Special Feature: Happenings

Books
NPR's Interview with Paula Byrne discussing how small objects reveal 'The Real Jane Austen'.
Saving The Sounds Of America: the Library of Congress has released a plan for preserving the country's long but fragile archive of recorded audio
The Book of Kells has been digitized and is now free to view online in its entirety. Happy St. Patrick's day!

Opinions
Lara Santoro of Huffington Post asks Are Women In Fiction More Limited?
Patrick Wensink's take on why indie authors, no matter how near the top of the best-seller lists, don't talk about money.

News
The Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly The Orange Prize) longlist has been announced.
Barnes & Noble isn't doing so well with its Nook sales. According to NY Times they are looking at discontinuing the Nook line. Hope not.
Debut authors writing short stories, as well as novel-writers, rejoice! More literary fiction imprints coming for Amazon.

Fun
Write Place, Write Time: where authors create

Some of my favorite things about The New York Public Library Schwatzman Building

Happy New Year, everybody! Kicking off 2013 with a little post about one of my must-see destinations on the trip to New York City last November. I wouldn't have missed it for anything and hope you enjoy the highlights tour.

Often referred to as the "main branch," landmark building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street is a popular tourist destination and the lions flanking the entrance are arguably as well known as the Statue of Liberty itself. Its non-circulating graduate-level collections were initially formed from the consolidation of the Astor and Lenox Libraries, and have evolved into one of the world's preeminent public resources for the study of human thought, action, and experience - from anthropology and archaeology, to religion, sports, world history, and literature. Only children under 12 can check out books from this branch - they have their own Children's Wing.

I was extremely fortunate during my visit and had the opportunity to see the Charles Dickens: The Key to Character while I was waiting for the guided tour, and later caught a glimpse of Dickens' original writing desk and chair, complete with the lamp he used (you can see it in the very back of the research room in the picture on the left). The tour guide told us that during an official visit many years ago a prominent politician was invited to sit in the chair and true to his nature of never doing anything half-way the gentleman put so much force into the task that he broke the seat and had to be extricated. The chair was repaired and since then it and the desk are kept behind closed doors with strict orders that nobody should sit in it.
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building is renowned for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its historical collections. It houses some 15 million items, among them priceless medieval manuscripts, ancient Japanese scrolls, contemporary novels and poetry, as well as baseball cards, dime novels, and comic books. The collection is multi-lingual and the collections in the Dorot Jewish Division and the Slavic and East European Collections are particularly extensive. The guide was telling us that the first book to ever be checked out of the library when it was first opened to the public in 1911 was a volume in Russian called Ethical Ideas of Our Time, a study of Friedrich Nietzsche and Leo Tolstoi. The Slavic collection received an enormous influx of materials after the Russian revolution of 1917 when the newly-formed Soviet government was short on funds and decided to sell the Tsarist library. They extended the invitation to bid to the NYPL and the library sent their chief librarians to Russia to examine what was available. The librarians acquired a large number of books and manuscripts at very reasonable prices and now The New York Public Library’s holdings of Slavic and East European materials extend from early 14th century illuminated manuscripts to the latest imprints with hundreds of thousands of titles available to researchers.

My last stop was in the Children's Wing where the library was holding a showcase of the original toys that inspired A.A. Milne in his creation of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. He bought the bear for his son's first birthday and from there the collection grew. Now I want to read the Pooh stories again...

Favorite Sites: NPR Books

This year I've been paying more attention to what's going on in the book world and it's been really nice knowing what's going on, even a little bit. One of the websites I like to visit for some information and amusement is NPR Books. They have articles about and interviews with the latest movers and shakers, news, genres, curiosities, reviews and their own best-seller lists (don't know how they're generated but the fact remains).
NPR has a reputation for being pretty serious but I think that's because people don't give the NPRers a chance to show themselves from any other side. Take latest headlines, for instance: In 2012's Best Mysteries, Mean Girls Rule, or Romantic Reads From Shakespeare To Steampunk (Heavy On The Steam), or even 10 Books To Help You Recover From A Tense 2012. That's not exactly dry and humorless, wouldn't you agree? And it's NPR, so you know you'll learn something when you read one of their articles.
A commenter noted the other day that I should include things like pictures and videos to the blog to make it more lively and although I can't imagine changing it very much because "very much" makes me think of oversized sparkly rainbows dancing across the page and dizzying GIFs I have been thinking about adding a little bit more excitement. So here I was, trying to find the clip from Big Bang Theory where Bernadette talks about listening to NPR because that scene is hilarious and sadly couldn't. Plans foiled! Maybe next time.

Study Time in Westminster, Colorado

Hyland Hills Golf Course in Westminster is home to a little girl too busy reading to look around (I'm betting you know how that is). She is the work of Randolph Rose Collection Artists and is a gift of family and friends of Vickie Landgraf and Don Ciancio to the park.

Strand Bookstore

My vacation has been over for more than two weeks now but New York is still on my mind, I keep thinking about the things I've seen and the places I've visited. It also seems to follow me - a book came in the mail from a fellow PaperBack Swap member and it was wrapped in a bag from the Strand Bookstore. Of course I couldn't resist visiting their website.
Strand looks like a magical place and the store's site only makes me want to visit it more. This family-run business sells new and used books, has a magnificent rare and first editions room, as well as world's largest art department. Browsing the site I was amazed by the similarities in the titles on various authors' lists in their Author's Bookshelf section and that this is the store where characters of some movies I enjoyed immensely went to look for new reads(check out the pictures in their Photos section).
I know I've only just come back, but I'm already thinking about what I would do in New York on my next visit. The Strand is on the list for sure.

Portrait of Edmond Maitre (The Reader) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1871
Oil on canvas
22.23 cm x 28.89 cm (8.75 in. x 11.38 in.)
Currently in a private collection

Renoir is a master of impressionist style and his paintings are notable for their saturated color with people in intimate and candid compositions at the center of them. This painting is a fine example of that with Maitre portrayed casually reclining on the couch with a book in which he appears to be engrossed.

Time For More Readers

Thanks to rememberyourfirstlove, just-a-bum, and various people on Pinterest for the lovely photos

Fun, Peanuts-style

Back in 2003 artist Tivoli Too unveiled his tribute to the Peanuts creator Charles Schulz at Landmark Plaza in Schulz native Saint Paul. For five summers after Schulz's death in 2000 artists all over Saint Paul designed and displayed individual renditions of Peanuts characters and over two million people from all fifty states flocked to this tribute. The proceeds from the past Peanut statue promotions have funded the Charles M. Schulz fund, established to create and maintain the bronze sculptures. Furthermore, the proceeds will fund scholarships for artists and cartoonists at the College of Visual Arts, the college Schulz attended and later served as an instructor.

The New York Times Books Section

The reading list I'm planning for next year will mostly consist of books that are on the NYT Best Seller list this year and so I've been visiting the site quite a bit. Yes, I even have a spreadsheet where I track titles, but I digress. As I've been perusing the list I've also read some articles, become familiar with what's getting released, was thrilled to read a name or a title that I recognized (constantly playing catch-up can be a losing game), learned more about an author or a book I was vaguely interested in from a previous mention and added it to the list. It's a solid resource, as I'm sure many of you know, and there's always something of interest for a bookishly-oriented mind. It's not just reviews, interviews and lists though, there are interesting articles and opinion pieces that rotate so you always have a chance of reading them, such as the Reading and Guilty Pleasure, for example. I myself am constantly making an effort to add more challenging reads to my enormous reading list, and actually read them, and at the same time repeatedly succumb to various temptations (Jeannette Frost's Kat and Bones, anyone?), so this one was definitely something I could relate to. I have even been reading some book reviews in the hopes to absorb some wisdom, don't know if that's working though.
So yes, if you want some quality book-themed reading check out the NYT Books page, it's got excellent potential to occupy you for hours.

Anna Reading by Aaron Coberly

I found a picture of this painting on Pinterest and it intrigued me with its air of quiet, and not just because reading is usually a quiet activity. The muted colors and the relaxed posture of the model helped create the peaceful atmosphere and made me want to find out more about the author.
Aaron Coberly is an artist in Seattle, Washington, who specializes in figurative oil painting and most of his portraits are done in one or two sessions. I have looked through the paintings Coberly presents on his website and most of them have that subdued feel to them that appealed to me in Anna Reading, and yes, quite a few are nudes. Mr. Coberly is undoubtedly a talented artist and I'm glad to have stumbled onto his work. Internet is a great thing!

Clandestine Book Store: Brazenhead Books

Today I was looking for a book store to tell you about and when I saw an article about Michael Seidenberg's secret Brazenhead Books I couldn't imagine talking about anything else. Judge for yourself: a used book shop in a secret location in New York City that's just begging for you to find it. Do I wish I lived in New York! Here is a short video to prompt googling in the white pages (without any results worth mentioning, I must say):

Literary Arts and Philately

A while back I posted about the British Royal Mail releasing a set of stamps depicting some of the most famous literary characters and today I'm back with a little more of, if not the same, then similar. You see, since last Wednesday I felt an urge to rekindle my fondness for collecting things, and there are few things as small and usually inexpensive to collect as stamps. I have also discovered that currently our US Postal Service offers two stamps from their Literary Arts series, the ones honoring Mark Twain and O.Henry (I am currently a proud owner of the latter), as well as a commemorative stamp issued to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the publication of Edgar Rice Burroughs' first story, "Under the Moons of Mars," and his first Tarzan story, "Tarzan of the Apes," in 1912.

Turns out, the Literary Arts series was first introduced in 1979 with a stamp honoring John Steinbeck and since then featured 28 prominent authors in a variety of genres, including Edith Wharton (1980), Tennessee Williams (1995), Ayn Rand (1999) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2007). I wonder who will be commemorated next year.

The Paris Review

"The Paris Review is a literary magazine featuring original writing, art, and in-depth interviews with famous writers."

If you enjoy reading literary journals The Paris Review is the place for you. There are dozens of back issues to peruse in the Archive, very interesting interviews with authors you most likely already love, and a blog to keep things fresh and constantly evolving. The first time I stopped by 2 hours were gone in the blink of an eye and I knew that many more would be spent reading all the fascinating materials. Check it out for yourself!

Mark Twain in Trinity Park

If you're ever in Ft. Worth, TX visit the Trinity Park and watch the river for a bit with Mark Twain.
The life-size bronze statue of the great writer was "Given to the families of Fort Worth for the pleasure of reading together" by Red Oaks Books (Red Oak Foundation) and was placed on a bench overlooking the river in 2007. It was dedicated on June 28th of that year and remains a popular spot for children and adults alike to sit a while and read a page from Huckleberry Finn with Mr. Twain.

* Photo by Barbara Schmidt © 2010

Book Benches

I've been seeing pictures of book benches all over the web and the idea intrigued me. What's more perfect than a book bench for a quiet couple of hours of reading in the park, right? That's what I thought too. Here are some fun examples I particularly enjoyed. Do you know of any others?

This one's very popular in Paris, France

"Book Bench" by Geri Connelly at the Phalen Poetry Park in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"Non-Fiction Book Bench" at the Cerritos Civic Center in Cerritos, California

The city of Istanbul is promoting reading with book benches. Benches that look like an open book have been placed around the city and on each bench which carry poems from 18 famous Turkish poets.

People Read, And Here's Proof

One of the sites I really enjoy visiting is Women Reading, a tumblr that showcases pictures of, well, women reading, and has a varied selection of classical and modern art, painting and photography. It gets updated at least once a day and the subjects are often intriguing in the very least, so it's perfect for adding to your Reader feed.

Another good one is men reading, although it doesn't get updated as regularly as it used to. It is much more casual, with mainly photos and art prints but the archives are just as fun nonetheless.
I highly recommend both of these for an hour of reader-tainment (you were forewarned about the making up of words) and am heading over to Women Reading myself. See you Sunday!

Special Feature - Blog: Underground NY Public Library

Since 2008 Ourit at Underground NY Public Library have been sharing pictures of readers on the trains and platforms of the New York City subway. Every day, except for Saturday, she gives us photographic evidence that people do still read, and read widely, and this makes for an uplifting message for a hopeless bibliophile such as myself.
From the library's Facebook page: "The Underground New York Public Library is a visual library featuring the Reading-Riders of the NYC subways. This library freely lends out a reminder that we’re capable of traveling to great depths within ourselves and as a whole."
Well said.

Adventures In Digital Realms

Recently I decided to go ahead and set up a Facebook page for Bibliophile's Corner and while I was at it liked a bunch of pages thinking they'd have interesting content for me to enjoy and share. I really had no idea what I was getting into.
It all started with the Underground NY Public Library page. The "curator" posts daily photos of readers in the NYC subway and the variety of people and books is really heartening. You know how you hear that people don't read any more? Those who say that are not looking in the right places. Then I added BBC World Book Club (I look forward to their monthly interviews with authors about their most popular books and had the best time catching up on the archived sessions), NPR Books, Goodreads, a couple authors, a blogger and Reading as a general interest (seemed kind of odd not to). It took a while for everything to update and then posts and links started trickling in. Articles, news, updates. Clickedy here, clickedy there and soon I was also following Improbables Librairies, Improbables Bibliothèques (you must check these guys out, they're great), Huffington Post Books, Guardian Books and The New Yorker. The flood gates opened. An incredible in its variety and scope wealth of information showed up on the page and soon I'd forgotten about everything and was reading the very interesting articles that I wouldn't have found otherwise. Why, oh why have I not done this sooner?! Hindsight 20/20, for sure. And then someone mentioned The Paris Review, briefly, in passing, not even talking about them. One more Like later and I was hooked. Interviews with authors, art, fiction, letters and essays, my already declining eyesight may get worse even quicker but this will be so completely worth it. I started reading an old interview with Nabokov and had to stop to tell you about all these finds because the awesomeness of it all was making it hard to concentrate.
Here's a handful of the articles I bookmarked because a girl's got to eat, sleep, and work, and you know, read:
88 books that shaped America, at the Library of Congress
Santiago Codex Calixtinus, Priceless Stolen Book, Found In Handyman's Garage (the nerve of some people)
Myers Briggs in fiction
17 Famous Literary Characters Almost Named Something Else
What's The Big Idea? 5 Books To Inspire Innovation
And of course the whole section of interviews on The Paris Review website. I may never come up for air.
I've already been sharing some of the finds on the FB page and Twitter and the fun will continue, so stop by, explore, Like or Follow or just bookmark if that's your thing. Everybody's welcome!

Special Feature: The Vatican Library

The other day my husband and I were watching a History Channel program about aliens where they mentioned documents kept in the archives of the Vatican Library that allegedly talk about ancient people reporting UFO sightings. We casually joked about people trying to get their hands on these documents after watching this program, and I remembered Dan Brown's Robert Langdon almost suffocating to death in the depths of the library's Secret Archives. I haven't thought of the book in a long while, and much less about the library itself, but now I wondered about what's all stored there. In my wanderings around on the internet I found a CBS 60 Minutes segment about it from April of last year that made me wonder even more.
Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, the library contains approximately 2 million printed books and 80 thousand handwritten manuscripts in virtually every language known to man, a collection of ancient coins and so many other treasures that apparently nobody knows what exactly is there (sounds like they need a digital catalog). The contents of the library are the Pope's personal property and while scholars use the documents for their research only the Pope is allowed to borrow anything.
The Vatican Secret Archives is the central repository for all of the Holy See documents. In the 17th century, under the orders of Pope Paul V, the Secret Archives were separated from the Vatican Library, where scholars had some very limited access to them, and remained absolutely closed to outsiders until 1881, when Pope Leo XIII opened them to researchers, of whom now more than a thousand examine its documents each year. You might wonder why they're called "Secret" if everyone knows about them, and that would be because originally "secret" meant more "private" or "special" than "clandestine". Does have a nice ring to it though, doesn't it? I imagine if there are any UFO-related documents stored in Vatican they'd be hidden in the Secret Archives.
Last but not least, the Vatican Library is where any visitor can enjoy the beauty if the Sistine Chapel. The picture above shows only a part of it, can you imagine being able to see the whole every day? I wonder whether the scholars and archivists who work there every day are still amazed by the exquisite frescoes or if the novelty wears off eventually.
And now, if you have 12 minutes or so, here is the video I talked about in the beginning of this post. Enjoy!

Special Feature: Bookends

I have been pretty much obsessed with bookends for the last several days so it's not at all surprising that when the time to write about bookish things came I immediately wanted to share my recent finds with you. Here are a few classic, word-related, whimsical and character-inspired bookends. Best part - pictures are clickable and will take you to where I found them! And for more fun bookends stop by my page on Pinterest.