3 . Coolest Bookstores in the World

Where did you buy your last book? Chances are that you bought it on the Internet. But if you did, you missed the remarkable experience of browsing in a real bookstore. As British author NeilGaiman once said, “A town isn’t a town without a bookstore.” These days, bookstores offer lots of great books and plenty more.

Time magazine once named Eslite Dunnan Store in Taiwan province, China “Asia’s best bookstore”. One visit to the store tells you why. The store, spread across five floors, offers a combination of restaurants, music and over 200,000 books. With its comfortable reading spots, visitors sometimes say it’s like a library. Others have called it the “7-Elevent of bookstores” because it’s open 24 hours a day.

The world’s biggest bookstore is Tehran, Iran’s book Garden with 700,000 square feet of space. In addition to restaurants and a theater, the Book Garden features a park on the roof. Visitors can pick up one of1,000 free books to read while enjoying the fresh air and sunshine from the Book Garden’s rooftop park.

Rio de Janeiro’s Saraiva Bookstore might be the world’s most colorful bookstore. The visible upper level is lined with books arranged (排列) by their colors. This rainbow effect provides a colorful greeting for shoppers as they arrive. A rainbow path also leads young readers into the children’s section.

Venice, Italy, is a city surrounded by water. Its books are displayed in all things related to water, such as boats and bathtubs to protect them when the shop floods during high tide. It overlooks one of Venice’s many canals, and the smell of old books fills the air.

6 . Some libraries use unique architecture to encourage visitors to settle down with a new book, or use mobile libraries to bring books to hard-to-reach populations. No matter how they achieve it, these novel libraries are keeping the magic of reading alive.

Beach Library (Albena, Bulgaria)

Reading a book on the beach is a classic, and in Bulgaria, one library encourages tourists to do just that. The white, weather-resistant shelves, lined up not far from the surf, hold 6,000 books in 15 languages so every visitor can find the perfect beach read to enjoy while soaking up the sun’s rays.

The Camel Library Service (North Eastern Province, Kenya)

To combat (防止，减轻) low literacy rates in the desert of Kenya, the government created a mobile library composed of nine camels bringing books to villages. The library travels four days a week serving the region’s people. Currently the service focuses on children, but with more funding they plan to increase their reach both in distance and the titles they carry.

Bishan Library (Singapore)

Built in 2006, this library is meant to invoke (在脑海中唤起) a modern glass treehouse. Glass pods (吊舱) of varying colors stick out of the building randomly to create comfortable yet airy corners for reading throughout the building. At the same time, a more open-plan children’s room on the basement level invites interaction while preventing noise from going up and disturbing those concentrating in the high places above.

Seikei University Library (Tokyo, Japan)

Libraries are usually known for their quiet atmosphere, but this one encourages conversation. Pritzker Prize-winner Shigeru Ban designed the library with space-age, free standing soundproofed pods to respect those who need uninterrupted study, while also being conducive (有助于) to other methods of learning.

Macquarie University Library (Sydney, Australia)

A surprising combination of the cutting edge and sustainability, this building was made from recycled materials, features a green roof, and was designed to imitate the look of a eucalyptus tree (桉树). It is also state of the art, using robot cranes to bring requested books to the front desk.