Books

Cool Finds

This 300 Year Old Book Is a Guide to Every Paint Color Imaginable

Browse through color swatches from the 17th Century

May 7, 2014

Cool Finds

Mompox Does Exist: A Town Captured by Garcia Marquez Isn’t Just a Dream

Once a center of commerce, Mompox is now an isolated city in Colombia

May 1, 2014

Cool Finds

On These Book Tours, the Author Acts as a Tour Guide

Authors are literally bringing their readers along for the journey, by leading tours of places their books are set

May 1, 2014

Cool Finds

Spain Begins to Search for Cervantes’ Bones

Experts use ground-penetrating radar to search for the author’s bones

April 30, 2014

Cool Finds

Is One of the Weirdest Books on the Planet Actually a Hoax?

This small book has puzzled scholars for decades and remains a mystery

April 9, 2014

New Research

Kids Get Confused by Anthropomorphized Animals in Storybooks

This doesn’t mean we should stop reading them those books, however

March 28, 2014

We Asked Four Teenagers to Explain “Divergent” to Old People

The first movie in the dystopian young adult book trilogy comes out this weekend. Get ready

March 21, 2014

Cool Finds

These Apps Could Triple Your Reading Speed

They show you words one-by-one, at incredible speeds—up to 1,000 words per minute

March 3, 2014

Trending Today

After Tokyo Libraries’ Anne Frank Books Were Defaced, Israel Offered to Replace Them

At least 300 books about the young Jewish girl who was killed in the Holocaust, including her famous diary, were vandalized in Tokyo libraries.

February 28, 2014

Cool Finds

A Team of Developers Wants to Print Out Wikipedia—All 1,000 Books Of It

A crowdfunding campaign seeks to make a print copy of the online encyclopedia

February 21, 2014

Text Me, Ishmael: Reading Moby Dick in Emoji

Why someone would translate Herman Melville’s classic into emoticons

March 2014

How Did Computers Uncover J.K. Rowling’s Pseudonym?

Forensic linguistics can use powerful programs to track written text back to its author

March 2014

Cool Finds

See the Doodles Darwin’s Children Made in His “On the Origin of Species” Manuscript

While Darwin contemplated speciation and evolution, his kids envisioned battling vegetables and tropical birds

February 17, 2014

Cool Finds

Happy Birthday Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh’s entrance wasn’t loud or flashy, much like the bear himself it was simple and sweet: a short poem in a little magazine

February 14, 2014

Why Does This Bookstore Keep Its Books in Bathtubs?

Venice’s Libreria Acqua Alta keeps its books in bathtubs, gondolas and canoes—and not just for show

February 13, 2014

Cool Finds

A Tiny Scrap of Paper Offers a Glimpse Into Jane Austen’s Inspiration

The small scrap of paper transcribes part of a sermon, the theme of which Austen later explored in “Mansfield Park”

February 5, 2014

Cool Finds

Old Illustrations Tell the Secret of How They Were Made

Old books are full of beautiful, intricate engravings. But without expertise in printmaking, how can you tell how those images were made?

January 30, 2014

New Research

Readability Scores on Kids’ Books Are Bogus

Most books come with an indication of how hard they are, and those estimates are mostly wrong

January 10, 2014

A Book’s Vocabulary Is Different If It Was Written During Hard Economic Times

Books published just after recessions have higher levels of literary misery, a new study finds

January 9, 2014

Copyright Law Kept These Famous Works From Entering the Public Domain This Year

Here is a list of books, movies, music & scientific research that would have entered the public domain today had the 1978 copyright law not been passed

January 7, 2014