No Shortage of Reading Material in DC

On a recent trip to our nation's capitol, there was no shortage of reading material to be found. It ranged from short instructions on how to ride the Metro to the book shops at the Smithsonian museums to the Gettysburg Address carved in the Lincoln Memorial. The hardest part was tearing myself away from the reading material to actually step back and see the sights themselves.

My number one place to visit was the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. As a biology geek, this was a natural place to want to visit, right? In addition to the animals, fossils and architecture, what I really wanted to see was the Hope Diamond. Before this trip was even planned, I read an entire book solely on the Hope Diamond - The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem. It is by Richard Kurin, who is the Under Secretary for History, Art and Cultural Heritage with the Smithsonian. He traces the path of the mythological blue diamond from its probable discovery in India to the collection of Louis XIV as a 67 carat cut gem, to its theft and reappearance in England. Through several more changes of hand, the now walnut sized, 45 carat gem ended up being "donated" by Harry Winston to the Smithsonian in 1958. My pictures from the gallery do not do this gem any justice, so you'll have to check it out for yourself. I also highly recommend the book, so you can see why a gem of this size and color that would be worth an estimated $20 million on its own, is actually valued at more than $200 million because of its storied history. The one picture I will share is of the Star Wars recipe book - Wookie Cookies - which we found in the basement bookstore of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum:

Since this is a blog about books, I will skip past my other touristy stories and pictures of all of the grand, white marble structures and get right to the Library of Congress. At the end of our trip, I decided to make one last stop to see this set of buildings on Capitol Hill. The pictures I share here are in the Jefferson Building - the Great Hall and the Main Reading Room. The intricate detail throughout the building was breathtaking and the sheer number of books housed within this system was mind boggling. There are 838 miles of shelves in the three buildings on Capitol Hill, holding more than 33 million books and printed materials. My little reading heart was happy to have visited this collection.

The Great Hall - Library of Congress - Jefferson Building

The Reading Room - Library of Congress - Jefferson Building