Books – The Building Blocks of Society

Sometimes, it gets to the point where you have so many books that you don’t know what to do with them. Most people sell them online (if they are in good condition), donate them, or hoard them (like me). But what if you want to do something more inspiring with your collection, something that you can share with the world?

Spanish collective Luzinterruptus created this literary light installation called “Literature Versus Traffic” in 2012. It was inspired by the National Year of the Reading and celebrated the enlightenment that reading sheds on our lives. Using 10,000 books, they illuminated the pages and transformed the street into a bibliophile’s dream. How happy would you be to see thousands of books alight on the street like bricks building a literary foundation that we can proudly stand on? Grab some glow sticks, find the perfect spot in your city and go crazy! The best part of it is that its similar to donating but it brings the books to the people. Those who walk by who are not constant readers might be inspired by your display and grab a book to take home!

 

Or, you can build a house. If you have enough old phone books lying around, you can transform those annoying, blocky outdated books (that show up on your driveway every year) into the building blocks for a house. This idea was implemented by Richard Kroeker and a handful of students in the Dalhousie University Department of Architecture in Nova Scotia. Every bibliophile has told people that their walls are covered with books, but can any of them say that their walls are made of books?

Designed by Richard Kroeker

But if your not up to spreading books around your city or building a house, perhaps making a simple wall in your backyard is more to your liking.  The “Jardin de la Connaissance” or The Garden of Knowledge was installed in June 2010 in Quebec but since then, the books have become part of the forest as if the pages of the books are remembering their roots. The walls of books have decayed but have also “provided various micro-environments for a range of local creatures”. The most popular resident of the book garden is the mushroom! While the once brightly colored books are fading, it is for the better. After all, they are just returning home. How nice would it be to sit and read in your garden next to a flowering wall of books?

Jardin de la Connaissance – Take the 3D Tour