Untitled

“Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.” ― Vera Nazarian

(Photos by Mark Cocksedge)

London-based designer Paul Cocksedge formed a poetic sculpture in the courtyard of Hotel de Ville in Lyon, France resembling papers being blown away by a gust of wind.

The hand-moulded sheets glow when a current passes through them.

This 25-metre-long Bourrasque sculpture was completed to comprise 200 sheets of A3-sized electroluminescent material, in time for the annual Festival of Lights.

Our daily round-up of bookish links. Tastes great with coffee.

Anyone can vote on this list of the worst books, which makes it a trustworthy resource for finding out which books just don’t live up to their hype. You can even add your own list of bad books to these rankings, and save other people from the pain of having to read them. From the over-hyped to the just plain overexposed, these overrated books prove that you can’t judge a book by its cover…or its reputation.

No real surprises on this list of the 50 Most Overrated Books….until I got to #25.

____________________

The writer Günter Grass, who broke the silences of the past for a generation of Germans, has died in hospital in Lübeck at the age of 87.

Another titan gone.

____________________

Penguin Random House Children’s UK and The Wild Rumpus, a social enterprise that organises family arts events, are coordinating a mass-reading of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (RHCP). Groups of people across the UK will come together at 11am on Saturday 13th June to read the picture book. This will be led by three large, public events in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Fun idea, though it won’t last terribly long. Where the Wild Things Are only has 338. words.

____________________

Tumblr’s Year in Review did not include any libraries or archives on its year end lists. We have seen some absolutely fabulous posts and gifs this year from the library and archival community, so we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite library and archives Tumblrs.

In no particular order:

southwestcollectionarchives

todaysdocument

lbjlibrary

othmeralia

muspeccoll

rockhalllibrary

Tumblarians! Share some of your favorite library and archives tumblrs. Who knows, maybe we can get our own category next year!

In addition to the list above, these people continually inspire us: beckerrarebooks, turnbullrarebooks, hdslibrary, e-codices, uchicagoscrc, illinoisrbml, newberryprinting, detroitlib, vculibraries, osurarebooks, uwmspeccoll, cityoflondonlibraries, unirdg-collections, uispeccoll, smithsonianlibraries and houghtonlib, among many others.  

USC Libraries

UC Irvine Special Collections & Archives

UC San Diego, Mandeville Special Collections

{shameless plug} You can find our special collections goodies under the Getty Research Institute tag.