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A Heavyweight For Illiteracy

Wladimir Klitschko is the World Heavyweight Champion. He currently holds 4 different championship belts and is pretty much considered the undisputed king of the ring. His latest fight might be his toughest yet - illiteracy;  the global scourge that effects over 250 million children who do not have access to education. The project is called Klitschko vs. Illiteracy and it is the brainchild of the Klitschko Brothers Foundation in cooperation with the German charity organization BILD hilft e.V. Ein Herz für Kinder. For the project Klitschko dipped his gloved hands in blue paint and punched the 26 letters of the alphabet individually on canvas. Why blue? Because "blue is the ink of writing"...

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Books on Wheels: A Global Jaunt

Antonio La Cava's Ilbibliomotorcarro - Italy  Recently we posted a photo on Tumblr of Antonio LaCava roaming around Italy in his three-wheel creation. It has turned out to be a very popular post so we thought we would expand it a bit to feature some wheeled libraries from around the world. From India's first bookmobile to Raul-Lemesoff's book tank the power of the written word remains strong and our hats are off to these dedicated people of the book. Raul-Lemesoff's Weapon of Mass Instruction, Argentina Image (cc) by Carlos Adampol on Flickr  Mr Doi. And his bike, Japan Eastern Europe? Bicicloteca, Brazil Kordestan, Iran,...

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The Book Emperor of Johannesberg

"This is my empire, my kingdom...Books are my wealth, my gift" says Philane Dladla His kingdom is "at a U-turn sign at an intersection in Empire Road opposite Wits University, in Johannesburg."and his mission in life is the "reading and dispensing knowledge by selling books." image by Daniel Born When a person his mom looked after died Philane inherited 500 books. He read and reviewed them all. Now he makes his way by reading what he gets and then selling what he read by providing reviews to passing motorists. Take that Mr. Algorithm. Story at Times Live, 'An emperor of books'

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In the Stacks: Leslie Jones at the Boston Public Library

Gertrude Fisher takes unusual position to read the latest novel of her husband M.S. Merritt. November 26, 1932 Though he worked as staff photographer of  Boston Herald-Traveler from 1917 to 1956 Leslie Jones considered himself more of a camera-man then a photo-journalist. And when all was said and done he had amassed  "a stunning pictorial document of the history of Boston in the 20th century." The Old Bookstore, Cornhill March 1930 His collection of almost 40,000 negatives was donated to the Boston Public Library by his family in the early 1970's and now thanks to the work of the Digital Commonwealth and...

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