We plebeians have known for years about the happiness that specific things can give us. There’s the comfort of a home-cooked meal just like mother made after a long, tiring day; the contentment of rereading a favorite novel while wrapped in a blanket on a cold day; the pumped-up adrenaline that hits after listening to a favorite song on repeat. We figured all [...]
The combination of dogs and reading may seem irrelevant, but it’s proving to be quite the opposite—specifically as a method for assisting children who have difficulty practicing this essential skill. Various dog reading programs are becoming exceedingly popular as their overall results show a great improvement in reader confidence and ability. The main logic behind these programs is that children who are struggling [...]
Rare book thievery has been with us as long as there have been books—it has haunted the rare book and manuscript world literally for centuries. For example, during the medieval and Renaissance periods in Europe, churches and libraries would actually tether bindings to bookshelves with chains in an attempt to prevent theft. Book thievery can include the theft, mutilation or forgery of antiquarian materials. For [...]
Have you ever been reading a book and found yourself so engrossed in the plot that you want to reach in and become part of the story? With interactive fiction (IF) you can do just that. Part book and part game, interactive fiction uses an online book format that gives the reader a say in how plots develop. As people read these text [...]
by Chris Hartman The scholarly treatment of rare books has undergone significant changes since the advent of the internet. Having spent over a decade working with rare books and other written materials, I have seen reference books evolve from an almost exclusively print-based medium to a virtual one. But the canon of standard references that rare book librarians, book collectors and dealers use [...]
Let’s face it. The typical high-school poetry experience is usually not the most inspiring or transformative. Toiling over iambic pentameter, archaic vocabulary and the subtlest of metaphors can strike many students as somewhat pointless and irrelevant beyond their obligatory English courses. In Florida, however, a poetry program run by Tigertail Productions called WordSpeak is offering an alternative poetic experience for 1,000 South Floridian teenagers. Each [...]
by Chris Hartman The 36th Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair will be held at the Hynes Convention Center, Boston, from Friday, November 14, through Sunday, November 16. There will be 134 dealers attending from the United States, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia. These dealers will be selling a large trove of rare, collectible and antiquarian books, illuminated manuscripts, autographs, maps, [...]
Although I’ve technically aged out of the young adult (YA) demographic—which, according to the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), is ages 12–18—I am still an avid consumer of the genre and admire the zeal of younger readers. To see that excitement firsthand, last month I attended the third annual Boston Teen Author Festival (BTAF), a recent addition to the Boston literary landscape. The BTAF [...]
Almost since their inception, comic books and graphic novels had a large following, particularly among young people. In recent years, not much has changed in this regard, as the graphic novel sections have become some of the most trafficked and fastest-growing areas in many libraries. Graphic novels and comic books have likewise gained wider use in academic circles. Why are these changes taking place? The [...]
Founded by Deborah Z. Porter in 2009, the Boston Book Festival (BBF) enters its sixth year as an important event for book enthusiasts in New England. For three fall days in late October—Thursday the 23rd through Saturday 25th, to be precise—Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood will be descended upon by literati and over 20,000 of their ardent readers, who vie to attend panel discussions where they [...]