"The Book in Time & Place" is the title of the artist book exhibition currently on view at the Anderson Gallery at Drake University and features work from the The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections and Drake Universities Cowles Library."The goal of the exhibition is to enhance understanding of 20th century artistic and literary developments within the world of books," said Sarah McCoy, Drake assistant professor of graphic design and art and design.It is a fitting title given the massive upheaval the book world is currently experiencing. As the 21st century moves along the pressure on the traditional book...
New Book On Weird Words Is An Enchiridion
Those with an attraction to the ostrobogulous, who are sometimes plagued by onomatomania, offended by blatteroons, and aim to be a deipnosophist, will be pleased to learn that a new book is an exennium that won’t have to wait for the New Year.To those who suspect me a jobbernowl with a kangaroo loose in the top paddock, I can only aver in my defense, “dymsassenach!"Or, that I’ve been pouring through The Wonder of Whiffling And Other Extraordinary Words in the English Language, a new addition to the canon of books on wild, weird and wow-inspiring words, presented as a gift...
Solzhenitsyn Now Required Reading In Russian Schools
Excerpts from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1973 epic The Gulag Archipelago, once banned by Soviet censors, have now been added to the curriculum for high-school students in Russia.The decision by he Education Ministry, announced today, was taken due to "the vital historical and cultural heritage on the course of 20th-century domestic history" contained in Mr. Solzhenitsyn's work, the ministry said.It is believed that over a million Russians perished in the Gulag, created by Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin and expanded by Josef Stalin as a clandestine network of prison and labor camps.The Gulag Archipelago, published in the West in 1973, has secretly circulated...
Hot Off The Press Delivery, Version 2.0
This morning when I checked my email, I had a message from Dustin, the CEO of a company called Paperspine. He was kind enough to take the time to write and inform me that I was remiss in not including his company amongst the online book delivery services I mentioned in yesterday's post.Well, Dustin, consider this a valentine to Paperspine. A verbal bouquet to thank you for giving me another piece of information to share here. Dustin informs me that Paperspine offers the largest number of titles (200,000) available from any book rental service, and also offers 500,000 titles for...
New Online Dictionary For Word Mavens
In the beginning there was the Word.But without a dictionary no one knew how to spell it, pronounce it, how to use it in a sentence, if there was another word that was its opposite or meant the same thing, or where the word came from. In short, the whole story of the word was unavailable to the speaker. For the writer, fugetaboutit; tough enough to carve out those cuneiforms, you had to wing it on spelling and all the rest.Thence wrote Samuel Johnson his dictionary. Then Noah Webster. The Oxford English Dictionary followed. (Yes, I know I’m leaving out...