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Critic Is Off Base: Bookshops Are Vital to Cities

Salon writer rebuts critique of local stores

(Newser) - Slate's Farhad Manjoo has written a withering critique of local bookshops, arguing that everybody would be better off just buying from Amazon. At Salon , Will Doig begs to differ. Bookstores are about way more than just hawking books, he writes. They "function as communal spaces, which makes them...

Independent Bookstores Should Go Away
Independent Bookstores Should Go Away
farhad manjoo
Dec 14, 2011 1:46 PM CST

Independent Bookstores Should Go Away

They're inefficient and charge too much: Farhad Manjoo

(Newser) - Independent bookstores win a lot of sympathy in their David-and-Goliath fight against big bad Amazon, but Farhad Manjoo of Slate is siding with Goliath in this one. He lights into those quaint corner bookshops as "some of the least efficient, least user-friendly, and most mistakenly mythologized local establishments you...

SAT Reading Scores Hit Lowest Ever

One reason: more students taking the test

(Newser) - One of the three Rs just found a new basement: SAT reading scores fell three points to reach their lowest level on record, the AP reports. The decline took the scores to 497 out of 800, and it was just the second time in the past 20 years that reading...

Kindle to Add Library Lending Feature

More than 11,000 libraries have signed up

(Newser) - Kindle users will be able to go to the virtual library soon. A new feature scheduled to launch later this year will allow anyone with a Kindle (or a phone with the Kindle app) to download e-books from their local libraries for free for a limited span of time, USA ...

California Library May Ditch Its Books

People could still order them, in a system similar to Netflix

(Newser) - New phrase for the digital age: "Bookless library." The California city of Newport Beach is considering just such a beast, reports the Los Angeles Times . Under the plan, the city would remove the physical books from one of its four branches but still keep it open as a...

In Laos, Bringing Books to Children—Via Elephant

The story of one American expatriate's local publishing company

(Newser) - In Laos, many children had never seen a book until “Uncle Sasha” came to town. American Sasha Alyson first visited the impoverished country in 2003, and was struck by the lack of books for children. “Many [kids] don't even know what a book is. Sometimes you have to...

Why Our Kids Need Jules Verne
 Why Our 
 Kids Need 
 Jules Verne 
OPINION
Feb 9, 2011 1:35 PM CST

Why Our Kids Need Jules Verne

Blogger: His fiction is especially relevant for today's students

(Newser) - Today's students need a little more Jules Verne in their curriculum, writes Good education editor Liz Dwyer. He was born 183 years ago this week, but his fiction "seems more applicable than ever to the 21st-century lives of students," she argues. He's probably an after-thought in the age...

Does Twilight Hurt Teen Brains?
 Does Twilight Hurt 
 Teen Brains? 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 18, 2010 1:10 PM CDT

Does Twilight Hurt Teen Brains?

Conference exploring vampire novels' pull on young minds

(Newser) - A bunch of Twilight aficionados got together last week, but there were no squeals or Edward-induced fainting spells. Rather, a group of scientists, educators and authors met at Cambridge to explore how the vampire craze exemplified by the Twilight series may be shaping young minds, notes MSNBC . Sample session: "...

Why I Won't Buy a Kindle
 Why I Won't Buy a Kindle 
OPINION
Sep 4, 2010 2:50 PM CDT

Why I Won't Buy a Kindle

A twentysomething explains why she hates e-readers

(Newser) - Unless all the hype is wrong, e-readers like the Kindle are the future—and precisely the sort of thing a twentysomething technophile who loves to read must adore, right? Meet 26-year-old Emma Silvers, who explains in Salon why she's actually a little repulsed by the idea and won't give up...

Google Counts the World's Books: 129,864,880

Of course, it all depends on what a 'book' is

(Newser) - After a lengthy and surprisingly complicated discourse on what constitutes a "book," a Google software engineer offers up the day's most bandied-about number: 129,864,880. As in, that's how many books exist in the world. After all, a company in the business of digitizing all of them...

10 Smart, Entertaining Beach Reads

They're not trashy, but they're still page-turners

(Newser) - Looking for a page-turner to read on the beach, but just can’t bring yourself to buy a trashy supermarket romance novel? Allow Sadie Stein to introduce you to 10 respectable summer reads “that you can show with pride—but will devour like a tween guilty pleasure,” on...

Real Books Faster Than Kindles or iPads

Satisfaction is about the same for all three

(Newser) - People read faster with old-fashioned books than they do with Kindles or iPads, a new study says. Compared to print readers, iPad users finished 6.2% slower and Kindle readers 10.7% slower, reports Mashable . (They read Hemingway short stories.) Reader satisfaction was about the same, however, and the...

JPMorgan Chief's Summer Reading for Interns

Notably absent: the classics and anything on derivatives

(Newser) - Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, has sent around a recommended reading list for the bank's summer interns. It includes many standard recent business books such as Built to Last and The World is Flat along with such spellbinders as Double Your Profits in 6 Months and Only the Paranoid ...

10 Toughest Reads in Literature
 10 Toughest Reads in Literature 
Jun 13, 2010 4:20 PM CDT

10 Toughest Reads in Literature

This list might be enough to make your head hurt

(Newser) - Great books can bring great joy—and, in a few cases, great big headaches. Listverse compiles the 10 toughest reads in literature:
  • Finnegans Wake, James Joyce: If you thought Joyce would ride his way onto this list compliments of Ulysses, think again. Written partially in a made-up language of mindbendingly
...

Judge People By Fave Author
 Judge People By Fave Author 
STEREOTYPES HOW-TO
Dec 27, 2009 11:14 AM CST

Judge People By Fave Author

Misfits like JD Salinger, smart geeks like JK Rowling ...

(Newser) - If you don’t want to waste the time really getting to know someone, just ask about his or her favorite author. That tells you all you need to know, Lauren Leto suggests, before running down the stereotypes:
  • JD Salinger: Kids who don’t fit in (duh).
  • Stephenie Meyer: People
...

Reading Beefs Up Kids' Brains
 Reading Beefs Up Kids' Brains 
Dec 11, 2009 10:58 AM CST

Reading Beefs Up Kids' Brains

Builds info-carrying networks in white matter

(Newser) - Time children spend reading doesn't just improve their reading skills, it changes the structure of their brains. A new study found that poor readers have weak information-carrying highways in their brains' "white matter," and that through intensive reading practice, kids with previously "low quality" white matter can...

5 Best Books to Share With Friends
5 Best Books to Share
With Friends
year in review
Dec 5, 2009 11:03 AM CST

5 Best Books to Share With Friends

Here are the year's best picks for those who love to lend

(Newser) - Some books just beg to be shared with friends. Glen Weldon, writing for NPR , offers his favorites in that category from 2009:
  • Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo: Director Werner Herzog writes movingly about his motives for making the famously grueling 1982 movie, in which the
...

Kids Pick Their Own Books in Classroom Revolution
Kids Pick Their Own Books in Classroom Revolution
ANALYSIS
Aug 29, 2009 4:11 PM CDT

Kids Pick Their Own Books in Classroom Revolution

But will Harry Potter beat out the Bard?

(Newser) - To Kill a Mockingbird or Captain Underpants? The choice, for most middle school students, is a no-brainer—and an increasingly prevalent one now that schools from New York to Seattle hope to revolutionize English classes by letting students choose their own books, the New York Times reports. The approach, known...

Americans Read Over President's Shoulder

Obama's vacation book list drives leaps in Amazon sales rankings

(Newser) - President Obama’s poll numbers are faltering, but his summer reading choices are getting rave reviews, Politico reports. A survey of the Amazon.com standings of the five books the White House announced he would take with him on his Martha’s Vineyard vacation show a drastic improvement in sales....

A Supermodel's Summer Reads
 A Supermodel's 
 Summer Reads 
Aug 27, 2009 1:10 PM CDT

A Supermodel's Summer Reads

You can look smart, but still get your fill of juicy sex

(Newser) - Paulina Porizkova “quit school at 15 to live off of my looks,” but she’s also a lifelong bookworm, she writes for Modelinia. Because she feels “the need to constantly prove I’m not some dumb model,” she offers up her “summer reading for folks...

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