The Camel Barn Library: January 2013

Saturday, January 5, 2013

'How to build a very large and perfectly rhomboid chimney':

Today's post on http://chemonights.blogspot.co.uk/

- this is really a Camel Barn Library post, as it shows some pictures of the restoration of the interior of the barn.

This blog is essentially a love letter: to my adopted home of Turkey in general, and its north Aegean coast and the town of Ayvalık in particular; to the Ottoman Greeks and all the other civilisations that previously inhabited the western shores of Asia Minor; and, perhaps most importantly, to libraries.

I came here to restore an Ottoman Greek house, and make a library in its camel barn, because I fell in love with the town of Ayvalık, its stunning location, beautiful architecture and strange, sad history, and because I have wanted to have my own library - a proper library - since I was a very small child. We all have our obsessions: mine is with libraries. So, this blog is the story of the Camel Barn Library, and of Ayvalık, the beautiful and extraordinary place in which it is situated.