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A high school English department goes big to encourage reading

When the students of Mundelein High School in Mundelein, Illinois returned to school from winter break there was something different about the hallways of the English department. Six floor-to-ceiling vinyl prints of book covers had been installed while they were away in the hopes that it would encourage students to talk more about their reading life. School spokesman Ron Girard says that the project was intended to "get students talking about the reading that they do" and has succeeded in that in addition to talking books in class "now the chatter among students even takes place in the hallways when...

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In the Stacks: Medicine and Madison Avenue

The Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History  at Duke University  holds an extensive collection of more than 3 million items that document the history of sales, advertising and marketing throughout the past two centuries. From that massive archive comes the digital collection Medicine and Madison Avenue. A gathering of close to 600 advertising items and publications illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States. Enjoy this sampling of familiar products, and who knew one could "Minimize the After-Effects of Tobacco" with Phillips Milk of Magnesia.        ...

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Bookseller Revolt: Independents Vacate Abebooks in Solidarity

Banned Booksellers Week has begun with a bang. David Streitfeld's piece in the New York Times has kicked off what some hope will be a defining moment in the history of online bookselling.  For the week of November 5 to 11, 2018, booksellers around the world will remove their inventory from Abebooks, an Amazon company, in a show of support for their brethren in South Korea, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia who were told they can no longer sell on their platform.  Many were angered at the flippant response provided by Abebooks as to why the booksellers were removed claiming...

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Time to Pick the Oddest Book Title of the Year

  It's time for the annual Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year.  First conceived at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1978 in order to "stave off boredom". The inaugural prize was awarded to Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice (University of Tokyo Press). Other notable winners include: How to Avoid Huge Ships (1992), Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers (1996), Managing a Dental Practice: The Genghis Khan Way (2010) and Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop (2012). Last year’s winner was The Commuter Pig Keeper.   Here are your 2018 finalists:  Joy of Water Boiling, by Christina Scheffenacker   Jesus on Gardening, by David Muskett   Are Gay Men More...

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