PRAGUE – The city of Prague is a good place to go for many reasons, one of them being looking at and buying books.
If you are like me and like reading books, the municipal library in Prague is a must-see.
I saw the infinite book tower on the internet before I came to Prague for Youth Journalism International’s 2023 Global Conference and wanted to visit it.
On our third day in Prague, I noticed that we were very close to the library, and asked if we could go there. We decided that we had the time to go see it and it was the best decision ever.
A few steps after you enter the library building, you can see the infinite book tower.
It’s beautiful to look at and it is fun to try to see if you’ve read any books that are part of the tower and talk about them with your friends.
The tower had some amazing books like Moby Dick.
It was very exciting for me to find a book by the Turkish writer Nazım Hikmet in the tower, as I am Turkish. And I also saw a Sherlock Holmes book, which as a fan, was very exciting.
It was a bit disappointing to realize that there was a mirror inside the tower to make it seem longer, so it wasn’t as big as I was expecting, but still it was one of the most interesting things I saw in Prague.
I have never heard about something like this anywhere else and it felt like a unique experience you can only have in Prague.
We also went to a very cool bookstore called Shakespeare & Synové, or Shakespeare & Sons.
They had countless books in Czech and English from many genres. I even had the chance to get a book I’d wanted for awhile but that isn’t available in my country – when I saw Letters To Milena by Franz Kafka, I knew I had to get it.
Naz Mergen is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from Türkiye. She wrote this piece and provided one of the photos.
Anjola Fashawe is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International from the UK. She provided the cover photo.
Anne van Mill is a Senior Photographer from the Netherlands. She provided a photo for this article.
Read more from YJI’s ‘Postcards from Prague’ series about the 2023 Global Conference.
