Library Video Mashup

Editor and Editrix, a love story

1935 saw the start of a new quarterly, The Amateur Musician, edited and published by a Miss Elizabeth Voss. When I wrote an article on The Recorder or English Flute for the third issue I did not know that I should become co-editor by No. 8, and marry my co-editor before No. 15, but that is how it happened!

–Edgar Hunt, The Recorder and its Music

My Bookmobile

I’ve had a weakness for paper models ever since I was 10 years old and bought a paper model book for a Victorian townhouse at a museum in England. (Windsor? The Tower? Hampton Court? Can’t remember.) It had everything, from coal bins in the basement to servants’ quarters in the roof. I still have that book somewhere because I could never bring myself to cutting it up, nor did I know what I would do with a four-storey paper house. I suppose that with modern technology I could now make a copy and do with it as I will. Something for the long winter evenings…

A much less ambitious project is this cute little bookmobile. Grab your cardstock and a bone folder and enjoy!

via Book Patrol

99 Danish Thanes

I had to post this marvellous mashup because it involves two of my favourite things, great literature and 80’s pop music!

If you liked that, you might also enjoy The Vikings (Personal Jesus), Attila the Hun (Here Comes the Rain Again), The Trojan War (Tainted Love)… Oh just watch them all! Long live the 80’s!

Suntory Time!

In my last post I mentioned research that looked into whether languages that sound fast really say more. Japanese was the fastest language they tested, but had the lowest density of information. I think this illustrates the situation:

Thursday Tweets

A lot of good things appeared in my Twitter stream today and I thought I would share some of them here. First of all, two classics have been adapted into graphic novels, The Odyssey (via @rogueclassicist) and Don Quixote (via @batpoet). I suppose adventures stories lend themselves to a visual format, especially in the male-dominated graphic novel/comic book market. What are the chances we’ll see a graphic Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice?

The online book community is mourning the loss of Michael S. Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg. He is said to have invented the ebook, and began by hand-typing classics such as Homer, Shakespeare, and the Bible into his computer and posting them online. Now the work is carried out by an army of volunteers all over the world using scanners and optical character recognition. However the human touch is still required, and you can help by joining Distributed Proofreaders. If you are the sort of person who notices the typos in today’s poorly edited books, you’re just the sort of person DP needs! There’s a nice community of book lovers there and it’s a great way to give back to the world of books.

Finally, have you ever noticed that some languages sound faster than others? Have you wondered if they are saying more or if there is just a lot of “filler” in the language? Well, according to some recent research [here’s the whole paper](via @StanCarey), it seems that the information density of a language is inversely proportional to the speed with which it is spoken, with the end result that languages (at least the ones that were tested) dish out roughly the same amount of information in the same amount of time. In other words, languages that sound faster don’t really say more than languages that sound slower. I don’t know if this research is conclusive or has been confirmed elsewhere, but it makes me wonder if the brain has an optimal speed for taking in verbal information, regardless of language. I do know one thing for sure: my brain is not fast enough to take in everything on Twitter!

Happy International Literacy Day!

It is sad to contemplate that nearly 800 million adults in the world cannot read or write. That means one in six adults on the planet is deprived of their right to an education and to all the benefits that entails. One of those benefits is peace, because people who have employment opportunities and who can participate in the political process do not have to pick up a gun to get what they want.

Significant progress has already been made. Overall, literacy is up 8% over the past 20 years, and youth literacy is higher than adult literacy, so the future looks even better. But there is still much work to do, which is why I support literacy organizations (see my blog’s footer). It is a wonderful thing that no matter where you live, literacy and education improve people’s lives, so help where you can!

Why it’s good to know other languages

Thanks to Susan for telling me about this episode. :)

Everyone’s Learning Languages!

via Women Reading

MegaReader

Isn’t part of the point of reading to make the world go away? :D

 

via The Well-Read Man

Bookshelf: Sunset

I love this sunset-coloured bookshelf from RS Barcelona (click for more photos). Each metal shelf is made of two parts that slide over each other and out the sides of the bookshelf, so you can arrange and rearrange your books and knick knacks however you like. It’s perfect for the ever-expanding library!

I’m working on expanding my shelving right now, and this bookshelf makes me wonder if I shouldn’t depart from my usual light wood stain and instead use some wild colours. Rainbow colours always look good, as do gradations of the same hue. Does anyone out there have coloured bookshelves? How do you like them?

via Bookshelf

Books Large and Small

How’s that for a big book? This megatome currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest book in the world, at 4.18m by 3.77m, and weighing 1,420 kg. That’s more than my car weighs. Our Fragile Natural Heritage was built by Hungarian inventor Bela Varga with family and friends, and was completed on March 21, 2010. Its 346 pages describe natural wonders in Hungary and around the world, and is intended to raise ecological awareness. The World’s Largest Book blog has videos and descriptions of the making of the book. To install the book they had to remove the roof over the exhibition room and lower the book in with a crane. There is also a smaller version of the book, which is about the size of an atlas. I love that the cover is decorated with a fire salamander, the mascot of Aggtelek National Park, where the book is located.

Speaking of atlases, the world’s largest atlas also went on display in the spring of 2010 at the British Library. The Klencke Atlas dates from 1660, and is a svelte .95m by 1.75 m and contains 37 maps. I should say that it was the world’s largest atlas at the time; in October 2010 it was eclipsed by Earth, published by Gordon Cheers in Australia. This 2m by 3m atlas can be yours for a mere $100,000. It was created partly as a counterpoint to today’s emphasis on digital and mobile technologies. When the Kindles and iPads have long since released their toxins into the groundwater, books like these will still be here.

Just to even things out I thought I’d also post a little something on miniature books. Flickr has a Miniature Books pool that is worth checking out, and if you’d like to make your own miniature book, you can also find full instructions on Flickr. No crane required!

Library Girl

I spotted this lovely song by Reina del Cid (great name, eh?) at Your Move, Dickens. As a former library girl I can relate!

Bed and a Book… or Two… Hundred

I think this is what my bedroom will look like eventually. Not too safe in an earthquake zone but what a way to go!

[Photo source unknown]

Want to be a classical hero? Read!

I stumbled across these fun posters from the American Library Association’s celebrity READ campaign.

  

If you are not familiar with these ancient warriors (from the late 1990’s), consult the all-knowing Wikipedia.

Source

I don’t mean to be rude but…

via Booklover

Right Ho, Jeeves: Aunt Dahlia

Aunt Dahlia's face grew darker. Hunting, if indulged in regularly over a period of years, is a pastime that seldom fails to lend a fairly deepish tinge to the patient's complexion, and her best friends could not have denied that even at normal times the relative's map tended a little toward the crushed strawberry. But never had I seen it take on so pronounced a richness as now. She looked like a tomato struggling for self-expression.

—P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves

Right Ho, Jeeves: Another Time Perhaps

"Jeeves," I said, "do you know what? Mr. Fink-Nottle is engaged to my Cousin Angela."

"Indeed, sir?"

"Well, how about it? Do you grasp the psychology? Does it make sense? Only a few hours ago he was engaged to Miss Bassett."

"Gentlemen who have been discarded by one young lady are often apt to attach themselves without delay to another, sir. It is what is known as a gesture."

I began to grasp.

"I see what you mean. Defiant stuff."

"Yes, sir."

"A sort of 'Oh, right-ho, please yourself, but if you don't want me, there are plenty who do.'"

"Precisely, sir. My Cousin George——"

"Never mind about your Cousin George, Jeeves."

"Very good, sir."

"Keep him for the long winter evenings, what?"

"Just as you wish, sir."

—P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves

Right Ho, Jeeves: A dialogue

"Jeeves," I said.

"Sir?"

"I've just been having a chat with young Tuppy, Jeeves. Did you happen to notice that he wasn't looking very roguish this morning?"

"Yes, sir. It seemed to me that Mr. Glossop's face was sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."

"Quite. He met my cousin Angela in the larder last night, and a rather painful interview ensued."

"I am sorry, sir."

"Not half so sorry as he was. She found him closeted with a steak-and-kidney pie, and appears to have been a bit caustic about fat men who lived for food alone."

"Most disturbing, sir."

"Very. In fact, many people would say that things had gone so far between these two nothing now could bridge the chasm. A girl who could make cracks about human pythons who ate nine or ten meals a day and ought to be careful not to hurry upstairs because of the danger of apoplectic fits is a girl, many people would say, in whose heart love is dead. Wouldn't people say that, Jeeves?"

"Undeniably, sir."

"They would be wrong."

"You think so, sir?"

"I am convinced of it. I know these females. You can't go by what they say."

"You feel that Miss Angela's strictures should not be taken too much au pied de la lettre, sir?"

"Eh?"

"In English, we should say 'literally'."

"Literally. That's exactly what I mean. You know what girls are. A tiff occurs, and they shoot their heads off. But underneath it all the old love still remains. Am I correct?"

"Quite correct, sir. The poet Scott——"

"Right ho, Jeeves."

"Very good, sir."

—P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves

Rory Gilmore, Bookworm

I don’t know why the Gilmore Girls never caught on with me. I think they talk too fast for me. A recent article in Psychology Today suggests that introverts give other people’s words so much thought that we get bogged down when they keep on talking and don’t give us time to think (hence our aversion to chatterboxes). So much the worse when they machine gun a continuous stream of one-liners as the Gilmores do. However it seems there is a bookish element to the show, which I wasn’t aware of. Perhaps the show deserves another look.

via Dewey’s Read-a-Thon