bookmarking for myself; unlike the release of books 5-8, I will NOT be re-reading all the books in the series in their entirety this time around. (I’m behind anyway; need to pick back up with book 9 and move forward.)
Keep Our Secrets – new McSweeney’s children’s book uses thermal ink to reveal secret stories, a kind of interactive storytelling for analog books.
I have no room for a room like this in my house right now…
but one day. this will be the entryway to my man cave / studio
Hidden Bookcase.
This hidden bookcase smoothly slides on a floor-based rail (included) and conceals any room in your office or home. It opens and closes very quietly—by pulling outward—and it exhibits no sign of entry when closed. Up to 500 pounds of books and decorations can be placed on the hidden bookcase. Sold at Opulent Items.
Libraries!
- University of Salamanca Library, Salamanca, Spain
- La Sorbonne Reading Room, Paris, France
- Old Library, St John’s College, Cambridge.
- George Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Via Flavorwire.
Click to embiggen.
Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe
George Dyson
Legendary historian and philosopher of science George Dyson vividly re-creates the scenes of focused experimentation, incredible mathematical insight, and pure creative genius that gave us computers, digital television, modern genetics, models of stellar evolution—in other words, computer code. In the 1940s and ’50s, a group of eccentric geniuses—led by John von Neumann—gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results: the computer that they built also led directly to the hydrogen bomb. George Dyson has uncovered a wealth of new material about this project, and in bringing the story of these men and women and their ideas to life, he shows how the crucial advancements that dominated twentieth-century technology emerged from one computer in one laboratory, where the digital universe as we know it was born.
(via proofmathisbeautiful)
why yes; yes I would like a place to sit and read forever …
(Source: blowingbubbles-atmydog, via bookstorecouture)
Given the London Borough of Waltham Forest’s recent history of destroying hundreds of thousands of library books, my sense of irony mandated me borrowing A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Báez from the miserable remains of Leytonstone Library. I wonder if whoever selected it for their collection was working on that basis as well. I’m glad I did, because it’s a superb piece of accessible historical scholarly writing and I highly recommend it.
