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.

Why You Should Surround Yourself With More Books

Fast Company: Why you should surround yourself with more books than you’ll ever have time to read

An overstuffed bookcase (or e-reader) says good things about your mind.

Lifelong learning will help you be happier, earn more, and even stay healthier, experts say. Plus, plenty of the smartest names in business, from Bill Gates to Elon Musk, insist that the best way to get smarter is to read. So what do you do? You go out and buy books, lots of them.

But life is busy, and intentions are one thing, actions another. Soon you find your shelves (or e-reader) overflowing with titles you intend to read one day, or books you flipped through once but then abandoned. Is this a disaster for your project to become a smarter, wiser person?

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Bookyards editor: I definitely do not have the time to read my books, but I continue to buy more..

How Is How A Rare Book Appraiser Passes Judgment In 30 Seconds Or Less

An original dust jacket can be the difference between a prize find and just another old book. Syd Wachs/ Unsplash

Atlas Obscura: How a Rare Book Appraiser Passes Judgment in 30 Seconds or Less

A discerning eye often means a disappointed collector.

On the main exhibition floor of the 58th Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, sprawled across the 60,000-square-foot drill hall of New York City’s Park Avenue Armory last weekend, a buzzing grid of vendors peddled books and ephemera. The oldest item was an illuminated scroll dating to the 13th century, and the priciest—a first edition of Copernicus’s study of the heavens—held an astonishing $2 million price tag. All of the thousands of items for sale were guaranteed by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, meaning that buyers could return their purchases for a full refund within 30 days if they spot unexpected defects or feel like they were misled.

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Bookyards Editor: You must really know your stuff if you can appraise a book in 30 seconds.

Here Are The 30 Best Dystopian Novels of All Time

Frannie Jackson and Paste Staff, Paste Magazine: The 30 Best Dystopian Novels of All Time

Dystopian novels provide some of literature’s most blatant cultural critiques…and we love them for it. Reading about oppressive government regimes—or even a giant brain telepathically controlling an entire planet—stokes the fire in our souls. And witnessing citizens rebel against the status quo offers hope for the future, even if that rebellion proves unsuccessful.

So if you’re looking for your new, favorite dystopian novel, we’ve got you covered. We’ve gathered Paste editors and writers to compile a list of our favorite books in the genre, ranging from contemporary Young Adult sagas to classics from masters like George Orwell and Margaret Atwood. But before we jump in, here’s how we chose to define a dystopian book:

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Bookyards Editor: I agree with their top 5 choices.

A Look At Kabul's First Mobile Library

The library-on-wheels offers pupils and street kids free access to children's books, which are in short supply at public schools and libraries in Afghanistan

AFP: Kabul library bus drives Afghan children to read

The door of the blue bus slides open and dozens of children excitedly bound up the steps, eager to get their hands on hard-to-find books in Kabul's first mobile library.

Named Charmaghz -- the Dari for walnut, which is associated with logic in Afghanistan because the nut resembles a brain -- the converted public bus is hard to miss as it winds through the dusty streets of the Afghan capital.

The library-on-wheels offers pupils and street kids free access to children's books, which are in short supply at public schools and libraries.

It also offers one of the few spaces outside the home that children can use in a city where fear is increasingly keeping residents behind closed doors.

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Bookyards Editor: Yup .... the eagerness to read is universal for children throughout the world.

Here's How U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis Draws Leadership Lessons From Books

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis arrives at the 149th annual Department of Defense National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery, May 29, 2017.

CNBC: Defense Secretary James Mattis is a voracious reader. Here's how he draws leadership lessons from books

* Mattis, hailed for his battlefield prowess and kinship with rank-and-file soldiers, has said that the best way to hone war-fighting skills is to leverage lessons learned from history.
* Before taking the highest office in the Pentagon, Mattis' personal library included 7,000 books.
* "You stay teachable most by reading books by reading what other people went through," Mattis has said.

Defense Secretary James Mattis, a revered Marine with a military career spanning four decades, credits his leadership success to his voracious reading habits.

"Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for
how any problem has been addressed before. It doesn't give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead," Mattis wrote in a 2003 email to military historian Jill Russell.

Mattis, hailed for his battlefield prowess and kinship with rank-and-file soldiers, explained that the best way to hone war-fighting skills is to leverage lessons learned from history.

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Bookyards Editor: I can only hope that he is still reading.

A Look At What Countries Have The Most Libraries, And What Contries Have The Fewest

EBook Friendly: Countries with the most and fewest libraries per 100,000 residents (infographic)

How can you judge which country is the best for the book lover? You can rank countries by literate behaviour characteristics, for instance.

A much simpler method, however, is to look into how many libraries are available for the residents of each country.

And this is what you can find in an infographic created by Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.

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Bookyards Editor: No surprise that the countries that are being ripped apart by war are also the countries with little if any libraries.