1. Reading about yawning makes you yawn.

2. Books used to be shelved “backwards” with the spine facing the back of the shelf and the fore-edge facing out.

3. Research now indicates that the 4- to 6-year-old age range is the sweet spot for teaching reading. Beyond the age of 6 or 7, teaching a child to read is a game of catch up.

4. On average across the world people spend 6.5 hours a week reading.

5. According to a study from Yale University, three-quarters of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school.

6. Dr. Seuss coined the word “nerd” in his 1950 book “If I Ran the Zoo.”

7. It takes an average of 475 hours to write a novel.

8. Books that were penned or conceived behind bars include Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes), Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan), De Profundis (Oscar Wilde), and the Prince (Machiavelli).

9. Books used to be chained to the bookshelves in libraries.

10. The ratio of customers to bookstores is highest in Nevada, Texas, and Mississippi.

11. On the average, a bookstore browser will spend eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds scanning the back cover.

12. Half of all books sold today are to people over the age of 45.

13. Adults who read literature on a regular basis are more than two-and-a-half times as likely to do volunteer or charity work, and over one-and-a-half times as likely to participate in sporting activities.

14. The largest advance ever paid for a self published book? A whopping $4.125 million. Simon & Schuster paid that for Richard Paul Evans’ The Christmas Box.

15. Women buy 68% of all books sold.

16. The page most readers lose interest at? Page 18!

17. A glimpse into the NASA library reveals astronauts’ preferred reading includes A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne, and London Bridges by James Patterson.

18. The longest reading aloud marathon by a team lasted 224 hours and was completed by Milton Nan, Silvina Carbone, Carlos Antón, Edit Díaz, Yolanda Baptista and Natalie Dantaz (all Uruguay) at Mac Center Shopping,Paysandú, Uruguay between September 13-22, 2007.

19. The Penguin paperback was created to make books as affordable as cigarettes, and the first Penguin paperbacks were distributed from a church crypt.

20. Nancy Pearl, in addition to being the most famous librarian in the world, is also now the only librarian to have an action figure created in her likeness.

21. Studies have shown that American children who learn to read by the third grade are less likely to end up in prison, drop out of school, or take drugs.

22. The 1930’s reading primer series Fun with Dick and Jane by Dr. William S. Gray is rumored to be plagiarized from Sir Fred Schonell’s similar Dick and Dora readers, found in his Happy Venture Playbooks.

23. It is estimated that limited literacy skills cost business and taxpayers $20 billion in lost wages, profits, and productivity annually.

24. A bibliokleptomaniac is someone who steals books. One of the most famous bibliokleptomaniacs is Stephen Blumberg, who stole more than 23,000 rare books from 268 libraries. He had various methods for acquiring his estimated 20 million dollar collection, including climbing through ventilation ducts and elevator shafts.

25. The term “bookworm” derives from tiny insects who feed on the binding of books.

Here are Ten Fun facts About Lincoln.

10. Lincoln under-utilized his pockets

Lincoln’s stovepipe top hat served as more than fashionable headwear. He used it to store and carry notes, letters, even bills. Why do they call it a stovepipe hat? Well, the rise is so tall and straight up and down with no flair that it resembles a length of pipe. They’re hard to come by nowadays, the traditional top hat being much more current, but still pretty “retro”. Best you go to a custom haberdashery to get one made just for you.

9. Lincoln was really tall

That stovepipe hat just made a tall guy a whole lot taller. Lincoln was 6’4”, making him our country’s tallest president. That of course begs the question, who was our shortest president? 4th president James Madison stood a stately 5’4”, making him an entire foot shorter than Honest Abe – even without his hat!

8. Lincoln has no living heirs

Despite the fact that the marriage between Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln yielded 4 sons, there are no living heirs. Three of the four sons died before their 20th birthdays: Edward died at 4 years of age, Willie at 12 years, at Tad at 18. Robert was the only child who lived into adulthood and his last descendent died sometime in the 1980’s.

7. Lincoln’s son Robert was a death-magnet

Speaking of Robert, he was sort of a magnet for tragedy. More specifically, presidential assassination tragedy. While he was not present when his dad was killed, he was an eyewitness to Garfield’s assassination, and at the same World’s Fair where McKinley was assassinated. Another interesting fact about Robert, he was saved from a train accident by Edwin Booth, the brother of his father’s killer, John Wilkes Booth.

6. Lincoln Liked to Tinker

Lincoln really liked machines and gadgets. He liked to take them apart to see how they worked and try to put them together again. He even tried his hand at inventing, and in 1849 had a patent issued for “A Device for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals”. The machine never made it, but the patent was a new thing for a president, and no president has held a patent since.

5. Lincoln & Kennedy

You didn’t think we’d leave it out, did you? There are some pretty bizarre coincidences between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Here are a couple:

Both were shot in the head with one bullet on a Friday.
Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846, Kennedy in 1946.
Lincoln’s successor (named Johnson) was born in 1808. Kennedy’s successor (also named Johnson) was born in 1908.
Lincoln’s assassin (who went by three names: John Wilkes Booth) was born in 1839.
Kenney’s assassin (who also went by three names: Lee Harvey Oswald) was born in 1939.

4. Lincoln was kind of psychic

In the weeks before his death, Lincoln was extremely melancholy. He had seen portents of his own death, and had been dreaming of death as well. On one occasion looked in the mirror and saw a double reflection, one image much paler and blurrier than the other. He told his wife that he thought it meant that he had survived his first term, but wouldn’t survive his second. The week prior to his death, Lincoln had a dream of hearing crying in a distant room of the White House. He sought out the room and found that it had a coffin in it. He asked the weeping person who had died and the person responded that it was the President. In his dream, Lincoln looked into the coffin and saw himself. Read more in The Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln

3. Lincoln dabbled in the occult

Not only did he get premonitions, he also believed in the occult. Well, if he didn’t believe then he was at least willing to go along with it. Because he and Mary had lost little Edward and Willie at such young ages, they actually held seances in the White House trying to contact their dearly departed. Mrs. Lincoln also attended seances at the homes of famous mediums of the day. Whether or not they made contact is unknown.

2. Lincoln was spiritual, not religious

Despite the last two facts, Lincoln said he was still a Christian. He didn’t, however, feel it necessary to subscribe to a particular brand of Christianity. Though many different sects try to claim him, Lincoln was 100% non-denominational. He never joined a church, didn’t say grace before meals, and spoke on a more spiritual level, rather than religious. He did read the Bible quite often, and did have a highly developed spiritual governance. When asked if he thought the Lord was on the side of the North in the Civil War, Lincoln responded, “I am not at all concerned about that…But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”

1. Lincoln had a way with words

Not only was Lincoln spiritual and intelligent, he was also a heck of a speech writer. He wrote his own speeches, and it is said that his famous Gettysburg Address wasn’t even the best one! Rumor has it that the speech Lincoln made to the Illinois Republican Convention on May 29, 1856 was his best, but it was either so enthralling that nobody remembered to take notes, or it was so controversial that nobody was allowed to print them. Either way, no record of it exists.

*****

Want to learn more about Abraham Lincoln on his 200th birthday? Check out our Abraham Lincoln feature with little known facts, some good gossip, and of course, great books to read and collect.

After some gritting of teeth I came up with about 25 books to part with, which is better than I’d expected. Neverthless, I’m shocked by how many books that left, especially when I acquire more with such alarming frequency.

So what else to do with books, if not keep them? It’s so satisfying to use Librarything to catalogue them all and compare with a literary community, but from time to time, the herd must be thinned, at least until I am wealthy enough to own a home that has a wing I can devote to my library.

I donate sometimes, I sell to secondhand shops sometimes, but what about trading? I’d never given it much thought. A friend of mine who lives in Puerto Rico likes Bookmooch and uses it frequently.

What’s Bookmooch? From their overview:

BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.

Points for entering books: you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into our system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every three you receive.

Given how stern I had to be with myself in order to convince myself to part with ANY of my childr… er, books…, and given how inexpensive used books are on the internet, I’m not sure bookmooch is something I’d get a whole lot of use out of. Still, how cool to know it exists.

As for me, I think I’ll just have to invest in a lot of new furniture.

Recently, Stephen King was quoted as saying about bestselling mormon vampire romance author Stephenie Meyer:

“Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.”

I thought that was a pretty bold statement from a very famous public figure, and decided to see what else he might have to say.

Most of Mr. King’s books aren’t really my thing (exceptions: Misery, The Shining, The Running Man, Thinner (the gypsy with the rotting nose haunted my dreams when I was about 12), The Stand, Carrie….huh, I like more than I thought), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really like his writing in his Entertainment Weekly (he does a column called ‘The Pop of King’).

I found it engaging, funny, thought-provoking, decisive and interesting. So it occurs to me that maybe it’s not Stephen King’s writing that leaves me a bit cold, but the genre itself. I love horror movies, but I think perhaps I’ve outgrown horror books.

Anyway, I really loved a lot of what he had to say. Here are some Stephen King quotes I particularly enjoyed.

On bestselling books:
“I believe that 70 percent of the fiction and nonfiction best-seller lists is dreck, and that ”The Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown, stands as a prime example.”

On movie snacks:
“My candy of choice is Junior Mints. And while I don’t bring bootleg food into the movies, I do bring bootleg toothpicks. Then, as I relax in my seat, I take a toothpick and poke five or six Junior Mints onto it. It ends the dreaded Chocolate Hand, and it’s also kind of fun to eat candy off a stick. I call them Mint-Kebabs.”

On chicklit vs. manfiction:
“Women like stories in which a gal meets a handsome (and possibly dangerous) hunk on a tropic isle; men like to imagine going to war against an army of bad guys with a Beretta, a blowtorch, and a submachine gun (grenades hung on the belt optional).”

On blogs:
“…a place where, as a rule, the self-appointed critics eat their young.”

On why no Harry Potter reviews ever did the books justice:
“In their hurry to churn out column inches, and thus remain members of good standing in the Church of What’s Happening Now, very few of the Potter reviewers have said anything worth remembering. They take a perfunctory wave at things like plot and language, but do little more…and really, how can they? When you have only four days to read a 750-page book, then write an 1,100-word review on it, how much time do you have to really enjoy the book? Rowling set out a sumptuous seven-course meal, carefully prepared, beautifully cooked, and lovingly served out. The kids and adults who fell in love with the series (I among them) savored every mouthful, from the appetizer (Sorcerer’s Stone) to the dessert (the gorgeous epilogue of Deathly Hallows). Most reviewers, on the other hand, bolted everything down, then obligingly puked it back up half-digested on the book pages of their respective newspapers.”

On movies he didn’t care for:
“Hated ”Antwone Fisher”; ditto ”The Life of David Gale.” Don’t tell me the former is better than the latter, and don’t throw a bunch of sentimental tripe at me and call it social commentary. ”Antwone Fisher” is especially annoying in this regard, a $9 Hallmark card that amounts to ”Roses are red, Violets are blue, Life is tough, But you’ll get through.” I knew that already, thanks, now go away.”

On great writers:
“I think Elmore Leonard is the great American writer…but that he was a lot better 10 years ago. I think that if you haven’t read Stewart O’Nan, Peter Robinson (the Alan Banks mysteries), Peter Abrahams, or the early novels of Dennis Lehane, you have some catching up to do.”

On politics (pre-election):
“Barack Obama looks like the grave and intelligent news anchor on a major-market station. John McCain, on the other hand, looks like the slightly dotty commentator who rants about the local sports teams and obscure bond issues on a small-market station.”

On The Road by Cormac McCarthy:
“Simple, stripped to the bare bones, this story of a man’s effort to keep his son alive and to find any place of refuge in the wake of a great disaster is the finest achievement of McCarthy’s career. I thought it was almost the perfect narrative — spare in its beauty and constantly driven forward by its own interior urgency. Impossible to put down, in other words. “

On his wishlist for 2009:
“I wish for a year during which no talented young [people] die before they can realize their full potential. No Heath Ledgers, please; what a sickening shock it was to hear that on the radio. No David Foster Wallaces, either. We need all the bright lights we can get, because the world is too dark already. “

The book details Mortenson’s journey in Pakistan, beginning with his becoming sick and lost while climbing a mountain, and continuing with his building first a school, and then an institute, all with the goals of educating children and paying back the kindness he was shown. It does seem to exemplify exactly what the Nobel peace Prize is all about, and clearly the powers that be thought so.

Mortenson was apparently very surprised by the nomination:

He said he was “stunned” and “humbled” and considered it “a great honor,” but that the announcement put him in an awkward position.

“I thought nominations were supposed to be secret,” he said in an interview at his Bozeman home.

He then opened the Nobel Prize Web site on his computer and read aloud, “Two hundred to 300 names are submitted as nominees annually. And the names of the nominees are not revealed until 50 years later.”

But this time, word was out. Reporters from around the country were already trying to reach him for comment about the nomination.

You can bet that if he wins, signed copies of his book will increase in value.

I can understand the frustration of hard work being interrupted, but this vicious onslaught is pretty unbelievable. The scathing tirade goes on for over four minutes and includes the actor threatening the man’s job. How embarrassing for him to have his tantrum made public!

I for one would like to help.

Here you go, Christian!

On an unrelated note, didn’t Christian Bale star in Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho?

Uh-huh.

Neil Diamond and Neil Gaiman are the same person.

Think about it –

-Gaiman and Diamond practically rhyme.
-Neil Gaiman wrote Coraline, and Neil Diamond wrote Sweet Caroline.
-Neil Diamond sings Forever in Blue Jeans, and Gaiman wears the very same (though he seems to wear leather pants more often, I concede).
-One of the main characters in Neil Gaiman’s fantastic Sandman series is the Dream King. Neil Diamond “coincidentally” has a song called Thank the Lord for the Night Time
-Neil Diamond sings Marry Me, and it’s been reported that Gaiman once uttered that EXACT PHRASE to his wife Mary – and with what did he seal the deal? A DIAMOND.

Think about it.

And the irrefutable evidence that cements my findings:

I was completely unable to find a SINGLE PHOTO of Neil Diamond and Neil Gaiman together; and:

I had to go public with this. Despite my concern for my own safety, THE WORLD MUST KNOW THE TRUTH. If I meet with an untimely demise – Hunt the MegaNeil!

1.Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Okay, this one’s a bit of a ‘gimme’. The whole book’s about food, after all. But still. Yum.

2. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Breaded pork cutlets on rice with egg and broth, milky tea, soupy rice, delicate radish roses, and of course noodles…so many noodles. This lovely story always makes me hungry. It also makes me happy, and is on my top ten novels of all time list.

3.Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Parts of this book are pretty gross. The descriptions of Boggis, Bunce and Bean, the three loathsome farmers, comes to mind. As well, the scene in which a bleeding tail stumped is licked clean is not particularly appetizing. That said, there’s plenty to make one’s belly growl in this childhood classic from the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I thought that one would be too obvious), from storehouses of cured ham and bacon and larder shelvesstocked full of everything you can imagine, to, of course, the fizzy hard cider.

4. The Godfather Mario Puzo

Another fairly obvious choice, it nevertheless had to make the list. Fresh mozzarella, tomato marinara, prosciutto, veal scallopini….the Corleones and friends eat well. I wouldn’t, for the record, leave the cannoli. Ever.

5. The Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton

I didn’t read too much Enid Blyton as a child (and holy cow she’s written a lot of books), but these ones I remember. It was about a bunch of girls at a boarding school, who got into adventures like leaving school to go to the circus, sneaking a dog into school, and more. and I remember they were always putting together tremendous midnight feasts…cheese and crackers, chocolate, tins of sweets, and all sorts of exotic-sounding British things like cream crackers and fried kippers and spotted dick. The added adventure of sneaking about in the middle of the night made the feasts sound even better.

6.The Mrs. Pollifax Books by Dorothy Gilman

One of the good things about being an international spy is that in between kidnappings and murder attempts and espionage, you get to try some prety great cuisine. Whether Mrs. Pollifax is cooking eggs with garlic and parsley for Cyrus or eating spicy noodles with prawns and peanuts in Chiang Mai, these books always make me hungry. It could be the nonstop action that whets the appetite, too, mind.
The Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gilman

7. The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

How could they NOT make anyone hungry? They were educational, like learning how to make maple candy by pouring boiling maple syrup on fresh snow, or colour butter yellow by using grated carrot, and occasionally savage, like boiling and scraping a pig’s skull, and batting the poor porcine bladder around like a balloon afterwards. Still, from the striped candy Pa brought home in a snowstorm to the puffed vanity cakes with icing sugar that Ma made, everything sounded more delicious in a dugout, or a little log cabin, or while Laura sleeps on the trundle bed and baby Carrie is set upon by a plague of locusts.

8. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

I gave my parents this book as a gift for Christmas 2007, and man, all three of us absolutely devoured it. It’s nonfiction, all about local eating, organic eating, cruelty-free eating, farming, canning, and not eating anything out of season. In short, sustainable eating habits. Now that we’re through with the serious part, it’s also delicious, and sprinkled throughout with tips and recipes from Kingsolver, her husband and her daughter Camille. From farm fresh eggs raised by her younger daughter Lily, to fresh pasta sauce, to harvesting asparagus, this book will not only teach you to be more aware of what you eat, it’ll make you excited about it. I definitely had to pause for snacking more than once during my reading.

As soon as I heard it existed, I bought a copy of I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the Kitchen With Your Favorite Bands by Kara Zuaro for my boyfriend. He’s not a tough guy to shop for, to be fair – one of the things I like best about him is how many things he likes. He’s all over movies, and books, and art, and yes, both music and food probably beat out everything else.

With health and budget goals in mind, he’s also been learning to cook better, trying more things and experimenting in the kitchen. And he lives in Seattle, whose music scene is alive and thriving, and he revels in going through The Stranger each week to see what’s playing. So it seemed an obvious gift choice.

Taking its title from punk rock pioneers The Descendents, I Like Food, Food Tastes Good is a fantastic compilation of recipes contributed by various bands. I admit I was skeptical – surely the Descendents would offer up something terrifying: “Gather the empties from around yer house. Pour the half-inch from each bottle into a pot. Watch for butts. Stir.” I envisioned ‘recipes’ involving nothing more than fast food eaten in a gas station bathroom.

But I was completely wrong, and very pleased with the result. The Descendents’ contribution was a recipe for Pico de Gallo (think fresh chopped salsa) that sounds great and is liberal with the cilantro, just how I like it. The cookbook isn’t just amusing for fans of the bands or people who want a quirky read – it’s also a real cookbook, with over a dozen things I was immediately dying to try out.

Here’s an example to whet your appetite:

Serves 4.

Or if you’re not into Southern Culture (on the skids or otherwise), here’s the example from Indie kids Death Cab for Cutie:

Ingredients:

Bands who contributed recipes include My Morning Jacket, The Violent Femmes, NOFX, They Might Be Giants, The Descendents, Calexico, Belle and Sebastian, Death Cab For Cutie, Battles, Strung Out, Silkworm, Camera Obscura, Superchunk, the Decemberists, the Walkmen, and many, many more. I can’t wait to steal back the present and get cooking.

From a whopping $37,000 for a first edition of Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone to a paltry sum of only $3,000 for a set of all seven American first editions, they’re all here. Not available anywhere else – even Flourish and Blotts!