15 Facts about Monty Python and the Holy Grail Ni! Ni! Ni! In honor of the 40th anniversary of Monty Python’s quest for the Holy Grail, here are a few facts you may not have known about the legendary comedy. 1. THE NAME “MONTY PYTHON” DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING. The name of the highly influential comedy troupe made up of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin was made up by the Read more…
Mississippi On December 10, 1817, Mississippi was officially recognized as the 20th state in the United States of America. Mississippi joined the Union as the 20th state in 1817 and gets its name from the Mississippi River, which forms its western border. Early inhabitants of the area that became Mississippi included the Choctaw, Natchez and Chickasaw. Spanish explorers arrived in the region in 1540 but it was the French who established the first permanent settlement Read more…
Holiday TV Schedule 2019 It’s time for Christmas to have its annual TV takeover. That starts with one parade (New York City on Thanksgiving morning) and continues through another (Disney parks on Christmas morning), four weeks later. In between are cartoons, competitions, music and movies. Lots of movies, actually. In a typical week, there are at least nine new ones – three on the Hallmark networks, three on Lifetime, two on Ion, one on UPtv – Read more…
HOW TO TELL IF A BOOK IS A FIRST EDITION Chances are if you’re an avid book collector, you’ve looked at your shelves and thought, “I wonder how valuable some of my books are!” Or maybe you’re a used bookstore patron and you’ve stumbled upon really pristine, really old copies of popular books that were super cheap, and thought maybe they might be worth more than their sticker price. If you don’t know how to tell if Read more…
HOW TO REMOVE STICKERS FROM BOOKS You know when you get a great book but the cover is marred by a terrible sticker? So you peel off the sticker, but it either refuses to budge, or leaves a terrible, sticky residue? Or, worst of all: The sticker must remain in place and be a terribly placed sticker? We did some very scientific research to find the best ways to remove stickers from books. We tested a Read more…
Stephen King’s home 👻 will become a museum and writers’ retreat Today in “Stephen King is a good literary citizen” news: the writer’s home in Bangor, ME (the AKA the real-life Derry, where the sewers are perfectly normal thank you very much) will soon house an archive of his work and a writers’ retreat. According to Rolling Stone, “the Bangor City Council unanimously approved a request by King and his wife Tabitha to rezone their home as a Read more…
Who doesn’t read books in America? BY ANDREW PERRIN PEWRESEARCH.ORG Roughly a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 8 to Feb. 7. Who are these non-book readers? Roughly a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in Read more…
One-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks BY ANDREW PERRIN PEWRESEARCH.ORG Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats, and the use of audiobooks is on the rise. Roughly seven-in-ten U.S. adults (72%) say they have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2012, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 8-Feb. 7, 2019. Print books remain the most popular format for Read more…
ARGH! Plank walking good phrases for Talk Like a Pirate Day Ye want to celebrate National Talk Like A Pirate Day, eh? Well, grab ye eye patch and gather ’round, maties! Even though we usually wait until January when the pirates invade, it’s time to spit out ye favorite pirate lingo. If it’s been a while since your timbers shivered, here’s a lesson for you and all the scallywags out there. PIRATE PHRASES Abandon Ship: An order to Read more…
Does Reading Literary Fiction Improve Empathy? Reading fiction has been said to increase people’s empathy and compassion. But does the research really bear that out? By Claudia Hammond • BBC 3 June 2019 Every day more than 1.8 million books are sold in the US and another half a million books are sold in the UK. Despite all the other easy distractions available to us today, there’s no doubt that many people still love reading. Read more…
