People you can read like a book
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Fancy borrowing a Bulgarian or loaning a lesbian? These are just some of the options on offer in Istanbul's Living Library. This is not quite your typical library - here instead of books you borrow real people and, the organisers hope, begin to confront some of your stereotypes in the process.
The idea of living libraries originated in Denmark, but in the last decade they have spread across the globe.
The latest incarnation in Istanbul works in the same way as every other Living Library. Visitors are allowed to browse a catalogue of "books" and once they have made their selection, they sit down for a 30-minute chat with the living book of their choice.
The books are volunteers who come from all walks of life and the idea is that people get to talk to someone who they might never meet otherwise.
Of course, it takes a certain openess of mind to enter the library in the first place, but with hundreds lined up to take part there seems to be no shortage of willing readers at the library's stall at Istanbul's independent film festival.
And it is not just the readers that benefit. Bahsi, a 22 year old Turkish Armenian, is one of the books, and she admits to being pleasantly surprised at the number of people who want to talk to her.
"This is a big surprise for me that people are coming and telling me that they want to understand me, because usually people's ideas about us are formed by the media and an education system that often misrepresent us," she says. "But what is beautiful is that after a short while, our conversation evolves into a nice chat."
