle shelf. I have shelves of books at my other grandparents house though; because my grandmother will absolutely not allow me to have more books in my current home; the look I get when I bring a new book home from somewhere is like the look some of you might have gotten for bringing a mangy, stinky tabby cat into the house. Then I get lectured about how it's too much clutter

So I have two boxes of books in the closet, and others spread out elsewhere.

 

[Sif]

I have the same kind of arrangement on my shelves as well. I find it more logical when looking for a book. I've split my Nabokov between Russians and Americans though.

I gave some serious thought about doing that with Kundera, splitting up his books, but in the end I knew that my anal need for order would be very upset by that. I put Nabokov with the Russians but I think about moving him often.

 

[Cleanthess]

Japan being a continuous source of innovation is the source of a new book stacking style at stores:

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/06/03/the-avant-garde-art-of-book-stacking-in-stores-of-japan/

 

[pesahson]

Libraries at airports. What a brilliant idea!

There's on at Schiphol http://www.airportlibrary.nl/en/pictures.html and another one in Taipei. I hope this trend spreads.

 

[Cleanthess]

I always inspect the bookshelves of my friends' homes when I visit their houses for the first time. Last Saturday night I was at this party held at the home of a female friend and I saw these two books side by side: Praying for Your Future Husband: Preparing Your Heart for His and Lesbianism Made Easy!

 

[Hamlet]

I always inspect the bookshelves of my friends' homes when I visit their houses for the first time. Last Saturday night I was at this party held at the home of a female friend and I saw these two books side by side: Praying for Your Future Husband: Preparing Your Heart for His and Lesbianism Made Easy!

That's a bit of a contradictory line up but perhaps the last book was acquired during her college years. An experimental phase perhaps? Who knows. Chronology is important here I suspect.

 

[learna]

Some of the most famous bookstores in the world:

http://www.novate.ru/blogs/140814/27319/

 

[Patrick Murtha]

This thread hasn’t been added to in a long time!

This is the Linonia & Brothers reading room on the ground floor of Yale University’s Sterling Memorial Library. During my undergrad years (1976-80), the books shelved here included a lot of first edition 20th Century British fiction such as James Hanley, Ivy Compton-Burnett, John Cowper Powys. I borrowed them heavily! And I loved the vibe of the room in general, Yale at its most Oxbridgey.

 

[Liam]

I thought that this story was really cute and heartwarming!

 

[Stevie B]

I thought that this story was really cute and heartwarming!

The quaintness of that little library would be hard to beat. Love it! My son built one during the first summer of Covid. We have two younger boys (brothers) in the neighborhood who stop by every weekend to have a look. They even left a thank you note for us filled with the cutest spelling and grammatical errors ever! Whenever I'm in a thrift store, I try to find books that would appeal to them. Unfortunately, on several occasions, we've had the entire contents of the little library taken at the same time. I'm guessing this is being done by the same person. When this has happened, though, a number of people in the neighborhood have pitched in to build up the selections again. This helps restore the library and my faith in humanity.