Alex Johnson's Blog, page 16
March 14, 2018
Book Towns Are Made for Book Lovers
What makes a book town?
It can’t be too big—not a city, but a genuine town, usually in a rural setting. It has to have bookshops—not one or two, but a real concentration, where a bibliophile might spend hours, even days, browsing. Usually a book town begins with a couple of secondhand bookstores and later grows to offer new books, too.
But mostly, they have a lot of books for sale.
Hobart, New York, is a perfect example of how having one bookstore in a small town is nice, but having many bookstores together makes a place special—a destination. Since the 1970s, book towns like it have been springing up all over the world. There are now dozens of them, from Australia and Finland to India and South Korea.
In the forthcoming Book Towns, journalist Alex Johnson catalogues these most charming of tourist destinations. He spoke to Atlas Obscura about the pleasures of out-of-the-way places defined by their books.
More at Atlas Obscura
March 12, 2018
Terreria bookcase
Terreria is part modular furniture and part Italian farmhouse window looking out over the countryside. The single elements can be assembled to produce an infinite number of configurations and exploit the many potentials of ceramic. Terracotta components are available in four different geometric configurations. Blocks are 30.5cm deep, 40cm high and vary in width between 17 and 29 cm.
Archea Associati at Moroso
March 7, 2018
Libro verticale bookcase
The apparent rigidity of a modular structure created by the intersection of tubular elements reveals itself as part of a 20 creative project, starting from the logo. The 4 shelves incorporated in the supporting module, with a slight tilt to never drop books, magazines and objects, can be lacquered even in colors different from the structural frame.
Ernesto Maria Giuffré for Meme Design
February 28, 2018
A Book of Book Lists starts serialisation in The Independent
Serialisation of my A Book Of Book Lists starts today in The Independent (currently on front so easy to find) and continues for a while every Wednesday.
February 22, 2018
A Library Miscellany: Book storage
Today is the last stop of Claire Cock-Starkey's blog tour for her latest book, the excellent A Library Miscellany which will certainly appeal to readers of Bookshelf. You can read more about Claire and her books (the others are also all well worth a read) at www.nonfictioness.com and on the Twitter where she is @nonfictioness - she will also be speaking about A Library Miscellany (and her previous work, The Book Lovers' Miscellany) at the Oxford Literary Festival on March 20 at 12pm. 
February 11, 2018
Converted attic bookshelves
I converted my attic, which I was always too frightened to enter anyway, into extra bookshelf space. I have a ladder!!! I only know one other person with a ladder @Cecelia_Ahern pic.twitter.com/H2S60x3yDT— John Boyne (@john_boyne) February 9, 2018Worth reading the thread for other examples of attic bookshelves and library ladders
February 5, 2018
I don't remember the title but the cover was red
When libraries troll their patrons. pic.twitter.com/Hn8a96f8je— Blue Reflective Surface (@Metafrantic) February 4, 2018
February 1, 2018
A Book of Book Lists published today in the USA
My latest book - a kind of follow-up to Bookshelf and Improbable Libraries - A Book of Book Lists is officially published in the USA today. More details at Amazon.
