Seattle’s Central Library or What I Did on My Summer Vacation

What do nonfiction editors do when they’re on vacation? They visit libraries! I was recently in Seattle, and one of the highlights of my trip was visiting Seattle’s Central Library. SPL 19From the exterior, the 11-story structure is impressive. From the interior, it’s even more impressive. A section of flooring on the first floor is carved with the first lines of various books in the library’s collection. In this work of art by Ann Hamilton, the text really is reversed—it’s not just my photo. SPL floor 2A portion of the fourth floor is so eye-poppingly red, I could hardly believe it. SPL 3No visit to the library would have been complete without stop in the children’s section. As I browsed through the nonfiction area, I found a number of books on display from Lerner’s various imprints.SPL 7Very appropriate for Seattle, I first spied Salmon by Ron Hirschi, which was published in 2001.SPL 9I then found 3-D ABC by Bob Racka, published in 2007. SPL 10In the graphic novel section, I saw Book Two of the recently published ElseWhere Chronicles series by Nykko and Bannister. As I passed through the impressively comprehensive foreign-language section, I was delighted to see an edition of another familiar title (though this one was not published by Lerner).

SPL 17One final fact about Seattle’s Central Library—as far as I know, it’s the only library that has inspired a knitting pattern.