Mike Stilkey visited the Friends Store this week. The talented painted book artist spent time sharing tales of his search for used books which he incorporates into incredible art - including a 24 foot tall instillation in Hong Kong's Times Square, a 12-story major shopping center and office tower complex. Mike - full of smiles - often gets inspiration from the title of one of the books (as in "How Lost Was My Weekend) or from the installation setting. We'll soon have postcards of his work for sale and Mike promises a small piece for the Store.  Click on the image to see a larger version of the charming foxy gentleman. Find more attached to a recent article in the HuffingtonPost Culture. And, yes, we passed along books to be used in his future work.

WebEcoist blog has put together a list of 10 cool old buildings that have been converted into bookstores. They have theatres, a church, boats, trains, castles, and even a cigarette machine that have been re-purposed into bookstores. And, one Texas town has converted an abandoned Wal*Mart into its new library.

Here's a link to a recent article from the Carnegie Corporation about the importance of public libraries. 
http://carnegie.org/publications/carnegie-reporter/single/view/article/item/309/