the_future_modernes: a yellow train making a turn on a bridge (Default)
now bring me that horizon... ([personal profile] the_future_modernes) wrote in [community profile] politics2011-04-27 06:31 pm

Book book books!!!!! Did anyone know that there was a competition for World Book Capital?

ARGENTINA: Free books in Public Places to Woo Readers


BUENOS AIRES, Apr 27, 2011 (IPS) - "This book has not been lost. It has no owner; it is part of the Argentine Free Book Movement, and it was left in this place so that you would find it."

This is the handwritten message on the fly-leaf inside a copy of "El paraíso de los ladrones", a Spanish translation of British author G. K. Chesterton's The Paradise of Thieves, left on a bench in a public square in Buenos Aires.

Anyone can take part in the movement simply by leaving a book in a park, a train station or on a bus seat, with a note asking whoever happens to find it to read it and then "release it" again for others to read.


This is the kind of idea that helped Buenos Aires win the title of World Book Capital 2011, awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The title was conferred Apr. 23, on World Book and Copyright Day, and the city will remain the World Book Capital until the same date in 2012, when the title will pass to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

In the meantime the Argentine capital will be expanding the numbers of new readers and potential writers. In addition it will become the proud possessor of a multilingual library containing 30,000 volumes, a treasure store that comes with World Book Capital recognition.MORE
Frankly, I'd give them the prize for this book store (Buenos Aires' El Ateneo bookshop) alone: (via angry black woman)


El Ateneo Bookshop in Buenos Aires
Don't you want to just LIVE there???