The Library as a Museum: Part Two

Another installment of our library as art series focuses today on the library as an artistic muse.

This view of the stacks at University of the Pacific's library can be the first trip down the rabbit hole for some

More photos after the jump

A quick thought on "Old Book Smell"

I'm one of those people who gives much credence to the smell of a book. I will burrow my nose right in the creases of a book and take a deep whiff. I've never given much thought to it, but browsing around on the internet I came across this gem:

"old book smell. Did you know? 'Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.'"
-Perfumes: The Guide


Now isn't that some food for thought?

In Defense of the Book: A mission statement of sorts

Since I was a child I was fascinated by reading. I remember so distinctly tucking a paperback into the waistband of my jeans before climbing up to my special reading spot: a perfectly formed branch high in a tree in my parent's backyard. I would settle back into the boughs with the latest Judy Bloom and spend hours reading and eating snacks that my very indulgent mom would send up on a bucket tied to a pole. Every so often I would lose my grasp on the book while otherwise focused on unwrapping a Starburst or something and the book would fall to the ground, forcing me to roust myself and begin the arduous climb down to retrieve it.

With the advent of e-reading devices  such as the Kindle, Nook and CyBook, the modern reading experience has changed forever. Hundreds of books, an entire library, can exist in a razor thin tablet weighing only a few ounces. The technology is actually quite impressive; the "e-ink" used allows the text to appear on the screen glare free, and there is no more damaged book spine from efforts to contort a paperback into a more wield-able read.