|
| 
 enlarge | Authors: Guillaume De Laubier, Laurel Hirsch (translator)
Creators: Jacques Bosser, James H. Billington
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Category: Book
List Price: $50.00
Buy New: $19.80
You Save: $30.20 (60%)
New (15) Used (18) from $12.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 40064
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 248
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.9
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 11.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0810946343
Dewey Decimal Number: 022.3
EAN: 9780810946347
ASIN: 0810946343
Publication Date: October 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book may have a remainder mark SLIGHT SHELF WEAR ON DUST COVER
|
| Customer Reviews:
The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World August 10, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What a wonderful book. It is a feast for the eyes and very informative too. It covers many of the major libraries of the world both public and private with an emphasis on the decorative splendour as well as great information concerning the holdings of such libraries and architectual detail. Definately one for the coffee table and to impress your friends!
Preservation of libraries March 10, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
"The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World"
is kept on the fireplace mantlepiece
in our library for people to come and
view. I liked the book so much I bought
my father it for Valentine's Day. He has
visited many libraries and gone on library
tours in Europe, so the pictures brought
back many memories for him and reminded him
of how our ancestors treasured libraries
and kept the books in good condition.
Anybody who is a library connoisseur will
enjoy this book. As written in the introduction,
"One must spend hours upon hours, and days upon
days in the cocoon of a great library in order
to understand and love the cozy isolation that it
can provide. Some people will never break away
from its spell and remain eternal readers, having
lost the desire to discover the real world. Others
will know how to find lin libraries both knowledge
and its instruments."
Enjoy
Cynthia Nakai
No review March 8, 2006
2 out of 39 found this review helpful
I bought it as a gift, didn't take out of plastic cover, so I could not rate it.
Very tastful and satisfying. February 9, 2005
26 out of 29 found this review helpful
When I saw this book in a store I was absolutely thrilled, and I decided that I must have it...yet, I paid about $55 for it. For me, it was a worthy price to pay, but when I found this book on Amazon for so much less, I felt that I had to urge others to take this great offer. It is fair enough to say that everyone would like to have high quality things, yet at times we are unable to do so for one or more reasons. Yet this book is so affordable and it maintains a very high quality. It has thick pages and the pictures inside are dark and rich. Overall, this book has brought me much joy, and I hope it will do the same for you.
Happy books with homes like these! December 17, 2004
46 out of 48 found this review helpful
Speaking as a professional librarian for more than three decades -- someone who upon visiting a city for the first time usually seeks out the main library for a look around -- there are libraries and then there are libraries. Even those in major U.S. cities tend to be utilitarian first (sometimes utilitarian only). Those dating from the 1950s and `60s are generally pretty ugly, as well. For richness and beauty, you have to go overseas to find libraries constructed in an earlier time, when architecture and ornamentation was an end in itself. Except for the small collections kept by monasteries, the library is pretty much an invention of the Renaissance and the Age of Reason. The National Library of Austria, in Vienna, is gorgeously Baroque, with allegorical paintings on the ceilings and narrow staircases concealed behind hidden doors in the stacks. The ever-suspicious Vatican Library still locks its bookcases, filled with bibliographical relics of incalculable value. The Senate Library in Paris is a blend of Neoclassical and Italianate, but it's very much a working library and the old card catalogue has been replaced by computers. I was privileged many years ago to visit the breathtaking library at the Abbey of Saint Gall, home of probably the world's most important collection of surviving incunabula. The curving bookshelves of inlaid wood, the hundreds of carved portraits, arms, and both religious and secular symbols are just incredible. And there's the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the first-ever university collection. And there are more than a dozen others in this beautifully produced volume, of which only three in the United States were deemed worthy of inclusion: the Library of Congress, the New York Public, and the Boston Athenaeum. All of which are practically new buildings compared to the others, but the same principal is at work -- to house knowledge in artistically serene surroundings. Remember the overhead shot of the LC's main Reading Room in *All the President's Men*? That says it all.
|
|
|
Copyright 2008 - RailroadBookstore.com
| |
