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Book Review: The Mental Floss History of the World

Gaining and keeping the average reader’s interest in history is a problem authors have faced for, well, probably most of history. One method is to try to liven things up with different takes or an unusual focus. That’s the promise of The Mental Floss History of the World: An Irreverent Romp through Civilization’s Best Bits. […]

Al Swearengen ain’t gonna like this

Although taking the name of a real person, Al Swearengen was the aptly named owner of The Gem Saloon on the HBO series Deadwood. Not only was Al never at a loss for obscenities, he had no problem feeding his deceased opponents to Mr. Wu’s pigs. I’d love to hear his response to an article […]

A longlasting love affair

A couple of my recent posts reminded me of another relationship deeply associated with my love of books — one with public libraries.

I was lucky in that I grew up with plenty of books around. Yet even though there were books at home, my parents always enrolled me in the local library’s summer reading […]

First love

We’re not talking about puppy love, crushes or the like. This is important stuff as Book Club Classics asks, “What is the first book you simply remember loving?”

You never forget your first love. It undoubtedly was How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. My first memories of books involves a favorite aunt who lived in Minneapolis […]

Paper takes a couple hits from digital

First, Oprah raves about the Kindle, which will undoubtedly send sales through the roof. (Never mind the fact a new version is supposed to come out in the first quarter of 2009.)

Now, the Christian Science Monitor announces that by April 2009 it will replace its daily print edition with “an online publication that is […]