An evening with a book or a beautiful woman. You choose. (infographic)

Click to enlarge
Found at This isn't happiness

Penguin Presents: Authors Stand Up for Free Speech (video)

A beautiful bookstore from a converted church

The Guardian announced this as ‘probably the most beautiful bookstore in the world’. It is a very unique and unusual location for a bookstore. Because of the design of the bookshelf, you are allowed to experience the architectural structure in a close up. The bookshelf is constructed as a walk-in shelf going over three stories. The designers, Merkx Girod, has been true to the church´s architecture, and that is what makes it so powerful. It must be magical walking up the stairs, and have a view from the third level; even stand at the ground floor looking up and experience the dimensions of the church probably gives an exceptional view.

Business Meetings Are Making You Dumb

Group settings, such as business meetings, can actually diminish intelligence, according to a new study from Virginia Tech's Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute.

Research suggests that small-group dynamics such as jury deliberations, meetings and even cocktail parties can have a negative intellectual effect on participants.

"You may joke about how committee meetings make you feel brain dead, but our findings suggest that they may make you act brain dead as well," Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, said in a statement.

From The Huffington Post. A bit more at the link.

Reading lamps from hardback books

Several more here.

Charles Dickens on Bonanza

At Ben's invitation, Charles Dickens comes to Virginia City to give a reading from "Oliver Twist". He is appalled to discover his work being reprinted without his permission by the local paper and after confronting the publisher, the newspaper's office is destroyed. Already having lost the esteem of the townsfolk, Dickens now finds that they blame him for the violence.

A Day Made of Glass 2: Same Day. Expanded Corning Vision. (video)

EUscreen - European TV archive

The EUscreen project aims to promote the use of television content to explore Europe's rich and diverse cultural history. It will create access to over 30,000 items of programme content and information, and by developing a number of interactive functionalities and dynamic links with Europeana it will prove valuable to the widest range of cultural, educational and recreational users.

The top 10 most popular Dickens characters

Ebenezer Scrooge has been voted the most popular Charles Dickens character, according to a poll held to mark the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth. Here is the complete list:

1. Ebenezer Scrooge - A Christmas Carol
2. Miss Havisham - Great Expectations
3. Sydney Carton - A Tale Of Two Cities
4. The Artful Dodger - Oliver Twist
5. Fagin - Oliver Twist
6. Joe Gargery - Great Expectations
7. Pip - Great Expectations
8. Nancy - Oliver Twist
9. Abel Magwitch - Great Expectations
10. Betsey Trotwood - David Copperfield

Found at Amanda on Writing.

Anatomical Cross-Sections Made from Paper

Artist Lisa Nilsson has taken the technique of quilling to a whole new level by creating these amazing (and kinda creepy) cross sections of the human body. Also known as paper filigree, quilling is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs.

Several more here.

A Catalog of Bookstore Cats.

Ever wondered what is the collective term for a group of bookstore cats? We think it should be catalog. Incidentally, a clowder is the term for a group of ordinary cats and a kindle (yes, really) is a group of kittens. AbeBooks asked some of its booksellers to describe the cats that inhabit their bookshops and they now have a gallery of fine felines. Cats and literature have mixed well for a long, long time from T.S. Elliot's Practical Cats to Edward Lear's Pussy Cat and Dr Seuss' Cat in the Hat. Take a tour around these wonderful bookish cats, their owners and their bookstores.

Several more here

25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore

1. People are getting rid of bookshelves. Treat the money you budgeted for shelving as found money. Go to garage sales and cruise the curbs.

2. While you're drafting that business plan, cut your projected profits in half. People are getting rid of bookshelves.

3. If someone comes in and asks where to find the historical fiction, they're not looking for classics, they want the romance section.

4. If someone comes in and says they read a little of everything, they also want the romance section.

5. If someone comes in and asks for a recommendation and you ask for the name of a book that they liked and they can't think of one, the person is not really a reader. Recommend Nicholas Sparks.

A delightful list and the rest are here.

Links to (almost) all the Super Bowl ads in advance

* Audi: Vampire Party

* Bridgestone: Performance Balls and Puck (teaser)

* Budweiser: Flash Fans (Reportedly only airing in Canada)

* Cadillac: Green Hell

* Careerbuilder: Business Trip (PETA went ape)

* Cars.com: Confident You

* Century 21: Deion Sanders (teaser)

* Century 21: Donald Trump (teaser)

* Chevrolet: 2012

* Chevrolet: Aliens

* Chevrolet: Joy

* Chevrolet: Stunt Anthem (with OK GO)

* Coca Cola: Catch: New England Bear / New York Bear (which one airs will depend on how each team performs during the second quarter)

* Coca Cola: Penguin Thief

* Coca-Cola: Superstition

* Dannon: Oikos Greek Yogurt (with John Stamos)

* Disney: John Carter

* E*TRADE: Fatherhood

* GoDaddy: Body Paint

* GoDaddy: The Cloud

* H&M: David Beckham Bodywear

* Honda: Matthew's Day Off (With Matthew Broderick, Jalopnik was unhappy about this one: SAVE FERRIS from Honda's Sacrilegious Super Bowl Ad)

* Honda: Transactions (with Jerry Seinfeld and others)

* Hyundai: All for One

* Hyundai: Cheetah

* Hyundai: Faster Acting

* Hyundai: Victory Lap

* Hyundai: Think Fast

* Kia: A Dream Car. For Real Life. (with Adriana Lima, Chuck Liddell and Motley Crue. Also see 5 Hours of Adriana Lima)

* Marvel: The Avengers (teaser)

* Pepsi: Check Out

* Pepsi: King's Court (With Elton John and Melanie Amaro)

* Samsung: Galaxy Note, The Next Big Thing is already here... Again

* Suzuki: Sled

* Teleflora: Adriana Lima

* Toyota: It's Reinvented

* Volkswagen: The Dog Strikes Back

Prime Burger (short video)

Clever and touching ad shows just what you can do "in camera". (video)

Disclaimer: I love Field Notes. I use them every day and there is one in my back pocket as I write this. Sometimes analog is best.

Riusuke Fukahori Paints Three-Dimensional Goldfish Embedded in Layers of Resin

Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori paints three-dimensional goldfish using a complex process of poured resin. The fish are painted meticulously, layer by layer, the sandwiched slices revealing slightly more about each creature, similar to the function of a 3D printer.

Found at This is Colossal

42 Unseen Photos Of Child Labour in US History

During the Victorian era Child Labor was quite common employing children as young as four in production factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions.

39 more revealing images at SNAPYZ.

Transportation Library Menu Collection

The Menu Collection of the Northwestern University Transportation Library currently includes more than 400 menus from 54 national and international airline carriers, cruise ships, and railroad companies, with coverage from 1929 to the present. U.S. airlines predominate, but European, Asian, African, Australasian, and South American companies are also represented, with particular strength from the 1960s to the late 1980s.

The full collection is here.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (video short)

An amazingly poignant short film inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

Found at Libraryland

A bathtub for reading (photo)

(Via 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.)