Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!
A bit late: 6 TED talks to watch for Book Lovers’ Day
An awesome sci-fi/fantasy book flowchart (via Reddit)
Latin roots of Harry Potter spells!
From The New Yorker: Why Teach and Study English?
From NPR: 5 Forgotten Classics Worth Revisiting
I’ve kind of hesitated to post about this because I’ve been hrumph-ing about it, a) because this is a fifteen-year anniversary thing and I am Feeling Old, and b) I love love love the original covers and why did we have to do this and whyiseverythingaboutmoneythesedays.
But, well…they’re really pretty awesome, and if this truly does introduce a new generation of readers to the books…
USA Today’s slideshow of the new covers compares the old & new.
The Scholastic blog just sat down with Kazu Kibuishi about the design process.
On a kind-of-related note, a Maine public library was one of the 15 winners in Scholastic’s 15-year-anniversary Potter Party contest! They get all kinds of cool stuff, including a set with the new covers signed by the artist. Libraries had to submit applications for the contest:
Taking inspiration from the series, hundreds of librarians submitted their ideas for Harry Potter celebrations designed to introduce a new generation of readers to the wizarding world. Librarians’ ideas include serving Harry Potter-themed food, hosting trivia contests, dressing up as favorite Potter characters, having live owls, house-sorting parties, scavenger hunts, Quidditch matches, wand-making, and classes from Hogwarts such as Potions, Divination, and Herbology.
Way to go, Fairfield!
At The New York Times: A looong but fascinating glimpse into Stephen King’s family (which includes a lot more writers than I knew about!)
At Cracked: 5 Movies That Improved the Book (According to the Author) *language alert
At mental_floss: 62 of the World’s Most Beautiful Libraries
At Lit Reactor: 7 Horrifying Ailments Named After Literary Characters
At Buzzfeed: 28 Things That Happened After the Harry Potter Books Ended
"Is this book even good?" 