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Bookshop Theater: A little “Misery” at Barnes and Noble

In 2011 Norfolk, Virginia's The Generic Theater presented "a thrilling stage adaptation" of the Stephen King novel Misery. As part of the promotional festivities one of their actresses went to the local Barnes and Noble for a little publicity stunt. 'Crazy Chick Flips Out in Barnes & Noble' is how they titled it and what we get is a "Misery" infused encounter with an unsuspecting (?) employee. The actress is channeling the character Annie Wilkes (think Kathy Bates in the film version) from the novel and is asking after a novel by Paul Sheldon, who is the protagonist in Misery.  Warning to booksellers:...

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What Darwin Saw: Sketchbooks from the voyage of the HMS Beagle added to Cambridge Digital Library

Charles Darwin considered it to be one of the most formative journeys of his life. His diary and scientific journal of his time aboard the HMS Beagle, now best known as The Voyage of the Beagle, was a bestseller. It was also on this voyage that the first seeds of his masterwork, Origin of Species, were planted. Now thanks to Cambridge University the entire sketchbooks of Conrad Martens, a shipmate of Darwin's on the HMS Beagle, are available online. Martens made the drawings between the summer of 1833 and the early months of 1835. They "vividly bring to life one of the most famous...

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James Patterson is pissed: Calls out Obama for book support

[youtube]http://youtu.be/JkkVPJBkvqA[/youtube] “There’s a book burning going on in America, You’re invited. Especially the kids. You see they’re shutting down your local bookstores. Shutting down libraries. Publishers are dying. American literature will be next on the flames.” James Patterson is on the loose. After throwing money at it (pledging over $1.5 million to bookshops in America and the UK) Patterson is now throwing books on the fire to wake up the the government and promote his #SaveOurBooks campaign. Patterson has started a White House petition where he is asking the president to pledge that once a month, he will go into a library, bookstore, or appear...

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A Little Free Library loving third-grader on the power of books

"They fuel our minds like cars and gas" - Madison I think we might have met the poster child for the Little Free Library phenomenon. Her name is Madison and she is a third grader at Wade Park, a Cleveland public school. She was interviewed as part of a feature on the "huge impact" of Little Free Libraries for  WKYC. Needless to say she stole the show. [youtube]http://youtu.be/GGHeh6OPhg4[/youtube] Full story at WKYC h/t The Root

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