Bookalicious

Battling this nasty infection of mine, something that I had to learn to deal with and that surely has to do with my wrong habits, forced me to stay indoor this morning. Fortunately it wasn't something that took long to pass, I suppressed it just in time. Still, man! How hard is it to feel sick? It sucks, both physically and morally. And what kills me most is the thought I can't be useful and alive for my daughter. 

But well, I'll save these thoughts for some other time. Because what I want to share with you today is this amazing site I found while I was waiting for a decent time to call the doctor trying to ignore my pain. I spent some lovely quality time flipping through its images, the only thing that made me forget to waist time while I could be outside enjoying this warm debut of Spring.

The beautiful libraries site opened my mind about a few things. I learned that there's a library hotel in Manhattan to start with. Mental note to self on where to stay next time I visit the Big Apple. 

 And maybe in a ship with a library like this, I may reconsider cruise vacationing.

It taught me the fact they have to rely on their bodies to work doesn't necessarily mean that celebs are totally dump. Some do care about education and culture and have their own cute libraries at home. Like Diane Keaton's here. 

I realized that books are perfect in bathrooms too. There's something so very intruiguing in the following picture. Of course books are perfect companions for long hot baths but then I'd be afraid to let them accidentally drop into water.

And it forced me to envyregular jobs for a few minutes. Having libraries like this in the office every day could be the only condition for which I can give up freelancing.

I even found what I badly need right now, a chair like this, because lately I developped this insane habit to read different boooks and magazines at the same time. I think it's more related to oldhood that to my compulsive reading, indeed.  

Then I spotted this cute old photo and I can't imagine a more romantic and better place where to fall in love, like Woody Allena and Romy Schneider in the library of What's new pussycat (1965).

Ther's also who shares his modest libraries. Modest? Maybe, but I surely like their style.

All in all, thank you Beautiful-Libraries.com to suprise me with your pics. Now up to you guys to do your homework, spot your favorite photographs in there and report to me :)

Where books are loved

I'm completely besotted with bookstores. They're like sanctuaries, places to lose yourself, escape daily life, find new ways to dream and new sources of inspiration. Shopping there isn't only about buying a product, it's about connecting. That's why I'm so saddened by the way many independents are driven away out of the business by on line sales, chains and supermarket betsellers. Like it happened in You've got m@il, when Meg Ryan had to battle Tom Hanks to keep her Store Around the Corner alive for fiction ... 

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... and like it's happening for real to many other beautiful and eclectic independent little stores worldwide or to the store that inspired the Hollywood film Notting Hill Gate. I read on the Telegraph that The Travel Bookshop is to be closed soon. What can we do to help? Maybe reading this interesting article could be the first step. In my small way, I keep visiting every bookshop that happens on my way, I've got my favorites I regularly go to and I've got a list of famous and legendary as well as interesting bookstores I would like to visit in my next trips.

Both Lonely Planet and The Guardian styled lists of the most famous bookstores in the world. I spent hours browsing through their slideshows and dreaming about these travel destinations. I'm sharing with you the ones I'd like to visit more among them. 

1 - First of all, the legendary Shakespeare and Co in Paris. They've an amazing web site that is inspiring on itself alone and that represents this unique place, which seems to be the most famous bookstore on the planet because of Hemingway's visits. 

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More beautiful pics here.

2 - The Dutch Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, a 800-year-old church converted into a temple of books.

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3 - El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, an amazing bookshop converted from an old theather, where books are added to its sumptuous auditorium furnishings.

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4 - Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal, an art nuveau gem with a central staircase to literary heaven.

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5 - Books for Cooks, in the British Notting Hill, a store that sells only cookbooks and holds cooking demonstrations.

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7 - The amazing and fascinating Atlantis Books in Santorini (Greece), in style with the beauty of the island.

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All these inspiring places make me want to pack and leave to explore them right now. I feel reinvigorated at the only sight of these pics, go figure how overcome with weak at my knees I'd feel live in there. There is something dangerous about great art. That is what makes it cool. Wow!

Saturday treats

Saturdays are gotten to be MY days. I could do things every now and then on my own actually, but Alfie is away 3 days a week now, he enjoys spending quality time with our little princess on weekends, and I leave them bond and do their things, their way, on Saturday mornings.

So while they're out and about, on their special rituals, I'm out and about too. I usually go to a jewel of literary charm and opportunities, Lovat bookstore. It's my favorite one because it's huge and full of chairs and cozy corners where you can read undisturbed for hours and none dares to disturb you. They also have a cafe where they don't get scared at the sight of people approaching book with a latte in their hands. They actually encourage you to keep reading.

Every writer's ambitious corner: where to present their books! :)

Bookstores enhance both the reader and the writer in me and give me peace. I could get lost in there for hours.Then, accidentally, when I remember I'm an intellectual but made of flesh and bones, I head to Erika's, my favorite cafe just around the corner, where they serve the best cappuccinos in town (my humble opinion.)

Hello, there!

Now that I think about it, bookstores are also a great deterrent from eating, it is at least for me. I'm too distracted and busy in there to think about food! :)

Gotta go and get dressed now, we'll head off to the Pumpkin Festival this afternoon, an event I simply adore for its creativity. It's genuine and pure, like every children festival should be. See you tomorrow with a report. Loads xxx

Bookland

I spent the whole morning looking for ideas to renovate my house (yeah, that poor daughter of mine is watching cartoons while I sip my tea once again -ehm!), especially bookcases. They are all that interest me. I spotted some amazing creative ones on WebUrbanist.

And this ingenious one in Veronika and Sebastian's apartment in London (via ApartmentTherapy.)

There's always so much magic in a bookcase, it encloses part of wisdom of the person and reflects the spirit of the house. The itmes you find more in my house are books and photos, and I love finding new original ideas to cointain them. 

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There's even a way to organize books by colors! (via oddee)

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." - Anna Quindlen

How innovative! (via pixelcurse)

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 I'll share pics of my bookcases as soon as my reorganization is finished. Promise!

Read Kiddo Read!

A few more shots of my reading baby. She's getting more and more obsessed with reading, consequence of the fact we read to her since she was born, of our books everywhere and because she constantly sees us reading too? I don't mind, as long as she keeps reading!

"Hey Alice, do you still want to be a waitress?"

"Mmmh, yeah! Or maybe a reader. Or an explorer. I don't know. Maybe a reader is much more interesting!"

She reads

She reads, reads, reads and reads. In the bathroom, in the kitchen, in the car. Mainly everywhere. And I'm proud of my reading kid!

Thanks, Instagram!

"He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes." - Barrow

holidays reading

while vacationing in egypt, i decided to take a break from the millenium trilogy, whose last book would be far too heavy to take with me, and read another book, 'the almost moon', by alice sebold. it was simultaneously uncomfortable and absorbing for me, because i have dysfunctional parents too, and this novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. 

when i got back home i googled it and found out that most people who read or started reading this book didn't like it. the critic reviews were also very negative about it. interesting, because i couldn't put this book down, so i read it in 3 days. in my opinion it's extremely well written and fluidity never ceases, despite the choice of stream of consciousness to explain the thought and actions of the main character during the 24 hours period just before and after she kills her demented mother. i do find helen to be a beliavable character. i find her narcissism and hollow but addictive love of her insane mother also believable. i do find how their is little to redeem helen in our eyes believable. this is insanity. insanity has its own rules. and sebold takes readers into this quite unpoetic mindset. it's a revolting read, but not without truths.

i also think that 'the almost moon' is a brave book by a courageous writer. after the phenomenal success of 'the lovely bones', which i loved, alice sebold could have chosen to write a novel in which she once again gave readers a sympathetic, utterly likable narrator. instead, she writes through the voice of helen knightly, and helen tells the reader, right from the beginning, that liking her is going to be a challenge. helen's behavior becomes more understandable as she narrates her story. creating a character who, at first read, appears vain and unempathetic, is to take the risk that a reader will not stick with the book until the end. but, as more of helen's story is told, one sees how damaged she was by a childhood in which her parents' demons injured her.

so, slowly the shadows of helen's parents' demons move across her skin. she grew up in a house of secrets but she makes her living as a nude art model, and yet, while helen is nude almost every day, she is rarely naked. she had learned to hide from the people who love her: her ex-husband, her best friend and her best friend's son, and her two daughters, as effectively as her agoraphobic mother had hidden from the world. i think that killing her mother forces helen out into the open, and sebold lets us see an imperfect woman who struggles with all-too-human issues albeit in a violent and extreme way.