Now here's an idea worth spreading.Caroline Kennedy and Sarah Jessica Parker helped kick off the annual Shop for Public Schools week in New York City. Over 200 retail locations across the city will donate part of their proceeds this week to public school libraries."Think of it like a rebate made payable in library books" is one way they frame it.The event is put on by The Fund for Public Schools, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving New York City’s public schools; Caroline Kennedy is the Vice-Chair.Below is the perfect, pure New York, tote bag designed by Cynthia Rowley for the...
Poor Richard’s Biblomac
Though it sounds like a cross between Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack and an e-reader by Apple, the Biblomac was a short lived newspaper for the book world. It debuted in New York in August of 1940 and lasted all of 3 issues.Stephen Ferguson at Princeton University's Rare Book and Special Collection blog unearthed a copy of the premier issue and shares an excerpt of the lead editorial written by one of the publishers, Herbert Burstein. For the most part, Poor Richard’s Biblomac reflects an idea we have - an idea that anyone whose stock-in-trade is books - the librarian,...
A Modern Marvel : The Library of Jay Walker
Inspiration Point"Nothing quite prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker's library" is how Steven Levy begins his piece for Wired on this amazing library. Though Walker has opened his library in the past to select schools, executives, politicians, and scholars this is the first time he has invited a member of the press to have a look.Walker, the founder of Priceline.com and Walker Digital, is an inventor and entrepreneur who has been twice been named by the editors of TIME magazine as one of the 50 most influential business leaders in the digital age. Business Week selected him...
The Evil 50 : The Greatest Villains in Literature
The Telegraph UK asked a panel of lit-minded folks to come up with their list of the top 50 villains in the history of literature. It's quite a dastardly listAnd the losers include the likes of Iago, Ku10 Vindice from The Revenger's Tragedy, by Thomas Middleton Filled with bile from his persistent melancholy - his beloved was killed by the duke - Vindice decides the best way to avenge her is to make the duke lock lips with her poisoned corpse. Fair enough: the duke got what was coming to him, as do the many others who fall under Vindice's...
wordia : Dictionary 3.0
Invite to the launch partyThere's a new dictionary in town. It's called wordia and they've set out to "create a new kind of dictionary - a democratic ‘visual dictionary’. A place where anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can define the words that matter to them in their life."wordia has partnered with HarperCollins, who will provide the textual dictionary, and YouTube who will host the video content.The site will be moderated with videos being both user-generated and professionally produced.wordia launced with 76,000 words, 120,000 definitions, and another 21,000 thesaurus entries.The launch party was held at Samuel Johnson's house....