When I was younger, having a movie marathon was one of my favorite things to do with my sisters. We would bake chocolate chip cookies, slip into our pjs and spend the afternoon in front of the television, watching back-to-back Meg Ryan romantic comedies. It’s true that watching movies can be a solitary activity, but we always found it more enjoyable with company. Reading, [...]
With the increasing use of ebooks and the internet, some people are asking the question: Are libraries still relevant? The answer, according to a recent Pew study, is yes. The study cites that 94 percent of Americans believe that libraries are still fundamental to our society. Today our libraries offer members more resources than ever before. In addition to being able to check out [...]
Since December 2004, Google has been working to create a “comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog” by scanning thousands of books, converting the scans to searchable text, and uploading the content into its digital database. Many of these books are out of print, collecting dust and mold on the far shelves of libraries. It’s likely that without Google’s rehabilitating project, these books would eventually [...]
Two studies came out in 2013—one administered in the Netherlands, the other in the US—that suggest that people who read literary fiction are more skilled at reading, and consequently are more skilled at relating to others. David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano, two American social psychologists from the New School for Social Research, investigated whether peoples’ Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to recognize that other people [...]
I love food. I mean, who doesn’t? Unfortunately, my cooking skills are limited to mac and cheese, Bagel Bites and my GrubHub app. However, I do consider myself a “foodie.” Every time I dine at a new restaurant, which is probably once every two weeks, I make a conscious effort to order the most popular or interesting item on the menu—unless they have [...]
A recent game developed by No Crusts Interactive and released on the iTunes App store is an endless runner that is a little different than your average smartphone app. Stride & Prejudice combines the mechanics of an endless runner with the entire text of Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice. The player controls the character, Elizabeth Bennet, as she runs across the screen. Below her, also scrolling sideways [...]
Whenever my father gives a book as a gift, especially if the book’s recipient is a fan of the author, he will write something funny on the book’s title page and sign it as if it is from the author. While no one who receives these books is fooled by my father’s joke, the recipient still appreciates the idea of the author signing [...]
When I first heard the term close reading, I was tempted to correct the speaker by asking, “Don’t you mean cloze reading?” referring to an old method of measuring a student’s ability by asking the student to determine a missing word from the context of a sentence. Such was not the case. Nancy Boyles, graduate reading program coordinator for Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven [...]
In 1993, a surprising study was published claiming that college students who listened to Mozart before taking a test did better than those who did not. This sparked the belief that mothers who played Mozart to their babies while still in the womb were doing them a great service because listening to classical music would make them smarter, despite the original researchers never [...]
The documentary aspect of a true multimedia project on the life of J. D. Salinger (A documentary was planned for release in theaters as well as in a companion book, with the film and book being released almost simultaneously in September of 2013.) is scheduled to air on PBS in January 2014. This final step in the project will include a long lineup of [...]