It is called the Hawking Index (HI) and it uses data from Amazon to determine which e-books are the most unfinished. The lighthearted study devised by Jordan Ellenberg, a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, works like this: Take the page numbers of a book's five top highlights, average them, and divide by the number of pages in the whole book. The higher the number, the more of the book we're guessing most people are likely to have read. The classic of this genre and the namesake of the index is Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time,...
Holy Bookworm, Batman !*!*!
They call him The Bookworm. His crimes are derived from his reading list and his preferred mode of transportation is, of course, a book mobile. He is one of the smartest villains in the Batman lexicon. The 1966 episode was called 'The Bookworm Turns' and starred Roddy MacDowell. Originally slated for 3 three episodes only this one saw the light of day. Here in its entirety Batman - The Bookworm Turns: Anyone want to write the next two episodes?
Books in art help tell the story
‘Madame de Pompadour’ by Francois Boucher, 1756, As many of you who regularly check in with Book Patrol know, the representation of the book in art is one of the cornerstones of our foundation. Over at the British Library's Collection Care blog Christina Duffy looks at the value of books depicted in art as it relates to the history of bookbinding. Fueled by her week of studying European Bookbinding (1450-1820) at the London Rare Books School Duffy shows us how the "keen eye of the artist has captured precise details when depicting books throughout history, showing sewing structures, stitch types, supports, covers and even how...
Bookstore Wedding Photos
Where else would Jonathan Smalter of Yesterday's Muse Books Shop in Webster, NY choose to get married then in his bookshop? For many of us it is as church as it gets. Jonathan and Kristen tied the knot earlier this month and have shared these wonderful photos. Congratulations! More Bookstore Wedding Photos.
Amazon Rising: CNBC to profile the godzilla of e-commerce
This Sunday night CNBC shines the light on Amazon with the premiere of Amazon Rising. From the press release: CNBC tells the story of a shrewd visionary named Jeff Bezos who bet his fortunes on the exploding internet and created one of the most admired and feared companies in the world. Today, Amazon sells everything from accordions to zippers – nearly $80 billion worth a year – and has changed the way we shop, bringing goods to our doorstep faster than we ever imagined. Correspondent David Faber reports on a powerhouse that has upended the publishing and retail industries, and...