A new library has been designed for the small village of Huairou on the outskirts of Beijing. Instead of adding a new building inside the village center, the architects chose a site in the nearby mountains, a pleasant five minute walk from the village center. “In doing so we could provide a setting of clear thoughts when one consciously takes the effort to head for the reading room.”
Liyuan Library by Li Xiaodong Atelier
The Sound of Anathema
“Some psychiatrists say that music has therapeutic powers and can even restore fluidity and mental structure for a moment in some patients – music is the opposite of chaos. It may be that heavy metal, the music his parents blamed in part for this entire catastrophe, is the only thing that gives order to my cousin’s worn-out brain. No one knows, except him.” On trying to seek refuge from schizophrenia in heavy metal.
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Real Life Crazy Rich Inspiration
Ahead of its mid August movie debut Kevin Kwan talks about the real life inspiration behind his Crazy Rich Asian trilogy. “But the people who know me, who have read the books, and who are also in that world in Singapore, Hong Kong, and other parts of Asia, don’t get it.” Refinery29 has more.
Curiosities: Pretend Lunch
In Open Letters, Sam Sacks writes “Quietude is godliness in Lark & Termite” and traces Faulkner’s influence on the new book.n+1 on the 10th anniversary of Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time”: “After her came the deluge: the end of the record industry as we know it, yes, but also the end of America as it used to conceive of itself.”Soft Skull’s Richard Nash on how to publish in a recession at Conversational Reading.William Safire on “the deluge of books occasioned by the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.” Millions reader Scott says, “I wish the Book Review would do a LOT more of this kind of stuff.”The Internet is amazing I: J! Archive, “The fan-created archive of Jeopardy! games and players – 160,032 clues and counting!”The Internet is amazing II: The NY Times has a crossword puzzle blog.Maud Newton in Granta: “Exactly how long the prostitute, unbeknownst to my father, stayed at our house and slept in my bed is hard to gauge.””Sometimes, instead of eating alone, I pretend I’m having lunch with American literary legends. Today’s pretend guest was Cormac McCarthy.”Is MacKinlay Kantor’s Andersonville “the best Civil War novel ever?” (via)At Jacket Copy, Carolyn discovers Faulkner and Delillo in the Sports Illustrated archive.Sara Paretsky: “My editor tells me this is the last time the company will let her send me a marked manuscript.”Jenny Davidson on her special pencils.Dan Radosh exposes yet another tired journalistic cliche.The novel of manners, with zombies:: Pride and Prejudice and ZombiesIn praise of the long sentence. (Hear, hear!)
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Hateship, Movieship
The trailer is out for the film adaptation of Nobel laureate Alice Munro’s Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. The film will star Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld and Nick Nolte among others.
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Steve Jobs Lives
World Book Night
A committee headed by the author Tracy Chevalier this week unveiled the lineup of twenty-five specially printed titles which will be distributed by thousands of volunteers across the UK on April 23, 2012 as part of an international celebration of reading.