Prestigious Harvard University said Wednesday it had removed human skin from the binding of a book held for over 90 years at one of its libraries. A copy of the 19th-century book “Des Destinées de l’Ame” — or Destinies of the Soul, a meditation on life after death — was found in 2014 to be bound in the skin of a deceased woman. Harvard said it had removed the binding and noted “past failures in […]
Tag: library
Historic library weaves ‘Harry Potter’-style tourist magic in Rio
by Marie Hospital and Marc Burleigh Agence France-Presse RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — From the outside, it looks like another historic edifice in Rio’s rundown city center. Inside, however, is a multi-tiered library so spectacular, so ornate, that stunned visitors feel like they’ve walked into a movie fantasy set. “In ‘Harry Potter’ we’ve seen libraries like this!” exclaimed Didier Margouet, a 57-year-old French tourist, looking around at the shelves of leather bound books climbing […]
Wooden library lures bookworms outside Beijing
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Deep in the heart of a valley surrounded by rocky hills, a wooden library sits just over a creek on the outskirts of Beijing, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Every weekend, hundreds of bookworms flock to Liyuan Library in Jiaojiehe village, a book sanctuary surrounded by chestnut, walnut and peach trees whose branches were used to decorate the building. The lush environment is what first drew architect Li Xiaodong to […]
Suspect in Castillo death reveals circumstances leading to hazing victim’s demise; turns state witness
(Eagle News) — A suspect in the death of Horacio Castillo III has been fully admitted to the Witness Protection Program. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said it was Marc Ventura himself who “voluntarily” went to his office at the Department of Justice together with his mother and lawyer to signify his intention to apply for the same. Ventura was granted full admission to the WPP after his sworn statement was evaluated, and accepted by the […]
Colombian garbage man builds library from discarded books
by Rodrigo Almonacid Agence France Presse BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — Emptying the bins of Colombia’s capital, Jose Alberto Gutierrez one day found a copy of the classic novel “Anna Karenina,” and kept it. That was 20 years ago — and the garbage man continued to collect Bogota’s discarded books, amassing 25,000 in a free library, swelled by donations. “I realized that people were throwing books away in the rubbish. I started to rescue them,” Gutierrez, […]
Firefighters battle large fire at Moscow library
Firefighters in the Russian capital Moscow on Friday (January 30) night battled a large fire in the library of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences. The fire broke out in on the top floor of the three-storey building shortly after 10pm (1900 GMT), and emergencies workers said they had localised the blaze a few minutes after midnight, according to Russian news agency RIA. RIA reported the fire consumed 2,000 square metres (21,500 square […]





