Friday, I took M and C to the So You Think You Can Dance tour up in Kansas City. Now, before you leave thinking, “But this is a book blog, why is she talking about a dance thing she took her kids to?” I do have something bookishly awesome to share. (By the way, it was a long way to drive, but we had a grand time.)

So, we got up to downtown Kansas City in good time, and not wanting to eat at the bars across from the Sprint Center (and yet, ironically, after an hour of wandering around that’s where we ended up!), we started wandering the streets. We were nominally looking for restaurants, but I was also kind of enjoying looking at the architecture. At any rate, we kept turning down side streets, looking for something open — interestingly enough, in a business district, there’s not much open for dinner — when we turned a corner and saw this:

I don’t know if you can tell (not the world’s best photograph), but that’s — from what we can figure — a parking garage with murals of books on the side. The steps are books, too. We were in awe. The books ranged with their titles, too: there’s poetry by Langston Hughes, The Tao de Ching, Romeo and Juliet, The Tale of Two Cities and, just when I was beginning to despair of any kids books:

There’s Charlotte (if you can see her behind the trees).

The murals were fascinating to look at too; you can imagine that if you were a giant, this would be one awesome bookshelf. The only thing I regret is not finding out what the parking garage was for. (A library, perhaps?)

Oh, and happy Banned Books Week! Go celebrate by reading something banned.