I picked up these 4 Pratchett books! Haven't read him before; recommendations for them?
books
B-Sides: Stendhal’s “Love”
Are you a banker or a manufacturer or an industrialist? If so, Stendhal doesn’t want you to read “Love” («De L’amour,» 1822); you wouldn’t understand. But if you are a dreamer, if you are tender, if Mozart moves you, if you nod solemnly when asked, “Have six months of your life ever been made miserable by love?,” this book is for you.
By Naomi Levine
At PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60882
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53720
An Ancient Greek Philosopher Was Exiled for Claiming the Moon Was a Rock, Not a God
2,500 years ago, Anaxagoras correctly determined that the rocky moon reflects light from the sun, allowing him to explain lunar phases and eclipses
By David Warmflash via @SmithsonianMag
Edited 2y ago
Open Book Fountain
This sculpture was created by Kelecsenyi Gergely & engineer Jozsef Szita.
The fountain uses water to create the illusion of turning pages, and serves as a reminder of the importance of physical books.
Location: Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. On Egyetem Square, in front of the university.
#Art #Arte #StreetArt #Kunst #Straatkunst #Scupture #Escultura #Scultura #Creative #Creativetoots #Book #Books #Boeken #Boek #Livre #Lezen #Design #Creativetoot #Lire
Edited 1y ago
American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist George Herbert Mead died #OTD in 1931.
He is considered one of the founders of social psychology and the school of thought known as symbolic interactionism. Mead’s most influential ideas revolve around the concept of the self, which he saw as arising from social interaction. Mead’s ideas were mostly published posthumously, with his students assembling his lectures and notes into books.
Edited 2y ago
I just read the two-part graphic novel "My Brother's Husband" by Gengoroh Tagame. It's set in Japan, where a single dad gets to know his deceased identical twin's Canadian husband. It's a mix of a young girl's enthusiasm over a surprise uncle and an adult's struggle with his culture's (and his own) view of gayness. Lots of layers, as he's also divorced and raising his daughter mostly on his own. They all develop a broader sense of family.
'To live wonder-smitten with reality is the gladdest way to live. But with our creaturely capacity for wonder comes a responsibility to it—the recognition what reality is not a singularity but a plane. Each time we presume to have seen the whole, the plane tilts ever so slightly to reveal new vistas of truth and new horizons of mystery, staggering us with the sudden sense that we had been looking at only a fragment, framed by our parochial point of view.' -- from 'The Universe in Verse' by Maria Popova
#WednesdayBookQuote #ReadingJournal #books #reading @bookstodon
Gen Z but two centuries ago
A generation of young people with ‘full hearts in an empty world’ sought hope in the face of insurmountable malaise
by Emily Herring
Some authors from Gen Z at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1341
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7255
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/5450
Swedish astronomer, physicist, and mathematician Anders Celsius died #OTD in 1744.
In 1742, Celsius introduced the temperature scale that bears his name. His original scale was actually the reverse of what we use today: it set the boiling point of water at 0 degrees & the freezing point at 100 degrees. However, shortly after his death, the scale was reversed by Carl Linnaeus, resulting in the 0 degrees for freezing & 100 degrees for boiling that we are familiar with.
!["Observationer om twänne beständiga grader på en thermometer" [Observations about two stable degrees on a thermometer]. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) (in Swedish). 3: 171–180. 1742.](/proxy/post_attachment/179709/c3d14ab7b1.jpg "\"Observationer om twänne beständiga grader på en thermometer\" [Observations about two stable degrees on a thermometer]. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) (in Swedish). 3: 171–180. 1742.")
Edited 2y ago
Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi was born #OTD in 1874.
He is best known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. He is often credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.
Books about Guglielmo Marconi at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Guglielmo+Marconi&submit_search=Go%21
Oscar Wilde's library card reissued 130 years after being revoked over gay conviction.
English poet William Cowper died #OTD in 1800.
His first volume of poetry, "Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq." was published in 1782. This volume included some of his most famous poems, such as "Table Talk" and other shorter pieces that reflected his views on nature, spirituality, and humanity. His most famous work is "The Task" (1785), a six-book poem in blank verse, which was inspired by a friend who challenged him to write a poem about a sofa.
Swedish feminist writer Ellen Key died #OTD in 1926.
One of her most influential works is "The Century of the Child," first published in 1900. In this book, she projected her ideas about education and the rights of children into the 20th century, which she termed the "Century of the Child." She was also a proponent of women's rights: she believed in the importance of motherhood in society and argued that women should have more choices regarding marriage and children.
#OTD in 1920.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" appears in the Saturday Evening Post and on the magazine's cover, illustrated by artist Norman Rockwell. It was Fitzgerald's first short story to achieve national prominence. The original publication featured interior illustrations by May Wilson Preston. The work later appeared in the September 1920 short story collection Flappers and Philosophers published by Charles Scribner's Sons.
Who is that, so insistently tapping at my chamber door?
Something suitably spooky is coming to https://inquisitivebiologist.com this #Halloween... For now, here is a quick progress shot while you all wait for the next #BookReview to drop. I'm about halfway in.
#Literature #Biography #Gothic #Horror #Scicomm #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon
‘A cottage of one’s own’: Newly unearthed Virginia Woolf stories to be published
A chance discovery at a country house revealed the three funny – sometimes surreal – interlinked tales, written almost a decade before Woolf’s first book was published
Woolf at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/89
German mathematician and mathematics educator Felix Klein was born #OTD in 1849.
He is best known for his substantial contributions to group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and for connecting mathematics with other disciplines, notably physics. His notable achievements are the Erlangen Program, Complex Analysis and Algebraic Geometry, Klein Bottle, and Klein's Quartic Curve.
Books by Felix Klein at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/9227
Edited 2y ago
> Books on the Move: Bookmobiles, Mobile Libraries and More https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2025/09/books-on-the-move-bookmobiles-mobile-libraries-and-more/
Via #LibraryOfCongress. Locally our county public library does have a bookmobile.
This week's #NewBooks at the library: I bought second-hand copies of
- From Crust to Core: A Chronicle of Deep Carbon Science, published by Cambridge University Press;
- Confronting Consumption, published by @themitpress (this copy was in the holdings of the library of The American University of Paris);
- Cohabiting Earth: Seeking a Bright Future for All Life, published the State University of New York Press (I was really impressed by Eileen Crist's most recent book).
#Consumerism #Geology #EarthSciences #Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon
When you collaborate in a #DarkFantasy #HorrorAnthology #NewRelease 👇
And letting your newsletter know other books your partners have....
https://books.bookfunnel.com/fallen-vol-1-stories-from-the-shadows/s1y8kdk552
And realize you want some of those new-to-you books yourself! 📚 
Even better?! 😁 They're on Bookshop.org!
Buy friend books, help local bookstores, share 20% off! 😎
https://refer.bookshop.org/e7zcfkk9
#Books @bookstadon @bookstodon @bookstodon@fedigroups.social @fantasy @horror @romancelandia @lgbtqbookstodon
HAPPY RELEASE DAY! 
7 #IndieAuthors
7 #FallenAngel stories.
Rogue #Angels may obstruct the #Hells, but even the mortals can't always cheer.🫢🫣😮😱
A deep dive into dark yearnings.
AVAILABLE NOW
https://mybook.to/Fallen1
#Books #BookToot #HorrorAnthology #FallenAngels #DarkReads #DarkFantasyReaders #HorrorBooks #HorrorRomance #RomanticHorror #GothicReads #DarkFantasy
@bookstodon @bookstadon @horror @lgbtqbookstodon @sffbookclub @paranormal @romancelandia @fantasy @bookstodon@fedigroups.social
English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare was born (baptized in 26 April) #OTD in 1564 and died #OTD in 1616.
Some of his most famous tragedies include "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," and "Macbeth". His most known comedies, such as "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," "As You Like It," and "Twelfth Night." Shakespeare's histories—such as "Richard III," "Henry V," and "Julius Caesar"—dive into the lives of historical figures and the political machinations of his time.
Jane Austen’s real and literary worlds weren’t exclusively white – just read her last book, Sanditon
by Olivia Carpenter
Sanditon at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/74233
