Eyes wide open

I watched 'The War You Don't See' on the weekend, and I'm still thinking about it, questioning.
As John Pilger's site says "It is a powerful and timely investigation into the media's role in war, tracing the history of 'embedded' and independent reporting from the carnage of World War One to the destruction of Hiroshima, and from the invasion of Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan and disaster in Iraq. As weapons and propaganda become even more sophisticated, the nature of war is developing into an 'electronic battlefield' in which journalists play a key role, and civilians are the victims."
One of the best quotes was "investigative journalists are the biggest threats to a nation's security".

The art of the library

Sometimes I find it regrettable that Australia does not have centuries old buildings - castles, monasteries...libraries. While there are still beautiful Georgian buildings dating from late 18th century there isn't the art and the history.
Still there is Bountiful Books: 13 Incredibly Intricate Historic Libraries: Dark wood, dazzling details, leaded glass windows and tier after towering tier of books – classic historic libraries are a bibliophile’s dream. These libraries, dating from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, represent some of the most astonishingly beautiful book repositories ever built.

Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland
At Ireland’s oldest university Trinity College, home to the "Book of Kells", the ‘Old Library’ with its Long Room >> stuns with its dark wood, spiral staircases and seemingly endless aisles of books.
It was built between 1712 and 1732 and renovated in 1860 to include a barrel ceiling for a second floor of book shelves.
The largest library in Ireland, it has 5 million printed volumes with extensive collections of journals, manuscripts, maps and music.

Iowa State Capitol Law Library
Hogwarts immediately comes to mind with these photos.
A lacy white banister flows along tier after tier of books and down a beautiful spiral staircase at the Iowa State Capitol Law Library, located in the Capitol building.
The library provides Iowa lawmakers, lawyers, government employees and the public with a specialised legal collection of treatises and law books.
More libraries are featured at WebUrbanist

Books - in any format

Break out the bubbly

Just to commemorate - this is the 400th Bibliophile blog post!!