The central library in Amsterdam, situated across a canal from the science museum and more or less next to the central train station, is brand new. And it is a wonderful place in this lovely city. Wonderful!
Architectually, it is modern. From the outside, it looks a bit odd, with the arch-like structure in front.
But on the inside, it is lovely. Airy, and all the light! A great place for reading and thinking big thoughts. It consists of eight floors of books, CD:s and movies, and on the ninth floor a café with a roof terrace with an amazing view over Amsterdam.
I could’ve spent days walking around the aisles of this library, soaking in the atmosphere learning, but I couldn’t do that, of course. I was a tourist and time was limited. I did my usual check for Swedish litterature, though – and was amazed by what I found. Not did they only have tons of Astrid Lindgren (Ronja and Mio seem to be super popular in the Netherlands) and a couple of Tove Jansson, they even had a copy of Selma Lagerlöf’s “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils” among the children’s books. And for adults, they had both the typical crime novels by Stieg Larsson and Camilla Läckberg, but also less known Swedish crime novel authors such as Åsa Larsson and Jens Lapidius. And they had another Selma Lagerlöf, a couple by August Strindberg, and a SARA STRIDSBERG! Coolest of all. She’s an amazing author, Stridsberg, and that they had her debut novel at the central library in Amsterdam just gave me a whole new respect for the Dutch.
All in all, it is obvious from the Centrale Bibliotheek Amsterdam that Amsterdam is as city where culture are highly valued and something that they are willing to spend money on. I can do nothing else but respect that.
Katja Malmborg 