Tag: books

Children books in a box with Bookroo!

Posted on by Team Blookup

kids-readingDo you have children, nephews, nieces or godchildren and you still have trouble finding what kind of books to offer them?

Our kind always used reading as a communication tool between generations, and as such, we want to transmit values, memories, but we can sometimes be afraid to impose them or to invest too early, to shock, to not be understood… In short, it’s not so easy to choose!

Well, take a deep breath because BlookUp found the perfect solution to offer books all year round without fearing the lack of idea!

Discover Bookroo!

logo-bookroo Bookroo consists in a 1, 3, 6 or 12-month subscription during which you will receive at home (within all US territory and also Canada, for an additional $11 per month), each month, a box filled with books chosen for you in accordance with the way you filled out the subscription form!

Customization options are limited to the kids’ age (from 0 to 2 and 2 to 6): The idea is really to send you (or to the kids you are offering the gift to) books “that you don’t already know and are not easy to be found online or in stores”. 

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Those books, for example, were the ones sent during the last few months!

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So it’s a whole surprise that is coming in a beautiful cardboard box, and within it, books separately and elegantly wrapped like presents!

Do you like the idea? Well, go to Bookroo now, choose your subscription time and spread culture, values and imagination all around you!

Book lovers, discover Dublin’s Old Library!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Next on our Libraries world tour: Dublin!

If you are fond of old, beautiful books and picturesque places, the city has something you should absolutely see: The Old Library of Trinity College!

trinity-cotrinity-college-long-room-dublin-etageresllege-long-room-library-dublin-shelves
“Yeah, hi, I’d like to borrow them all, please.” 

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This outstanding and ancient library, the largest in Ireland, contains nearly 4.5 million books, with nearly 250,000 of them hosted only in its famous 65 metres-wide well-named Long Room.

This architectural Georgian work of art took the place, in the 18th century, of the original Elizabethan building that was founded with the rest of the College in 1592 on a former monastery’s site. Some extensions were built circa 1850 in order to accommodate more books!

trinity-college-long-room-dublin-ladderAnd the result was worth it!

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If the place can afford to contain so many books in its core, it is because it obtained in 1801 the right to acquire a free copy of each book published in Ireland and England.

The Long Room is decorated with 14 marble busts created by the sculptor Peter Scheemakers, representing western thinkers like Isaac Newton and famous ancient philosophers such as Cicero, Aristotle and Plato. One can also find the busts of people related to the very history of Trinity College.

trinity-college-long-room-dublinView of the Long Room and its marble busts.

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Among the many valuable works hosted in the Old Library, the most famous is the Book of Kells, a magnificently ornamented manuscript containing the 4 Gospels of the New Testament, written by monks of Celtic culture nearly 1200 years ago.

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The Book of Kells, view of the opening text of the Gospel of Luke

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If you want to see more of it, the whole scanned document is available online for free on the College’s website, so take a look here!

This place filled with stories and history also contains one of the rare copies of the 1916’s official Declaration of the Republic of Ireland, as well as the impressive Brian Boru’s Harp, the model for Ireland’s official symbol, dated around the 15th century and made of oak, willow and brass ropes.

So don’t forget: Next time you go to Dublin, seek the library first and keep the bars for later!

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Source Article | Images credits: David Iliff & Nic McPhee on Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

A secret door inside a bookshelf!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Good day to you fellow blookers!

I don’t know about you but when I was a kid, I always wanted to be like Batman and have my own secret room behind a bookcase, just for the sake of it. So when I heard that there actually was a company that was making it a reality I knew I had to share it with you guys.

At first look, you wouldn’t think that there actually is a hidden room behind that bookcase; secret passages are only a thing in movies, video games and novels after all, right?  Ha, joke’s on you! Because this bookcase actually folds in the middle thus revealing the hidden room,  safe, wine cellar, or anything you’d rather not have everyone see.

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If you don’t like the vanilla look of the door, you can choose among different sizes, color and woods then pick the one that fits best. You can also choose to add a lock so the door won’t open! Turning it into a regular bookshelf and blocking the access to the room behind it…

If you are brave enough however, you can try to build your own secret door like this man. It will certainly take time and A LOT of efforts but at last you can be proud of yourself and ultimately spend the rest of your time hidden inside your secret lair pretending you’re Bruce Wayne in the Batcave (Which is totally not what I would to if I had one at home…).

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Sources here and here – Photos credits: Woodfold

“Literature Vs Traffic” : Books and Light to face vehicles

Posted on by Team Blookup

Today we’re going back in time for those who, like us, would have missed this impressive and ephemeral  artistic installation that illuminated and animated downtown Toronto during the night of October 1st, 2016.
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The anonymous group of artists Luzinterruptus took 12 days and gathered 50 volunteers to cover Hagerman Street in downtown Toronto with nearly 10,000 books, all donated by the Salvation Army. Among those, some were surprisingly old and were part of private donations.

books-lighted

The installation, named “Literature vs. Traffic”, had already been illegally carried out in Madrid and New York but obtained the authorization of Melbourne to perform there. This time, the artists were invited to the event “Nuit Blanche Toronto 2016” in order to reproduce the experience.

Luzinterruptus confirms that in 5 years “The meaning of this piece has not changed as the battle between pedestrians and vehicles still goes on in most of the world’s large cities and it is hard to find real, workable solutions. Despite the efforts on the part of some cites to reduce downtown traffic, they can only go as far as to create a Car-free day in order to have an idea as to how we would live without them”. The collective adds on its website: “We want literature to take over the streets and conquer public spaces, freely offering those passersby a traffic-free place which, for some hours, will succumb to the humble power of the written word”.

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Hagerman Street was closed for one night and replaced the come-and-go of cars by hundreds of pedestrians moving between illuminated books, resulting in a magic and impressive ballet. Passers-by were free to consult the books at their own pace and to choose the ones they would take home in order to preserve a small piece of this lively and interactive work. It took them only 10 hours to empty the street almost completely and, in the early morning, finally give it back to road traffic.

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Who knows, if this event comes back in a (very) distant future, perhaps one day there will be blooks among a myriad of other lighted books!

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Source article – Photo credits: Lola Martínez

Cincinnati’s Book Fountain

Posted on by Team Blookup

It’s getting cold and it’s not really the time to talk about fresh water anymore; But some of you may be waiting for one thing: Summer, and its 36 ° C in the shade! So before talking about snow, christmas trees and winter wind, we’ll do one last little favor to summer fans by making you do a small tour of the Municipal Library of Cincinnati!

Contrary to what its name indicates, Cincinnati is not located in Italy (However, the name is Italian, in hommage to the Roman political figure Cincinnatus) but in the United States, in the state of Ohio.

There are many beautiful things to see in Cincinnati but today we will stop at this beautiful fountain, just in front of the Municipal Library:

Book Fountain Cincinnati Public Library
Photo credit: Jean-François Schmitz

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Soberly named “Book Fountain”, this monument is actually a sculpture of books made of concrete covered with fired clay, stacked on each other, through which water flows as would a waterfall do. According to the artist-sculptor Michael Frasca, the flow of water through the books represents the free flow of ideas and information through writing and literature.

Very popular with tourists and students from frequently pose or sit near it, the fountain is also a memorial dedicated to Amelia Valerio Weinberg, who died in 1982 and who bequeathed money in order to build a fountain for the Municipal Library: Her wish finally came true 8 years later, and in the best way possible!

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