100 Words for Rain (National Trust)

Humor & Entertainment

Johnson, Alex

Puzzles & Games

National Trust Books

How do you use your local library? Does it arrive at your door on the back of an elephant? Can it float down the river to you? Or does it occupy a phone booth by the side of the road? Public libraries are a cornerstone of modern civilization, yet like the books in them, libraries face an uncertain future in an increasingly digital world. Undaunted, librarians around the globe are thinking up astonishing ways of reaching those in reading need, whether by bike in Chicago, boat in Laos, or donkey in Colombia. Improbable Libraries showcases a wide range of unforgettable, never-before-seen images and interviews with librarians who are overcoming geographic, economic, and political difficulties to bring the written word to an eager audience. Alex Johnson charts the changing face of library architecture, as temporary pop-ups rub shoulders with monumental brick-and-mortar structures, and many libraries expand their mission to function as true community centers. To take just one example: the open-air Garden Library in Tel Aviv, located in a park near the city’s main bus station, supports asylum seekers and migrant workers with a stock of 3,500 volumes in sixteen different languages. Beautifully illustrated with two hundred and fifty color photographs, Improbable Libraries offers a breathtaking tour of the places that bring us together and provide education, entertainment, culture, and so much more. From the rise of the egalitarian Little Free Library movement to the growth in luxury hotel libraries, the communal book revolution means you’ll never be far from the perfect next read.

Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the World's Most Unusual Libraries

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

University of Chicago Press

Product Description 
A daily almanac that presents a selection of art historical events for every day of the year, from momentous and headline-grabbing to intimate, amusing, and illuminating. 
Taking a novel approach to the history of art, Art Day by Day aims to change the pace at which the story is told. Presenting snapshots of the most exciting, unusual, and noteworthy art events from around the world and throughout history through direct testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary chroniclers, this volume is a unique look at the past. 
Drawing on articles, diaries, interviews, letters, speeches, transcripts, and more, Art Day by Day offers an important event that happened on that day in the history of art. Here are the stories of famous paintings, ancient sculptures, comic strips, photographs, murals, manifestos, and marriages, from terracotta soldiers to a self-shredding Banksy. 
Each day has its own section, starting with an extended quote giving artists, critics, and commentators their voice to speak directly to us, followed by a brief explanatory text, and ending with other important events in art on that day such as births, deaths, and exhibition openings. Not every entry is momentous, but each one is significant. Yes, there are thefts, murders, artistic mishaps, and eureka moments, but there are also episodes such as President Theodore Roosevelt’s doodles, Michelangelo writing to his nephew about his kidney stones, and Monet getting the green light for his water garden. Every day has a story to tell. 
An informative overview of culture throughout the ages, Art Day by Day is as enlightening as it is entertaining: the perfect armchair companion and reference for art lovers everywhere. 
 About the Author 
Alex Johnson is a journalist and writer. A regular contributor to 
The Independent, he also runs the popular design and lifestyle blogs 
Bookshelf and 
Shedworking. He has written several books, including 
Bookshelf and 
Improbable Libraries.

Art Day by Day: 366 Brushes with History

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

Celebrating innovation and inspiration in one of the most basic of all home designs: the bookshelf.
Bookcases are so much more than just a place to store one’s books. They've become experiments in engineering and explorations into modern art, covetable in their own right. Financial analysts at Bloomberg have even used the IKEA Billy bookcase as an index of economic growth.
In these pages you will find plenty of inspiration and diversity, from “Juxtaposed,” a shelf capitalizing on limited space to display seven books containing the world’s most influential religions, to Sakura Adachi’s “Trick,” a bookcase that constantly mutates into a table and two chairs. Shelves can even be re-imagined: the way laundry is dried in China informed Dutch designers Studio Ditte as they created their Kwan bookcase.
So while we appreciate the efficient book storage of e-readers, let us marvel at physical bookshelves that are shaped like trees, or hold books upside down, or can even walk. This beautifully crafted book will bring joy to book lovers everywhere. 300+ color illustrations

Bookshelf

Architecture

From the rise of the egalitarian Little Free Library movement (motto: Take a book, return a book) to the growth in luxury hotel libraries, Alex Johnson whose parents were both librarians maps out the history and future of the 21st-century library revolution in seven thematic chapters, each consisting of a brief essay followed by illustrated project profiles. Whether by bike in Chicago or by donkey in Colombia, librarians all over the world are coming up with astonishingly ingenious ways of ensuring their books reach the people who need them. Many of these new libraries function as community centres, and assist their members in overcoming economic, social and political barriers. Others provide an unexpected dose of culture for travellers and commuters or even prisoners. Elsewhere, architects are designing monumental public libraries without walls, and prefabricated home libraries that can be assembled in an ordinary back garden. Whether youre at an airport, a park, a cafe or in the wilds, you can still find just the right book all for free.

Improbable Libraries

Thinking about a career as a residential mortgage loan officer? Our Manual provides loan officer training and mortgage broker training for individuals at every level of the mortgage industry-from basic training for those just starting out

Loan Officer Training

Business & Money

Economics

Alex Johnson

Featuring shedworkers and shedbuilders from around the world who are leading the alternative workplace revolution, Shedworking looks at why having a shed office is a greener way of working, improves the work-life balance, and accelerates one's productivity. Inspired by the author‘s Shedworking website, which has been internationally acclaimed for the groundbreaking scale of its architectural coverage, the book features many previously unpublished images of garden offices and shed-like atmospheres: offices on roofs, sheds inside "traditional" offices, and even sheds on wheels, as well as cutting-edge Le Corbusier-designed models for the back garden, all-glass shed offices, and buildings "built" using living trees. Along the way it offers a whistle-stop tour of famous sheds from Pliny the Younger‘s summerhouse and the retreats of 19th-century composers Edvard Grieg and Gustav Mahler to award-winning 21st-century fantasy writer Neil Gaiman's gazebo. In short, Shedworking offers a manifesto for those wanting to change their working lives for the better and go to work in the garden.

Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

Frances Lincoln

The so-called “Book Towns” of the world are dedicated havens of literature, and the ultimate dream of book lovers everywhere. Book Towns takes readers on a richly illustrated tour of the 40 semi-officially recognized literary towns around the world and outlines the history and development of each community, and offers practical travel advice. Many Book Towns have emerged in areas of marked attraction, such as Ureña in Spain or Fjaerland in Norway, where bookshops have been set up in buildings including former ferry waiting rooms and banks. While the UK has the best-known examples at Hay, Wigtown and Sedbergh, the book has a broad international appeal, featuring locations such as Jimbochu in Japan, College Street in Calcutta, and major unofficial “book cities” such as Buenos Aires.

Book Towns: Forty Five Paradises of the Printed Word

Travel

Specialty Travel

Rooms of Their Own travels around the world examining the unique spaces, habits and rituals in which famous writers created their most notable works.\nThe perennial question asked of all authors is, 'How do you write?'. What do they require of their room or desk? Do they have favourite pens, paper or typewriters? And have they found the perfect daily routine to channel their creativity? Crossing centuries, continents and genres, Alex Johnson has pooled 50 of the best writers and transports you to the heart of their writing rooms – from attics and studies to billiard rooms and bathtubs.\nDiscover the ins and outs of how each great writer penned their famous texts, and the routines and habits they perfected. Meet authors who rely on silence and seclusion and those who need people, music and whisky. Meet novelists who travel half-way across the world to a luxury writing retreat, and others who just need an empty shed at the bottom of the garden. Some are particular about pencils, inks, paper and typewriters, and some will scribble on anything – including the furniture. But whether they write in the library or in cars, under trees, private islands, hotel rooms or towers – each of these stories confirms that there is no 'best way' to write.\nFrom James Baldwin, writing in the small hours of the morning in his Paris apartment, to DH Lawrence writing at the foot of a towering Ponderosa pine tree, to the Brontë sisters managing in a crowded co-working space, this book takes us into the lives of some of history's greatest ever writers, with each writing space illustrated in evocative watercolour by James Oses.\nIn looking at the working lives of our favourite authors, bibliophiles will be transported to other worlds, aspiring writers will find inspiration and literature fans will gain deeper insight into their most-loved authors.

Rooms of Their Own: Where Great Writers Write

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Studios of Their Own travels around the world examining the unique spaces, habits and rituals of over 50 famous artists. From Picasso, to Hockney, to Caravaggio, discover the eclectic creative spaces used by artistic visionaries, brought to life with evocative illustrations. Crossing centuries, continents and genres, Alex Johnson explores these artists' workspaces and habits. How do they practise their craft? What do they look for in a studio? Do they work in silence or with music... in a shared space or in solitude? How do they harness the light? And how do their physical spaces affect and inspire their output? This striking collection focuses on more than 50 international artists, including: <ul> <li>Claude Monet, who created an inspirational garden in which to work en plein air and paint his famous water lilies</li> <li>Frida Kahlo, forced to work from her bed, inspired by the lucky talismans she surrounded herself with</li> <li>Jean-Michel Basquiat, working in an old stable, could turn anything into canvas, walking and lying on his works as he created them</li> <li>Lee Krasner's art dramatically changed when she moved from her small studio into the larger, light-filled one that she took over when her husband, Jackson Pollock, died</li> </ul> In looking at the working lives of our favourite artists, readers will be transported to other worlds, as well as gaining a deeper insight into the creative process. Also in the series: Rooms of Their Own: Where Great Writers Write.

Studios of Their Own: Where Great Artists Work

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Books by Johnson, Alex