Eggplant.place

319d

Searching for eBook reader solution

319d

Ogden Nash makes a splash

Ogden Nash found success after The New Yorker hired him in 1930, launching a long career of humorous, playful verse. His earliest published poems enter public domain pretty soon.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/03/ogden-nash-makes-a-splash/

#books #poetry #publicDomainDayCountdown

Photo of panelist Ogden Nash and Dagmar from the television game show Masquerade Party.

This 1950s photo shows poet Ogden Nash with actress/TV personality Dagmar on the game show "Masquerade Party." Nash, wearing glasses and bow tie, sits at a panel desk while the glamorous Dagmar stands beside him.

via ABC Television

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogden_Nash#/media/File:Ogden_Nash_Dagmar_Masquerade_Party_1955.jpg

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319d

How Ramanujan's formulae for pi connect to modern high energy physics

Most of us first hear about the irrational number π (pi)—rounded off as 3.14, with an infinite number of decimal digits—in school, where we learn about its use in the context of a circle. More recently, scientists have developed supercomputers that can estimate up to trillions of its digits.

by Rohini Subrahmanyam

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ramanujan-formulae-pi-modern-high.html

#books #mathematics #physics

A pi pie.

A creative pie decorated with the pi symbol (π) in the center and the digits of pi (3.14159265358979323846...) written around the edges, creating a visual pun celebrating the mathematical constant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi#/media/File:Pi_pie2.jpg

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306d

Can Bibliotherapy Heal the Pain of the World?

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203d

The very first Nobel Prize in Literature in history was awarded to Sully Prudhomme in 1901.

Most people don’t know him today - which makes it even more interesting to read the man who started Nobel literary history.

Try his elegant, heartbreaking “The Broken Vase”.

#books #literature
#bookstodon
@bookstodon

Sully Prudhomme

The Broken Vase

The vase where this verbena is dying
was cracked by a blow from a fan.
It must have barely brushed it,
for it made no sound.

But the slight wound,
biting into the crystal day by day,
surely, invisibly crept
slowly all around it.

The clear water leaked out drop by drop.
The flowers’ sap was exhausted.
Still no one suspected anything.
Don’t touch! It’s broken.

Thus often does the hand we love,
barely touching the heart, wound it.
Then the heart cracks by itself
and the flower of its love dies.

Still intact in the eyes of the world,
it feels its wound, narrow and deep,
grow and softly cry.
It’s broken. Don’t touch!

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305d

A Review of A Very Uncanny Christmas: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-a-very-uncanny-christmas/

#Books #BookReview #Christmas #Fantasy

@bookstodon

Book cover for A Very Uncanny Christmas - A Jack Hansard Short Story by Georgina Jeffery. Image on cover is a drawing of four small bottles of potions, one purple, one pink, one red and one white, left by a brick fireplace. In the centre of the display of potions is a light blue glowing potion in a glass jar that’s attached to a large red container.

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285d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/FeyFighters

Two soldiers on opposite sides, pixie Commander Stargazer Candleflash and human Sergeant Edwin Harris, find their fates forever entwined, first by revenge, but as they crash together in a dangerous rainforest, they’re forced to work together, just to survive. Will they make it or will their bickering get them killed?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Fey Fighters, by Owen Tyme.

The background is the stars of space, with nebula-like clouds, in blue. This has been divided into jigsaw puzzle pieces by dark lines marking the lines between pieces.

The foreground features an enormous, stylized phoenix, which is composed of fire. The phoenix looms over an Earth-like world heavily obscured by cloud cover.

(Right) The same world from the cover orbits a purple gas giant, with a stream of flame above it, which may be the phoenix, with the following text over the top:

“We’re in a human-made, goblin-enchanted spacecraft, powered by a dryad that’s under the mistaken impression she’s a nuclear reactor, half-piloted by a pixie and half-piloted by a human.”

“Is there anywhere we can go we won’t be shot on sight?”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/FeyFighters

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319d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

Spies, aliens, trolls, wizards and a disowned prince use a time machine, to improve their place in history, but Levi Jacobs stands in their way, despite having just lost his parents in war. Will he stop them or will the time travelers kill his father at a pivotal moment, on which the fate of the galaxy hangs?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of The Third Wish, by Owen Tyme, illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

A wizard in a black robe that glitters with hints of gold stands on a mountain and looks down at a city of sky scrapers covered in greenery. In his shadow lurks a creature with glowing red eyes.

In the background, the sun is setting and stars are becoming visible.

(Right Background) Four images separated by black lines, with the silhouette of a woman wielding two swords laid over them. She's outlined in black and her interior is yellow clock-based imagery that spirals outward from the center.

The upper left quarter is a queen in a red, furred robe, wearing a gold and diamond crown. She has dark eyebrows and blond hair.

Upper right is a planet seen from orbit.

Lower left is a symbolic wire frame representation of the view inside a wormhole, in green and yellow.

Lower right is dandelions among grass.

The angle of the planet, one of the woman's swords, the yellow highlights of the wormhole and some of the dandelions form a line that draws the eye along a sweeping curve.

(Right Foreground) The following quote:

He admired the flawless beauty of the insane swordswoman’s fluid movements as Ida took desperate step after step, backwards!

He felt waves of mental energy pour off the panic-stricken troll, but the energy bounced right off of Nicole’s mind, as though she’d shut herself inside a solid, red-hot, steel box of rage!

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

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1y

Was once again reminded of Ursula K. Le Guin's daily schedule, and why this woman was an icon on every single level.

#UrsulaKLeguin #Books #Bookstodon #book #Writing #WritingCommunity

Ursula Le Guin‘s daily schedule

5:30 a.m. - wake up and lie there and think.
6:15 a.m. - get up and eat breakfast (lots).
7.15 a.m. - get to work writing, writing, writing.
Noon - lunch.
1:00-3:00 p.m. - reading, music.
3:00-5:00 p.m. correspondence, maybe house cleaning.
5:00-8:00 p.m. make dinner and eat it.
After 8:00 p.m. - I tend to be very stupid and we won't talk about this.

This was Le Guin's daily schedule first appeared in an interview she gave in 1988 (and more recently reappeared in Ursula Le Guin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations).

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306d

A psychoanalyst’s desire for a saner world

In Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud turned his psychoanalytic attention from the troubles of the individual to those of the world.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/16/a-psychoanalysts-desire-for-a-saner-world/

Freud at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/391

#books #psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud in a portrait photograph by Ferdinand Schmutzer, 1926

The black and white image shows the elderly psychoanalyst in formal attire with his distinctive white beard, intense gaze, and contemplative expression, seated with a watch chain visible across his vest—an iconic representation of the founder of psychoanalysis.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud#/media/Datei:Sigmund_Freud_1926.jpg

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310d

So, putting the book down where you finish reading it until it organically evolves into a pile of books doesn't count as "arranging"? Rude! 😜😂

@bookstodon @books @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#Book #Books #BookMemes #Memes #Humor #Humour
#Novel #Novels #Bookshelf #Mastobooks #BooksofMastodon #Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #Bookstodon #BookLove #FantasyBooks

A meme with pictures of six diffrent bookshelves.

Caption: How do you arrange your books?

1. HEIGHT
2. PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE
3. COLOR
4. STACKED
5. ALPHABETICAL
6. CHRONDLOGIAL

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285d

The ratio of words written by Kafka to words written about Kafka is estimated to be about 1:10,000,000. Is anything left to say?

by Jared Marcel Pollen

https://libertiesjournal.com/online-articles/kafkainc/

Kafka at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1735

#books #literature

First page of Kafka's Letter to His Father.

The document shows aged paper with a cream or beige tone, typical of early 20th-century stationery that has yellowed over time. The page appears to be standard letter-size paper with some visible wear, creases, and aging marks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#/media/File:De_Kafka_Brief_an_den_Vater_001.jpg

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285d

Killing Stella. By Marlen Haushofer. 1958. (Translated by Shaun Whiteside)

In 1950s Austria, you are a housewife with kids, when an acquaintance dumps her 19 year old daughter with you for a year; the daughter is innocuous but your household is so fragile, and you are managing your own internal storm of mundane familial relationships, that the friends’ daughter is caught in the invisible crossfire.

4 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈

@bookstodon #reading #books #women #austria

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306d

📚 Norwegian Wood by: Haruki Murakami

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces ther...

https://bookblabla.com/book/norwegian-wood

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #mediatiein

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

Stunning and elegiac, Norwegian Wood first propelled Haruki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene.

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306d

Think you know Hans Christian Andersen? Four experts pick his weirdest fairy tales to read this Christmas

By Ane Grum-Schwensen, Holger Berg, Jacob Bøggild and Sarah Bienko Eriksen

https://theconversation.com/think-you-know-hans-christian-andersen-four-experts-pick-his-weirdest-fairy-tales-to-read-this-christmas-270725?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20December%2015%202025%20-%203618036937&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20December%2015%202025%20-%203618036937+CID_56e9e58f2a4c2b638ff45c2b60003d5f&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Think%20you%20know%20Hans%20Christian%20Andersen%20Four%20experts%20pick%20his%20weirdest%20fairy%20tales%20to%20read%20this%20Christmas

Andersen at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2298

#books #literature

The superstitious mother was an archetype, but Andersen’s depiction is shaped by memories of his own mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter. Illustration by Lorenz Frölich. The Hans Christian Andersen Centre.

This illustration by Lorenz Frölich depicts a scene from Hans Christian Andersen's writing, showing the archetype of the superstitious mother - a characterization influenced by Andersen's own mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter. The historical artwork is held at The Hans Christian Andersen Centre and represents the personal biographical elements that shaped Andersen's literary work.

https://hca.sdu.dk/tales/index.html

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233d

Ancient by Luke Barley review – the secret history of Britain’s woodlands

ancient-by-luke-barley-review-the-secret-history-of-britains-woodlands

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186d

Heated Rivalry. By Rachel Reid.

You are a star hockey player just out of high school, when you meet your fellow rookie and nemesis, a Russian player, and you and he will go on to challenge each other on the ice and in the bed FOR 8 YEARS, which it turns out is longer than either of you can stand.

4 of 5 library cats 🏒 🏒 🏒 🏒

@bookstodon #bookstodon #books #reading #gay #lgbtq #romance #xxx

Book cover featuring two hockey players facing off

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305d

📚 The Ghost Brigades by: John Scalzi

Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers... A superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.

At first, Jared is a perfe...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-ghost-brigades

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #militaryfiction #actionadventure

Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers... A superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.

At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as Boutin's memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reason's for Boutin's betrayal. As Jared desperately hunts for his "father," he must also come to grips with his own choices. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity's mere military defeat...

The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations. They're young, they're fast and strong, and they're totally without normal human qualms.

The universe is a dangerous place for humanity—and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF's biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did.

Old Man's War Series
#1 Old Man’s War
#2 The Ghost Brigades
#3 The Last Colony
#4 Zoe’s Tale
#5 The Human Division
#6 The End of All Things
Short fiction: “After the Coup”

Other Tor Books
The Andr

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2y

English poet and novelist Letitia Elizabeth Landon died #OTD in 1838.

Her first major breakthrough came with The Improvisatrice and thence she developed the metrical romance towards the Victorian ideal of the Victorian monologue, influencing fellow English writers such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson and Christina Rossetti.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letitia_Elizabeth_Landon

Books about Letitia Elizabeth Landon at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56166

#books #literature #poetry

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838); variation of the original painting by Daniel Maclise.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) was a renowned English poet and novelist of the early 19th century, known for her Romantic works. In the portrait by Daniel Maclise, she is depicted with a delicate and refined appearance, typical of Romantic portraiture of the time. The original shows her seated gracefully, with soft curls framing her face, gazing thoughtfully into the distance. Her attire consists of elegant 19th-century clothing, with rich textures and details.

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305d

E-readers: Kobo vs Boox?

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186d

Apuleius was a 2nd-century Roman writer whose most famous work, The Golden Ass (also known as Metamorphoses), still feels vivid, and surprisingly modern.

It is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive complete.

Inside the novel is also the famous tale of Cupid and Psyche, one of the most beautiful love stories to come down from antiquity.

The Golden Ass is one of the best gateways into the ancient world.

#books #bookstodon #literature #Apuleius @bookstodon

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305d

From PEN America:

Top 52 Banned Books: The Most Banned Books in U.S. Schools

"The 52 most banned books of the last four school years include National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winners, bestsellers, and beloved books by authors including Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Judy Blume."

#books #writing #writersofmastodon #WritingCommunity #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://pen.org/top-52-banned-books-since-2021/

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2y

#OTD in 1858.

The farce Our American Cousin by the English playwright Tom Taylor is first performed at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City, with the American Joe Jefferson in the title rôle and the English actor Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_American_Cousin

Our American Cousin at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3158

#books #literature #theatre

Photograph of Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary.

Unknown author - http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2009/02/our_american_cousin_revisited.html

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305d

finished reading We Are the Stars 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗
by Gina Chick.

That wild woman who captivated us on Alone Australia is the product of genes, a generous upbringing, and intense tempering in the crucible of life. A remarkable range of life experience, and an impressive capacity to learn & evolve from life's challenges. Heavy on nebulous metaphor, but fitting. I envy her capacity to inhabit her emotions & body so fully.

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #Biography #AloneAustralia #AloneTV

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

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155d

Stag Party. By Torrey Peters.

You are an usually large and ugly 19th century lumberjack in an all male remote camp, and you get the chance to appear at an arranged “dance” as an available female, which you eagerly accept.

4 of 5 library cats 🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #books #reading #lumberjacks #trans #sex

Book cover featuring elk in odd positions.

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