Blazing Bookshelf reader Amanda S. has shared with us some personal photos from her trip to England, home to Shakespeare, Austen, Brontë, Orwell, and so many others.


From the British Library (which is utterly gorgeous), a photo of a painting of the Shire, by JRR Tolkien.

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.” 

-Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

And this one... a photo of the ORIGINAL manuscript from JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 

For a quote from JK Rowling, however, we had to go to a different book, Harry Pottter and the Chamber of Secrets:

"That's what Hermione does. When in doubt, go to the library." 

One of our favorite things (of many) about the Harry Potter series is the reliance the characters have on books and the library.

Long live the library!

Reading in Trees, Living in Libraries

This week's winning submissions come from Amberly!

There are so many good places to read books, but if I say so myself, reading in a tree is the best. Books' pages come from trees, words come from human nature, and human nature comes from the natural world.

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written." -Oscar Wilde

Can we all just agree that living in a library would be the best thing ever?

Please, send your submissions showing how books are beautiful to theblazingbookshelf@gmail.com! 

Now Accepting Submissions!

Our motto around here is: Books are Beautiful. We love books, their authors, awesome people who read them, the inspired who turn them into art, and cute puppies that sit next to them.

Robert Pattinson with a book!

A puppy with books!

Walt Whitman and his glorious book-writing beard.
His eyes wordlessly sound a barbaric yawp over the 
roofs of the world...

Books are meant to inspire. This blog is dedicated to spreading booklove via media (images, videos, quotes, etc.). The blog runs on submissions from you, your acquaintances, your friends, your family, and your strangers.

So, please, email theblazingbookshelf@gmail.com with your submissions. And long live the book!

What is the Blazing Bookshelf?

The Blazing Bookshelf is a place to honor books. Books are beautiful.

The book has been burned, banned, and censored. And yet, it lives on as the most reliable way to store stories and information, and the most comforting way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Our name, The Blazing Bookshelf, is in honor of those books that have been challenged, those authors who went hungry to write their ideas, and those libraries burned as arrogant, inane, violent acts against ideas.

Nazis are not the only book burners in history, but perhaps the most notorious.

But ideas can't be killed. So join us in celebration of The Book, and its home, The Library, and its creator, Humankind.