I picked up a guidebook published in 1978 with sites in Amsterdam – some of the more obscure sites – and the history. It’s called Zag u dit in Amsterdam? “Did you see this in Amsterdam”, by J.H. Kruizinga with photos by Joop Steussy. Apparently there are 2 more volumes to find.
I’m fascinated. I’ve been [...]
Archive for the ‘book’ Category
Did you see this in Amsterdam?
Posted in Zag u dit?, book, history, tagged sculpture, Vondel, Warmoesstraat on June 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Three Cups of Tea
Posted in book, charity, tagged Afghanistan, education, Islam, Pakistan, Three Cups of Tea on July 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Three Cups of Tea tells the inspiring story of Greg Mortenson’s promise to build a school, a promise he struggled and fumbled and sacrificed to make come true. One promise turned into a mission, one school turned into a foundation; the Central Asia Institute. The institute has now built around 55 schools, and set in [...]
Book City
Posted in book, tagged book market, World Book Capital on May 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I spent the afternoon wandering around the World Book Market (wereldboekenmarkt in Dutch) making fairly random purchases, some fiction, one book on art and a recipe book covered in a cotton tartan (Stewart I think) with Scottish recipes presented in English and Dutch.
The market was along about 4km of the city’s canals and was part [...]
“Book Seeks Reader”
Posted in Art, book, tagged advertising, Book Week, books, World Book Capital on March 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
These billboards are up around town, promoting an exhibition of book advertisements since the seventeenth century. The exhibition runs until 1 June, 10-5 each day, at Oude Turftmarkt 129 (near Muntplein).
The ads – at least the ones in the poster – aren’t for a specific book, but rather promoting books and reading in general. The [...]
Two Months to Go
Posted in book, tagged World Book Capital on February 23, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Amsterdam becomes the World Book Capital on 23 April 2008. I’ve been looking forward to it for months, I thought there’d be fun events, great speakers, book fairs. But there are just five events listed for the year.
I hope that’s not it.
Design Signs
Posted in book, tagged books, design, library, signs on September 25, 2007 | 3 Comments »
One of my pet design gripes is “designing for opening day”. The building looks great, everyone is congratulated, and THEN the problems start.
This seems to be the case with the new Amsterdam Public Library. It’s a building I love, I think its grand scale, light, and flow make it a great public space, and I’ve [...]
Sour Note on the Library Opening
Posted in book, tagged library on July 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Amsterdam Weekly published some photos showing the library construction, and an article. It’s not completely available online but you can download the pdf of the issue.
One line in the article caught my eye, it’s a quote from Mr. Van Velzen, director of the library.
Allochtoon girls visit the library en masse and borrow ten books, [...]
New Library
Posted in book, tagged library, World Book Capital on July 7, 2007 | 4 Comments »
Amsterdam’s new public library was officially opened today.
It’s in a brand new, purpose built building, on the old harbour area, 7 floors of books sounds a lot like my idea of heaven. The collection includes books in a myriad of languages, there is a big English language section, plus Spanish, Arabic, Persian and others. For [...]
What is the What
Posted in book on June 21, 2007 | 1 Comment »
This is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese man who, as a boy walked out of Sudan into Ethiopia and later into Kenya. He came to the US as a young man where he found that life still wasn’t easy, that he still couldn’t get the qualifications that matched his ability, and that [...]
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