Kimbooktu contest! March 31, 2007

I promised you to give you the details about my contest on April 1. The time has come. In my country it is now after midnight, so it is now officially April 1. I have made a separate page for the contest where you can find all the details about the contest.

You can find the page in the side bar, just click on the “Kimbooktu Contest” button, or click here to go directly to the contest page. You can find the entries here. You can also find the pages via the blue bar in the top right of your screen. I hope you like the challenge!

 

The best of Blogs March 30, 2007

I found out today that this website is a finalist in the catogory “Best book / Literary blog” of The Best of Blogs! I am very proud of this. I would like to thank all the people who nominated my website for this contest.

I hope you will all vote for my website! Being a finalist is fantastic and very unexpected. But winning… That would be an amazing experience! If you like, you can vote for Kimbooktu.com here. And you can vote every day! You can bring out your vote until midnight of April 13.

Bookstores on You Tube March 29, 2007

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about librarians on You Tube. (Click here to go to that post.) This time I have crept into the depths of You Tube to find you the best, funniest and strangest films on bookstores.

• The first one I found is about a Bookstore road trip. I want to go on a bookstore road trip too!!! Click here for part one about New York and here for part two about Los Angeles. This next film is quite funny. A guy pulls quite a good prank on a bookstore clerk and has someone secretly tape it. Click here to be entertained.

• This is a fragment of a film that I (unfortunately) have never seen before. Judging by this clipping, it must be a lot of fun. The movie is called Top Secret. The fragment is featured in a Swedish bookstore. You can click here to see it.

• The next films are all about bookstores. This one is about the biggest bookstore in Taiwan. JC mentioned this bookstore in the comments of my post on “The world’s best bookstore”. You can see the megalomaniac bookstore here. The following bookstore is quite different. It is called the Antiquarium Bookstore, which can be found in Omaha. I cannot believe the amount of books they house! Like the guy in the film says: it’s a labyrinth of books. To be seen here.

• The next film is about the City Lights Bookstore in San Fransisco. A very cosy place. Click here to see it. And last but not least… A film about the magical bookstore Shakespeare & Co. I posted a documentary about this bookstore in the past. If you have not seen it, click here. It is a must see. Click here to see the short film about the bookstore, it includes an interview with the granddaughter of the founder, Mr. Whitman.

Bookish chess March 29, 2007

Fancy a game of chess? Take a look at this chess set. It looks quite nice in its book case. It could even be a nice gift idea for someone who plays chess. Except… The set is quite expensive. I am sure you can buy yourself a very, very nice chess set for 193.72 euro’s! Anyway, if you want to learn more about it, click here.

Book lamp March 29, 2007

It has been a while since I posted some bookish furniture. But here is one! I have found loads of new bookish stuff for your house, which I will post in the future. First, this lamp. I think the design is quite fantastic. You can put this lamp amidst your books, and you do not even notice it! Until you switch it on…

The book itself is black, but when it illuminates it gives a nice atmosphere. When the lamp is on, you can also read the title “Light reading”. You can find out more about this very cool lamp here.

 

 

The worlds best bookstore III March 27, 2007

Another great bookstore. Sadly, this bookstore is one of a big chain of bookstores, Barnes and Noble. I say sadly, because I love the (small) independent bookstores. But they probably could not afford to turn a movie theatre into a bookstore, like Barnes and Noble did in Rochester, Minnesota in the USA.

The bookstore used to be the Chateau Theatre, which opened its doors to film lovers in 1927. Eventually it fell into disrepair. Barnes and Noble bought the theatre in 1994 and renovated it, hopefully to its former glory. The theatre used to look like a medieval city underneath a ceiling depicting a starry sky.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any pictures of the past and present interior. (If you do, please let me know!) You can learn more about the bookstore here and here. Or click here to go to the webpage of the store. If you know of an amazing bookstore, that you think is the best of the world, please post it here. (You can also click the new category I made, named ‘bookstores’.)

Thanks to Chris for the link!

 

Animal bookmarks March 27, 2007

I love bookmarks. I started a collection of them recently. The collection consists mostly out of ‘free’ bookmarks. The ones you get from bookstores. I also have bought some that will never be used, because they look great. I display them. Other bookmarks I bought are cosy snuggled up in the books I am reading.

There are so many bookmarks around… Most of them are not very original. I have posted on some more special bookmarks before. You can find them by typing ‘bookmark’ in the search field. The animal shaped bookmarks Carolyn e-mailed me about are quite nice. Something different. Unfortunately they are only available in Japan for the moment. You can see them here. If you have come across a nice bookmark, let me know!

Thanks to Carolyn for the link!

Bookish jewellery March 26, 2007

I love jewellery depicting books. Sadly there is not too much around. Luckily, Sarah brought these to my attention. She had a bookish themed wedding last year, since she and her husband like to read. She wrote to me that she gave these necklaces to her bridesmaids. What a great idea! She also gave me a link to these earrings.

Then, something strange happened. As you probably know, I am getting married this year. And pretty soon too! On 25. May, I will say “I do”. My fiancé and I decided on a wedding cake that looks like a stack of books. In her e-mail, Sarah put a link to a photo of her wedding cake. Guess what? It is almost exactly the same as the cake we would like to have. Beneath you’ll see a picture of Sarah’s cake, isn’t it utterly fantastic?!

 

One page book March 24, 2007

Is it possible to print an entire book on one page? Apparently it is. This company produces these books. Unfortunately they only have Shakespeare and the Bible for now. But I can see a framed work of Shakespeare hanging on my library wall! You can find more about these books here.

Picture book museum March 23, 2007

I love picture books. The art on some of them is really great. And sometimes the stories are so fantastic, they almost make you cry. There is actually a museum on piture books, I did not know that. It is called “The Eric Carle picture book art museum”. The museum is founded by – as the name already says – Eric Carle. He is the author of the well known children’s picture book “The adventures of the very hungry caterpillar”.

The museum is located in the USA in the city of Amherst in Massachusetts. You can find the website of the museum here. (They also have a nice shop!) By the way, I have to share my favorite picture book of all times with you. It actually brought me to tears. It is one of the most treasured books of my collection. It is called “Love”, by Vanni. You can find it here. If I could buy it in The Netherlands, I would give all my friends a copy. It’s fantastic.