Bookish festivals

Festivals and special markets for books are fantastic. I love it when books are celebrated like that! In The Netherlands we have a couple of these events. Of course there are many festivities celebrating “the book” around the world. Today I present one of them. From May 24 until June 3 there is a book festival in Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Bill Clinton called it: “The Woodstock of the mind”. You can visit the site here. The website site also gives dates of other literary festivals.

If you know of any bookish festivals, please post them in the comments. That way, it could become some sort of global bookish agenda! Do not forget to post the date, the place and a link. If it becomes an extensive list, I will put it in the side bar for reference.

Biblioholism…

…The literary addiction. “Have you ever awakened the morning after a book-buying spree and been unable to remember how many volumes you bought or how much you spent?”, says the cover of this book. I sometimes say that I am a member of the BA. Bibliophiles Anonymous. “My name is Kim and I am a bibliophile.”

Of course, there is no such organisation. (Maybe there should be one?) In case you are in need of such a self help group, this book might prove useful. It gives you insight in your addiction and teaches you how to cope with it. You can find out more about it and look inside it here.

Librarians on You Tube

I found a couple of funny librarian video’s on You Tube. Like this one. It is a short film of 4 minutes. I thought it was quite funny. Especially since the female librarian is not depicted as a geek, for once. If you are a guy: this is what happens when you return a book late or disrespect them.

The next one, I found hilarious. Click here to see it. It is actually a short car commercial, but it all takes place in a library. As said, I laughed my head off. The last one is called “The adventures of super librarian”. It’s only half a minute long. Click here to view it. If you know of other funny librarian movies, or short films on books or reading, let me know!

Fantastic book store!

Most of you will probably not be able to visit this new bookstore, because it is in The Netherlands. Since I find it so utterly fantastic, and since I have more and more Dutch readers, I post about it anyway. If you aren’t Dutch and plan on visiting this country, make sure to visit this bookstore. I plan to go there as soon as I get the chance.

I love this bookstore so much, because it is housed in a Dominican church in Maastricht. The church was built in 1294. Recently it was converted into a bookstore. A have to say: it looks very dramatic. It is without doubt the most beautiful bookstore I have ever seen. Click here to visit their website. Unfortunately it is only available in Dutch.

The best thing is yet to come. A Dutch magazine put some photo’s on their website. I am sure you will enjoy them, even if you aren’t Dutch. Click here to see the most fantastic bookstore you have ever seen. (If you disagree and know of a better one: please let me know!)

Portable library

do not know how to describe it, but I love this piece of furniture. It is best described as a movable, almost portable library in which you can sit. A library on wheels! It comes with a carpet, which is red to match with the pillows. You can choose out of three types of wood. There is also a variety of designs, so you can have an almost custom cabinet. Take a look at this website to learn more.

Poems on books

This book about books is actually for little children. But I think most adults would love it too. The book has a fantastic title: “Please bury me in the library”. It has all sorts of poems celebrating books and reading. Each spread has as a different poem and artwork. You can learn more and look inside the book here.

Books online

Two of the biggest publishing houses in the English language have put their books online. HarperCollins and Random House now enable book lovers to browse trough books via their websites. (Just click on the name of the publishers to get to the appropriate webpage.) Sometimes you can see new books before they get published!

They also made a sort of widget that makes it possible to post a book on your website. Sadly, it is not possible to do this on Wordpress, because the script is in Java. If you found a way to put a novel on your blog, let me know!