The World’s Weirdest Libraries (Photos)
Camels, manta rays, and tree boxes—people have been getting creative to get folks to take out a book.
One would think there are only so many ways to interest people in checking out a book or just plopping down and cracking one open. In a new book from University of Chicago Press, Improbable Libraries, Alex Johnson travels the globe in search the more creative appraoches to this age-old tradition.
In this image, a military-surplus 1979 Ford Falcon has been turned into a library by the artist Raul Lemesoff. According to Johnson, Lemesoff drives it around Buenos Aires handing out books. He calls it, of course, a "Weapon of Mass Instruction."
Guillermo Turin
This camel is part of the Mongolian Children's Mobile Library. The mobile library was founded by Jambyn Dashdondog, a children's book author, and works to bring books to nomadic herding groups in remote parts of the Gobi desert.
Jambyn Dashdondog
Kansas City Central Library apparently isn't one for subtlety--its exterior ensures you know that this is a library. The building, which is clad in 22 of the favorite titles by local readers, might be one of the more memorable in the U.S.
Dimensional Innovations
In 2010, IKEA built the world's longest outdoor bookshelf on Bondi Beach near Sydney. The feat was in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the company's "Billy" bookcase. The shelves were filled with roughly 6,000 books, and beachgoers were asked to trade in one of their own books for a copy on the shelves.
One Green Bean
Meant to resemble a manta ray, this library and entertainment complex at the Soneva Kiri resort in Koh Kood, Thailand was designed by the Dutch firm 24H>.
Kiattipong Panchee
The interior of the library at Soneva Kiri resort is just as impressive as the manta ray-inspired exterior.
Kiattipong Panchee
It might be hard to focus on the contents of your book after looking up in the library at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
The library's exterior is equally impressive. According to Johnson is "[consists] of an irregular patttern of insulated panels and high-performance glazing" and designed to "shimmer during the day and glow softly at night."
Adam Mørk
There are more than 12,000 Little Free Libraries around the world, from little boxes by the river in Milwaukee to former telephone box. This photo shows one in a park in Iowa.
Little Free Library
Sometimes, going for something shiny and gold does the trick. This library was added to a former railway station in Luckenwalde, Germany in a part of town that had seen better years. The building was meant to have a dual role as both a library and an abstract work of art.
Andreas Meichsner
Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the World's Most Unusual Libraries by Alex Johnson. Published by University of Chicago Press.
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