Did you you know that the National Library of Norway has promised to hold onto its books…
…even though they are going to digitize all their titles over the next six years. This means it will be possible for everything in their possession and out of copyright … Continue reading
Do you know which cities are the most “well-read” in Britain and America?
Earlier this year Amazon conducted their third annual survey to discover which city is the national reading champion. Oddly enough I once spent an afternoon in the American winner – … Continue reading
Did You Know that Dickens’ first novel was meant to be a comic?
Pickwick Papers was commissioned as a text to accompany the illustrations not the other way around. Dickens was 24 with only a volume of sketches about London to his credit. … Continue reading
DID YOU KNOW in Brazil the word Poet is a compliment?
Brazilians greet old and much loved friends with the endearment, hello my poet. That says a lot about the country and its people, don’t you think? You can find out … Continue reading
DO YOU KNOW who is winning in the Ebook Vs Print Book War?
Nielsen – the organisation that tracks book sales – is reporting that in America fiction ebooks will overtake print by 2014. However, ‘real’ books may continue to make more money … Continue reading
Did Hemingway really write Baby Shoes? The legend of the six word story
Last week in a post about flash fiction resources I mentioned Ernest Hemingway’s famous six word story “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” I added that he is supposed to … Continue reading
Do you know who first used the word boredom and when?
No, it wasn’t a teenager. It was a 40 year old Portsmouth man in the year King’s Cross station opened. I’ll stop teasing…the first recorded use of the word boredom … Continue reading
Did you know a small bookshop pre-ordered 250 signed copies of The Cuckoo’s Calling before J.K.Rowling was outed?
Goldsboro Books in central London specialises in modern first editions but it hasn’t tried to cash in. Every copy was sold for the jacket price of £16.99 even though the … Continue reading
DID YOU KNOW that cliches in other languages sound really original in English?
Some time ago the writer and broadcaster Lijia Zang told me that the laughter lines around the eyes that the English know as crows’ feet have a different name in … Continue reading
Did you know 80,000 novels are written every day…140 characters at a time
Over 400 million tweets are sent every day – that’s the equivalent of over 80,000 novels. Source Intel photo credit: Vainsang via photopin cc
Did you know that on this day 23 years ago Harry Potter was born
On June 30th 1990 J K Rowling first had an idea for a story about a young boy attending a school for wizards. She was on a delayed train journey … Continue reading
Did you know that more photographs were taken….
….in 2012 than were taken in all the 150+years since photography was invented. Source: Hugh Laurie on BBC Radio Four Desert Island Discs photo credit: Martin Gommel via photopin cc … Continue reading
Did you know these LITERARY NAMES were invented by authors?
This post is really about the dangers of being seduced by research. It all started with a tiny snippet of irrelevant information on twitter telling me that a popular girl’s … Continue reading
Do you know the word for an irrational fear of long words?
Could have guessed it really. It just has to be hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia photo credit: mattscoggin via photopin cc
