This past week we had a few book-filled days, which for a book nerd like me was a lot of fun. From Trinity Library, to an awesome bookstore, to our local library, it was a busy few book-ish days.

My uncle and aunt from London, Malcolm and Martha, came to Dublin (she was a speaker at a conference), and it was great to see them and spend time with them! Together, we went to see the famous Book of Kells, which is housed at Trinity. The book is an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels and is believed to date from the 8th or 9th century. It’s a beautiful example of calligraphy and Celtic art, with figures of humans, animals, mythical beasts, and Celtic knots adorning the pages. It’s considered to be Ireland’s greatest national treasure, so it was definitely cool to see (only a few pages are on display at a time, but there’s an exhibit to learn about the Book of Kells and similar manuscripts).

The book is housed in the old library at Trinity, so you also have the chance to walk through the gorgeous Long Room of the library, which holds over 200,000 volumes of the library’s old books and is the largest library in Ireland. It is also said to be the inspiration for the Jedi Library in Star Wars Episode II — Attack of the Clones. Check it out:

There is also a series of busts lining both sides of the library with some of the great thinkers, philosophers, and scientists from western civilization. Trying to keep Isaac engaged, we went looking for the other Isaac (Newton, Sir) 🙂 We found him:

We also saw, walking through the Trinity campus, a graduation ceremony. It was graduates from Masters in Business program.

After walking through Trinity and seeing the Book of Kells, we escaped the pouring rain in Costa coffee shop, and then went to a great Dublin bookstore called Hodges Figgis. They had fantastic selection (a great kids section too), and I definitely want to go back. Malcolm and Martha kindly got a few books for the boys, which they loved. It’s always nice to have a few new books to add to the collection.

The final stop on our book journey was visiting one of the local libraries and registering for library cards for myself and Isaac (he was thrilled to have his very own card). The branch we went to was small but had a great selection. They have a toddler story time every week, but I guess it’s very popular and there are limited numbers, so they put my name on a waiting list. I also came across the Dublin official book of the year. A lot of cities have a similar program where they encourage everyone to read the same book and then there are various events, workshops, and speakers about the book. It promotes literacy, discussion, and a sense of unity and community across a city. The events for this year’s book already occurred, but I checked the book out anyway: If Ever You Go: a map of Dublin in poetry and song. Looking forward to reading it!