What my heaven looks like.
From BoingBoing:
"El Ateneo Grand Splendid in downtown Buenos Aires is a spectacular bookstore that retains all the glamour of its former life as a 1920s movie palace, with a original balconies, painted ceiling, ornate carvings and crimson stage curtains. Photo by Bob Krist for National Geographic Traveler. The Guardian named El Ateneo as one of the top ten bookshops in the world (along with Secret Headquarters):'Where else can you sit in a theater box and leisurely read a volume of Neruda, or sip a cortado where Carlos Gardel once performed?'"
From the Netherlands, this was once a Dominican church. Now it's a bookstore, truly a place of worship, proof that there is a God, and s/he has a great sense of irony. In order to accommodate the massive number of books, and instead of building a second floor, the designers created what they refer to as a three-storey "walk-in bookcase".
If there is an afterlife, I am hoping that it looks something like either of the above. And if there are any half-naked cherubs fluttering about the place, they'd better have pots of delicious, freshly-brewed, authentic Columbian Blue Mountain coffee at the ready.
"El Ateneo Grand Splendid in downtown Buenos Aires is a spectacular bookstore that retains all the glamour of its former life as a 1920s movie palace, with a original balconies, painted ceiling, ornate carvings and crimson stage curtains. Photo by Bob Krist for National Geographic Traveler. The Guardian named El Ateneo as one of the top ten bookshops in the world (along with Secret Headquarters):'Where else can you sit in a theater box and leisurely read a volume of Neruda, or sip a cortado where Carlos Gardel once performed?'"
From the Netherlands, this was once a Dominican church. Now it's a bookstore, truly a place of worship, proof that there is a God, and s/he has a great sense of irony. In order to accommodate the massive number of books, and instead of building a second floor, the designers created what they refer to as a three-storey "walk-in bookcase".
If there is an afterlife, I am hoping that it looks something like either of the above. And if there are any half-naked cherubs fluttering about the place, they'd better have pots of delicious, freshly-brewed, authentic Columbian Blue Mountain coffee at the ready.