Parting Shot
- Credit: Mike Sinclair
BIG READ “Subtle” was not part of the vocabulary when the Kansas City Public Library began designing the parking garage for its downtown Kansas City, Mo., location. The 25-foot-tall book spines that line the south wall of the garage on 10th Street between Wyandotte Street and Baltimore Avenue are sure to make you want to read on. Twenty-two titles, ranging from classics like The Republic by Plato, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes to children’s stories like Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, were selected by local readers and the board of trustees to reflect a wide range of reading interests. The project was conceived in 2000 when the Downtown Council purchased the historic First National Bank building that now houses the library. Its 500-stall garage is dubbed the “Community Bookshelf.”
