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TBWA's brain booty and disruptive interestingness across creative culture and media arts.

Curated by Abbey Dethlefs.

Founded by Maria Popova, editor of Brain Pickings.

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Wanted: Bookstore-sitter. Sell books, feed cats, lodging included

Yes, this is a real headline. 

If the idea of running an independent bookstore, in picturesque rural Virginia, during the peak of Fall is appealing at all, then this is your lucky day.

The owners of Tales of the Lonesome Pine used bookstore in Big Stone Gap (pop. 5,400) have put out a call for a bookstore-sitter. They will provide lodging and provisions in exchange for the bookstore-sitter keeping the store’s doors open for two months.

For full article and to inquire, visit the LA Time article here.

Posted on Wednesday, September 5th 2012

Tags Books Literature Cats Virginia Dream Job Culture

The McAllen Public Library in McAllen, Texas, is the size of 2.5 football fields — the largest single-story library in the United States. But in its former life, its size wasn’t all that unusual.

That’s because the McAllen library used to be a Walmart. 

The cavernous space allowed plenty of room for an auditorium, computers lab, classrooms and meeting rooms, and adult and teen reading lounges — not to mention hundreds of thousands of books. 

And the best part? Library registration jumped 23% upon opening. 

Color me jealous.

(via)

Posted on Monday, July 2nd 2012

Tags Library Books Literature Design Architecture Texas WalMart

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.”

Ernest Hemingway

Posted on Monday, May 7th 2012

Tags Literature Ernest Hemingway quotes History Books Reading

I quite literally gasped when I saw this. The Selexyz Dominicanen bookstore in Maastricht, the Netherlands is housed in a renovated Dominican church dating back to 1294. “The infusion of old and new was brilliantly executed by architectural firm Merkx + Girod who managed to highlight the grandeur of the original church and preserve it’s majestic atmosphere by positioning a colossal walk-in steel bookcase asymmetrically in the church.” A necessary addition to the perpetually-growing travel list.  (via)

I quite literally gasped when I saw this. The Selexyz Dominicanen bookstore in Maastricht, the Netherlands is housed in a renovated Dominican church dating back to 1294. “The infusion of old and new was brilliantly executed by architectural firm Merkx + Girod who managed to highlight the grandeur of the original church and preserve it’s majestic atmosphere by positioning a colossal walk-in steel bookcase asymmetrically in the church.” A necessary addition to the perpetually-growing travel list. 

(via)

Posted on Wednesday, April 18th 2012

Tags Books Architecture Europe Netherlands Bookstore History