EVERY WEEK, WE bring you a round-up of the best longreads of the past seven days in Sitdown Sunday.

And now, every weeknight, we bring you an evening longread to enjoy which will help you to escape the news cycle. 

We’ll be keeping an eye on new longreads and digging back into the archives for some classics.

Syria’s rebel librarians

It’s 10 years since war broke out in Syria. Here’s the story of the rebel librarians who gathered books rescued from the rubble. 

(The Guardian, approx 19 mins reading time)

Muaddamani cautiously felt his way to the living room, illuminated by a single sliver of sunlight. The wood floor was carpeted with books, scattered amid the debris. With one slow movement, he knelt on the ground and picked one at random. His nails flicked against the dust-blackened cover, as if against the strings of a musical instrument. The title was in English, something about self-awareness, a psychology book. He turned to the first page, deciphered the few words he recognised. It turned out the subject didn’t matter. He was trembling. His insides turned to jelly. An unsettling sensation that comes with opening the door to knowledge. With escaping, for a second, the routine of war. With saving a little piece, however tiny, of the town’s archives. Slipping through these pages as if fleeing into the unknown.

Read all the Evening Longreads here>