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Since April, Ljubljana has been the Unesco's World Book Capital and it will remain so until April of next year. In this context, summer has brought two events aimed at fostering reading, developing reading culture and improving the accessibility of books, as well as presenting literary genres and world literatures. The first is the so called "Knjižnica pod krošnjami" (meaning "the library under the treetops"), a handy collection of books, newspapers and magazines for everyone to peruse. Equipped with chairs and benches to rest your legs while browsing through the pages, the six reading islands are distinguished by the variety of reading material.

Tivoli Park is a general unit where everyone can find a volume of choice; Ljubljana Castle holds mostly publications interesting to tourists; the Botanic Garden serves as an island for poetry lovers and Trnovski pristan as a delight for students and humanists. All these libraries are open on weekends between 10 am and 8 pm. In addition, there are two more units working during the week: Breg (the Ljubljanica embankment) is offering European books on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays until 8 pm, while Park Tabor has books for the elderly and is open on the same days until 3 pm and until 8 pm on Sundays.

Take a Ride with a Book

The second event is provided by Bunker, a non-profit institution for the implementation and organization of cultural events. They created the idea of the project "Proga 10: KNJIGA" (Route 10: BOOK), in which 23 bus stations were furnished with special book shelves, offering books on loan to users of Ljubljana's public transport and all passersby from 22 June until the end of September. Proga 10 is an open air library where you can borrow books and return them after reading; it is also a test of the establishment of an open space library without control codes, which reflects the idea of non-monetary exchange of goods. People's responses will be monitored and recorded in the form of documentary film footage and photographs, later displayed to all.