Miriam Tuliao at the York Public Library gives us a list of 25 books that have “offered unique insights about the world around us and changed the course of human history.”
The choices range from The Feminine Mystique to the Torah.
Some people took issue with the list. What do you think?
Books that changed history
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12 Amazing Author Selfies
“As everyone knows,” Emily Temple says at Flavorwire, “2013 was the year of the selfie, something we’ve all groaned over, bemoaning the state of kids today.”
But selfies aren’t just for moody teenagers, she says: they’re also employed by moody writers.
Adorable Emma Straub [via]
An elegant shot of Neil Gaiman, by Neil Gaiman [via]
What’s your favorite selfie?
Author Selfies
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The 10 worst couples in literature
JK Rowling has said she regrets her decision to matchmake Ron and Hermione (my take on THAT is linked below), The Guardian takes a look at other fictional couples better off apart.
Claire Danes and Leonardo Dicaprio kiss in the film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Photograph: Alamy
Romeo and Juliet may well be one of the most irritating, self-absorbed couples to have ever graced the stage. If they were around today, they would be lovesick sixth formers writing each other bad haikus and snogging on sticky nightclub floors, while bullying their mates into covering for them. On the one hand, the whole love-at-first-sight thing is kind of cute, but on the other, you can imagine them sending naked Snapchats to each other when Romeo was banished from Verona.
And then there’s Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights). They are one of the best-loved literary couples, and one of the worst. Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship can only be described as mutually destructive and abusive – and deserving of a session or two on a Relate sofa. You know a pairing is on the rocks when they spend most of their time trying to hurt the other in the most malevolent means possible. It’s the kind of obsessive love that prioritizes control over a person and loses sight of the individual’s happiness.
Worst couples
What Alma thinks about Hermione …
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Americans Prefer Mobile Phones, Internet Over Sex
Thought that would get your attention.
Tech over sex
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The most spectacular libraries of the world
The Tripitaka Koreana at the Haeinsa Temple in South Korea
The Janggyeong Panjeon in the Temple of Haeinsa is home to the Tripitaka Koreana, the most complete collection of Buddhist texts, laws and treaties extant, engraved on approximately 80,000 woodblocks between 1237 and 1248. The Haeinsa Tripitaka woodblocks were carved in an appeal to the authority of the Buddha in the defense of Korea against the Mongol invasions.
Admont Abbey in Austria
Admont Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located on the Enns River in the town of Admont, Austria. Adorning the ceilings are seven frescoes by Bartolomeo Altomonte who was 80-years-old at the time and completed the frescoes over the summer months of 1775 and 1776. The frescoes depict the steps in ‘man’s exploration of thinking and speaking from the sciences to Divine Revelation in the central cupola’.
A few spectacular libraries
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Village Books: Whatcom County’s Book-Buying Destination
A story about my hometown bookstore.
“The mission of the business is to build community,” says Chuck Robinson of Village Books, the popular Bellingham WA bookstore he and wife Dee Robinson opened in 1980.
“Obviously, we have to make a living for the people who work here and business has to be profitable to be able to stay around,” Stacee Sledge quotes Chuck as saying in Whatcom Talk, “but we’ve tried to build something that’s as much a community center as a place that sells stuff.”
Chuck and Dee Robinson
“People talk about separating their work life from their home life, but we’ve never tried to do that,” Chuck observed. “I kind of think, well, you live one life and Village Books is just a part of ours.”
Village Books
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12-year-old boy writes a book about how to understand women, nails it
Self-proclaimed “best-selling author” Cem is almost a teenager. So obviously he knows about women. Fortunately, he has written a book to give the only answer there is to all your questions…
Understanding women
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Quote of the Day
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Alma Alexander
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