Archways of Books?

By intellichick.

Amsterdam's "Wall of Books"

It's ten meters high, and the book spines are ceramic. 

Photo by andrevanb.

Cast-iron book alcoves, Main Hall, Cincinnati

I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that Cincinnati had a building called Main Hall that had these amazing cast-iron book alcoves...and then bad people tore the building down.

By Public Library of Cincinnati.

Reed Reader

I was looking at Eliot Hall at Reed College when I spotted this gnomish reader. Nice spot for a book, eh?

When Houses Attack

My canon aside, I know no more about architecture than the next interested layperson. (Hey, did you see that? I wrote “My canon aside.” I promise not to do that again.)


But I do have a soft spot for novelty architecture. We don’t have that many “Gee whiz!” buildings in the Pacific Northwest (left, Portland's Jug, below, Tacoma’s ramshackle Bob’s Java Jive), but luckily there are sites like Unusual Architecture.com.

For instance, the so-called "House Attack" from Vienna Austria (top, photo by Dom Dada) does the trick. While Unusual Architecture could be better annotated, the photo credits (and/or the Flickr groups the photos are in) usually lead to more brass tacks information on the buildings.
Above, the non-Photoshopped Crooked House of Sopot, Poland. (Photo by brocha.) Buildings with designs as freakish and original as these virtually force the onlooker to point at them while saying something clever like, “Look!” (Also acceptable: "Dude, that's so weird" and "I probably shouldn't have eaten that whole kielbasa.")

While it may not literally tower over these other buildings, Kansas City Library’s design is impossible to top. Photo by Jonathan Moreau. (Also of interest: Unusual Life.)