That’s the title of an article by Laura Schmitt and Chris Vanjonack. Featuring fourteen libraries from around the world that were established as long ago as 612 CE (Abbey Library of Saint Gall in St. Gallen, Switzerland (you have to wear special library slippers…how cool is that! … although I imagine a nice cup of hot chocolate is not included) to some very contemporary libraries from China (Tianjin Binhai Library in Tianjin, China), Germany (Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart in Stuttgart, Germany), and the US (Seattle Central Library in Seattle, Washington.

The images (one per library) are definitely eye candy and no mean photographic feat since architectural photography is not for the faint-hearted.

As I scroll through the article again and again, I think in the end my favorite image is this one (below) of the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As the authors point out, what’s not to love about a library that’s called a cabinet of reading…

An interesting article, accompanied by an approximately 15 minute video (The First Entanglement), questions the conventional wisdom that humans domesticated plants. Once grasses developed non-shattering seeds, they became dependent on humans for planting. Once humans discovered the non-shattering seeds that they could plant they needed to develop technology and increase their popluations so they could benefit from agriculture. The work was hard and has led us to the spiraling cycle of population, agriculture, and technology. To some extent, humans became dependent on the plants and could be said to have been domesticated to serve the needs of the plant.