Book Review: 'From Gutenberg To Google'

CSM: 'From Gutenberg to Google,' how human inquiry became a networked activity

Author Tom Wheeler chronicles how knowledge in the Western world was largely localized, artisanal, and intensely exclusionary until Johannes Gutenberg combined a suite of technological innovations to revolutionize the way books were made.

When Johannes Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz around the turn of the 15th century, knowledge in the Western world was largely localized, artisanal, and intensely exclusionary. Books were expensive luxuries, the products of time-consuming specialized labor; each one was unique in both its beauty and its errors. And because of their relative scarcity, books were also considerably controllable: locking them in libraries and chaining them to lecterns turned their contents into private property.

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Bookyards editor: We have definitely gone a long way from a few books 500 years ago .... to today where everything is networked and easily accessible.

20 Romantic Quotes From Literature For Valentine's Day

Parade: Need Valentine’s Day Card Inspiration? 20 Romantic Quotes from Literature

Looking for a poetic message to include in a Valentine’s Day card? These romantic quotes from literature are sure to impress your sweeetheart on Valentine’s Day, or any day of the year.

1. “I wish I knew how to quit you.” —Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx

2. “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” —Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

3. “Who, being loved, is poor?” —A Woman of No Importance, Oscar Wilde

4. “I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.” —Possession, A.S. Byatt

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Bookyards Editor: There are some good ones here.

Books Are Far From Dead

Time: Stop Saying Books Are Dead. They’re More Alive Than Ever

“The book is dead,” is a refrain I hear constantly. I’ll run into people on the subway, in a taxi, in an airport, or wherever I might be and when I tell them what I do, they ask me “do people even still read anymore?” This simple question implies the very work I do at the National Book Foundation may not be worthwhile—or even possible. It’s generally a casual statement, a throwaway remark, a comment repeated so often that it’s taken as fact. The book is obviously dead, or at least dying, right?

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Bookyards editor: I concur.

Moscow's Libraries Are Having A Revival

Moscow's Fyodor Dostoevsky Library was renovated in 2013 and now sees some 500 visitors a day, up from just a dozen or so per day in earlier years. The library hosts language clubs, readings, lectures and concerts. Lucian Kim/NPR

NPR: Once Centers Of Soviet Propaganda, Moscow's Libraries Are Having A 'Loud' Revival

The Chistye Prudy neighborhood is one of Moscow's liveliest, with restaurants and cafes clustered along a boulevard with a tram line and grand old apartment buildings.

Before the bars fill up in the evenings, the neighborhood's most popular hangout is the Fyodor Dostoevsky Library, named for the 19th century Russian writer. While young people huddle over laptops as city traffic growls past the large windows in the main reading hall, a theater group is rehearsing a play in another room. A constant stream of visitors comes through the entrance, with the front door banging behind them.

"It's one of the best libraries here in Moscow just because it has changed so much," says Alsu Gorbatyuk, 40, an English teacher who popped in after a visit to a skating rink. "I suppose that right now, Moscow is one of the centers of library culture."

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WNU Editor: It is always good to see a library flourishing.

The End Of The Bookshop?

World Crunch: Is This The Final Chapter For World's Iconic Bookshops?

From Madrid to Cork to Shanghai, some of the most revered old bookshops are closing doors as they face pressure from big chains and e-readers. But our bookworm writer found some small signs of hope.

PARIS — A week or so before Christmas, I decided to take advantage of a quick in-and-out visit to Paris to visit one of the city's most iconic expat establishments: The Shakespeare and Company bookstore in the Latin Quarter.

A stormy night had just fallen and the temps weren't too far above freezing as I trudged across the Seine, through wind and rain, to where I expected to find the famous English-language gathering spot. But when I got there, the bookshop — famous among other things for cameos in films like Before Sunset (2004) and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011) — was nowhere to be found.

That's when it occurred to me that the venerable old locale had perhaps closed down. "Noooo," I lamented. "Say it ain't so." But yes, surely I read something to that effect, I thought. Or did I? Befuddled and very cold, I ducked under an awning and, with numb fingers, fumbled around in my pocket for my phone.

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Bookyards editor: I hope this is not the end of the small bookshop. But high rents and low profit margins is making this business model difficult to survive in Europe and in North America.

British Library's Collection Of Obscene Writing Goes Online

Detail from illustration in Harris’s Lists of Covent-Garden Ladies, held in the British Library ‘Private Case’ collection. Photograph: British Library

The Guardian: British Library's collection of obscene writing goes online

‘Private Case’ of sexually explicit books dating back to 1658 ranges from the hijinks of Roger Pheuquewell to pioneering gay porn in the 19th century.

The sniggeringly pseudonymous Roger Pheuquewell’s contribution to a series of 18th-century erotic novels imagining the female body as land needing to be “ploughed” is among a collection of books from the British Library’s “Private Case” – a collection of obscene titles kept locked away for more than a century that are finally being shared with a wider audience.

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Bookyards editor: Sex and books .... somethings never change.

An Infographic On The State Of Books And Reading Across The World In 2018

Ebook Friendly: The state of books and reading in 2018 (infographic)

74% of Americans read a book in 2018. Europeans spend €200 per person on books and newspapers. Reading books on mobile phones is surging in Africa.

Following the 2017 edition, the team from Global English Editing has created an epic infographic with detailed facts and stats that help learn about the state of books and reading across the world in 2018.

Every single part of this stunning visual is worth reading and sharing.

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Bookyards editor: There is a lot of info on this infographic.