Qatar's mega library is a literary paradise with over a million books

Inside the Qatar National Library, rows of pristine white shelves rise up a gently banked incline and Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has previously said he wanted readers to be able to 'see all the books in a panorama'. Photo: AFP

The Gulf's largest book collection, Qatar's National Library, has enhanced ties with libraries outside the region and wooed younger readers in its first year, as an anti-Doha boycott drags on.

Scores of children weave in and out of the banked rows of shelves or sit on beanbags clutching books at the foot of the vast columns that support architect Rem Koolhaas' 45,000sq m mega-structure.