Eggplant.place

342d

Entry Stephen King book for a kid?

344d

David G. Wells’ “The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting…” books are excellent and have been great source of inspiration for me.

They are now are almost 30 years old.

What new entries would you put in these books—either because they’re new after publication, or could have (should have) been included at the time?

#mathematics #geometry #books #bookstodon #askfedi

The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting numbers. Revised edition.
The cover uses green and blue text on white. The lower third of the cover has a various green numbers on a blue backgroup.

ALT

The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting geometry (illustrated by John Sharp)
The cover is dominated by an old monochrome stock photograph of a man pulling a face and pointing at a lightbulb that has ‘v + f = e + 2’ written on it.

ALT

The Penguin book of curious and interesting puzzles.
The cover uses green text on white. The lower third of the cover has a various puzzles drawn in white outline on a blue backgroup, e.g. a cubic trefoil knot and a Chinese magic knot.

ALT

$The Penguin book of curious and interesting mathematics. The cover uses green and yellow text on white. The lower third of the cover has a various geometric figures in yellow outline on a blue background, e.g. Dudeney’s square to triangle dissection and a fractal figure.$

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

348d

Giving Up is Unforgivable – A Manual for Keeping Democracy (Highly Recommended)

Giving Up is Unforgiveable by Joyce Vance. Cuts through noise to power we still have, and responsibilities. Note: Could be the most important book you and your friends, family, and red-hat American relatives ever read. #bookstodon #booklovers #bookreviews #books

https://bookreviewsintenwords.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/giving-up-is-unforgivable-a-manual-for-keeping-democracy-highly-recommended/

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

2y

British writer and soldier Sapper died #OTD in 1937.

"Sapper" was the pen name of Herman Cyril McNeile, known primarily for his popular series of adventure novels featuring the character Bulldog Drummond. He began his writing career by contributing stories to magazines and newspapers while still in the army. After the war, he adopted the pseudonym "Sapper," derived from his service in the Royal Engineers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._C._McNeile

H.C. McNeile at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/26827

#books #literature

McNeile, 1930s Portrait by Howard Coster.

The 1930s portrait of Herman Cyril McNeile, better known by his pen name "Sapper," was taken by renowned photographer Howard Coster. In the portrait, McNeile is presented in a formal and composed manner, reflecting the dignified style of the era. He is typically depicted wearing a suit, possibly with a tie, indicative of his professional stature as a popular British writer. The lighting and composition are characteristic of Coster's style, focusing on the subject's facial features and expression to convey depth and character. The backdrop is minimalistic, drawing attention to McNeile's presence and his thoughtful gaze, embodying the persona of a respected and influential literary figure of his time.

ALT

First US edition cover of No Man's Land, published in the US in 1917.

The first U.S. edition cover of "No Man's Land," published in 1917, features a design typical of early 20th-century wartime literature. The cover likely displays the book's title prominently at the top, with the author's name, Sapper (H.C. McNeile), positioned below or above the title. The artwork might include a somber or dramatic depiction of a battlefield or soldiers, resonating with the themes of the Great War. The colors used are generally muted, reflecting the grim and serious nature of the content, with emphasis on earthy tones like browns, grays, or dark greens. The overall design conveys the gravity and intensity of the wartime experience depicted within the book.

ALT

Edited 2y ago

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

2y

#OTD in 1857

Performances of Wilkie Collins' drama The Frozen Deep at the Free Trade Hall for the benefit of the widow of writer Douglas W. Jerrold, during which Charles Dickens, becomes infatuated with the professional actress Ellen Ternan.

Dickens's hand was so prominent—beside acting in the play for several performances, he added a preface, altered lines, & attended to most of the props and sets.

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

The Frozen Deep at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1625

#books #literature

Cover of play "The Frozen Deep" by Wilkie Collins & Charles Dickens.

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

2y

#OTD in 1819.

The Peterloo Massacre takes place in England, inspiring Percy B. Shelley, in Italy, who, like Keats, has one of his most productive years. After hearing the news on September 5 he writes The Masque of Anarchy and sends it to a newspaper, also writing the political sonnet England in 1819, Ode to the West Wind, The Cenci: A Tragedy, in Five Acts & Julian and Maddalo and beginning his prose work A Philosophical View of Reform.

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

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1529

#books

Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Alfred Clint (died 1883).

The painting "Percy Bysshe Shelley" by Alfred Clint portrays the celebrated Romantic poet, Shelley. In this depiction, Shelley is likely presented in a traditional portrait style, emphasizing his delicate features and contemplative expression, characteristic of the Romantic era. He is often shown with his head tilted slightly, eyes gazing upward or into the distance, symbolizing his visionary and philosophical nature. The clothing would reflect the early 19th-century fashion, with a high-collared shirt, a cravat, and a coat.

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

341d

📚 Small Boat by: Vincent Delecroix

November 2021: an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the UK capsizes in the Channel, causing the deaths of 27 people on board. How and why did it happen?

Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British water...

https://bookblabla.com/book/small-boat

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #generalfiction #literaryfiction #worldliterature #france

November 2021: an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the UK capsizes in the Channel, causing the deaths of 27 people on board. How and why did it happen?

Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, all but two of the migrants had died.

The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster. Why should she be more responsible than the sea, than the war, than the crises behind these tragedies?

A shocking, moral tale of our times, Small Boat reminds us of the power of fiction to illuminate our darkest crimes.
Source: Publisher

The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster. Why should she be more responsible than the sea, than the war, than the crises behind these tragedies?

A shocking, moral tale of our times, Small Boat reminds us of the power of fiction to illuminate our darkest crimes.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

2y

#OTD in 1918.

The poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon meet for the last time, in London, and spend what Sassoon will recall as "the whole of a hot cloudless afternoon together."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen#Relationship_with_Sassoon

Books by Wilfred Owen at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/517

Books by Siegfried Sassoon at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2934

#books #literature

Portrait of Wilfred Owen, found in a collection of his poems from 1920.

Owen is depicted with a serious, introspective expression, reflecting the weight of his experiences during World War I. The portrait, likely a photograph or an engraving, shows him in military uniform, which serves as a poignant reminder of his service and the subject matter of his poetry. His eyes are intense, perhaps hinting at the trauma and disillusionment that characterized his work.

ALT

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (1886-1967), poet and novelist, platinum print, wearing military uniform with the collar badges of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and hat, Beresford's stamp and copyright line on verso, 6 x 4½ in (15.2 x 11.5 cm).

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

123d

The programme for the 2026 Edinburgh International Book Festival is now online, with over 600 events: talks, interviews, gigs, podcasts, workshops, food events, book signings & more, for Adults, Young Adults, and Children & Families. Tickets on sale from 25 June.

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/events

#Scottish #literature #Edinburgh #books #bookfestival #EdinburghBookFestival #EdinburghInternationalBookFestival #EIBF

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

2y

Alexander von Humboldt: the groundbreaking naturalist who bankrupted himself to share his life’s work.

By Bienvenido León via @ConversationUS

https://theconversation.com/alexander-von-humboldt-the-groundbreaking-naturalist-who-bankrupted-himself-to-share-his-lifes-work-237279

Books by Alexander von Humboldt at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1995

#books #history #archeology

Humboldt and his fellow scientist Aimé Bonpland near the foot of the Chimborazo volcano, painting by Friedrich Georg Weitsch (1810).

The painting "Humboldt and Bonpland at the Foot of the Chimborazo" by Friedrich Georg Weitsch (1810) depicts the famous German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and his fellow scientist Aimé Bonpland during their expedition to South America. The scene is set against the majestic backdrop of the Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador, one of the highest peaks in the Andes.

In the painting, Humboldt and Bonpland are shown in the foreground, engaged in scientific activities. Humboldt, on the left, is depicted with a notebook in hand, documenting observations, while Bonpland, on the right, is examining a plant specimen. Both figures are dressed in early 19th-century expeditionary attire, reflecting their role as explorers and scientists.

The landscape is dominated by the imposing Chimborazo, which rises majestically in the background, its peak covered in snow. The volcano is painted with a sense of grandeur, emphasizing its significance as a natural wonder. The surrounding environment is lush and verdant, with various plants and geological features that illustrate the diverse ecosystems the explorers encountered.

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

2y

Ah, yes... a fresh stench of GOP control back where I used to live. 🤮 😠 Greenville County, #SouthCarolina stops all book fairs for all schools, since "It is not possible for school personnel to vet all book fair content after it arrives, nor can vendors provide accurate content information far enough in advance for it to be vetted through the District prior to the start of fall book fairs."

https://www.wyff4.com/article/greenville-county-schools-no-book-fairs/61945606

#books #censorship #libraries

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

160d

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”
William Makepeace Thackeray

#mothersday #mother #books #bookstodon #quotes #quote #Thackeray #God #children #hearts @bookstodon #reading #today #holiday

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

Are you an Australian author of SFF with a book published this year? You have until the end of the month to enter it for the Aurealis Awards.

https://aurealisawards.org/entry-forms/

#sff #books #amwriting

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

Music and Musicians in the Medieval Persianate World

From royal courts to wine-filled gatherings, music played a vital role in medieval Persianate culture. Two remarkable texts — one practical, one theoretical — reveal how musicians lived, performed, and understood their art.

By Timur Khan

https://www.medievalists.net/2025/11/music-and-musicians-in-the-medieval-persianate-world/

Music at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/677

#books #music #literature

Sultan Mohammed. Kayumars' Court. Miniature, detail. "Shahnameh" by Ferdowsi. 1525-1535. Geneva, Collection of Sadruddin Aga Khan.

At the center of the image, Kayumars sits elevated on a rocky outcrop, clothed in a robe of leopard skin. His haloed face is framed by a soft sky and floating clouds that blend seamlessly with the surrounding forms.

Below and around him, courtiers, princes, and attendants are arranged in rhythmic harmony amid rich vegetation, flowering trees, and undulating rock formations.

Among them roam wild animals and birds—leopards, monkeys, deer, and cranes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh#/media/File:The_Court_of_Gayumars_(Cropped).jpg

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

📚 Flesh by: David Szalay

Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and is soon isolated, drawn instead into a series of events that leave him forever a stranger to peers, his mother, and himself. In the y...

https://bookblabla.com/book/flesh

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #familylife #generalfiction #friendship

Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and is soon isolated, drawn instead into a series of events that leave him forever a stranger to peers, his mother, and himself. In the years that follow, István is born along by the goodwill, or self-interest, of strangers, charting a rocky yet upward trajectory that lands him further from his childhood, and the defining events that abruptly ended it, than he could possibly have imagined.

A collection of intimate moments over the course of decades, Flesh chronicles a man at odds with himself—estranged from and by the circumstances and demands of a life not entirely under his control and the roles that he is asked to play. Shadowed by the specter of past tragedy and the apathy of modernity, the tension between István and all that alienates him hurtles forward until sudden tragedy again throws life as he knows it in jeopardy. “Spare and detached on the page, lush in resonance beyond it” (NPR), Flesh traces the imperceptible but indelible contours of unresolved trauma and its aftermath amid the precarity and violence of an ever-globalizing Europe with incisive insight, unyielding pathos, and startling humanity.

Shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize | Finalist for the Kirkus Prize | Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence

From Booker Prize finalist and the shrewdest writer on contemporary

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

2y

Belgian lawyer and bibliographer Paul Otlet was born #OTD in 1868.

He developed the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) system, an innovative and highly detailed method for cataloging information. Otlet envisioned a global network of information that could be accessed remotely, which he described in his writings as a "réseau" or network of knowledge.

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

Books by Paul Otlet at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/50172

#books #literature

Otlet to work in an office built at his home following the closure of the Palais Mondial in June 1937

ALT

2 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

A particular genre. #grickledoodle #library #books #horror #haunted #ghost #cartoon #art #drawing #funny

A cartoon illustration of a man and a woman walking their dog stopped at a free library stand in front of a house haunted by a little ghost in the doorway. The man is speaking. Caption reads "Weird. They're all horror books."

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

#AmericanPrestige pod welcomes #OmarZahzah, author of #TermsOfServitude: Zionism, #SiliconValley, and Digital #SettlerColonialism. Discussion includes the #SheikhJarrah uprising, the repressive weaponizing of #tech and #AI against #Palestinians, and Palestinian use of #socialMedia to change the narrative of their struggle.

https://americanprestige.supportingcast.fm/listen/american-prestige-1/e334-silicon-valley-and-the-israeli-occupation-w-omar-zahzah

#media #digitalMedia #mediaCriticism #BigTech #oPt #censorship #digitalCensorship #cyberharassment #digitalRights #Gaza #books @bookstodon

Edited 340d ago

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

"We who go out to die shall be remembered, because we gave the world peace. That will be our reward, though we will know nothing of it, but lie rotting in the earth - dead."

~Philips Gibbs. In : The Pageant of the Years

#OTD in 1918 - Armistice Day

The Soul of a Nation by Philip Gibbs is available at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41308

#books #armistice #literature

Armistice Day page from the New York Times.

The image shows the front page of The New York Times from Monday, November 11, 1918, the day the Armistice was signed, ending the fighting of World War I.

At the top of the page, in large, bold capital letters, the headline reads:

“ARMISTICE SIGNED, END OF THE WAR!”

This triumphant declaration spans nearly the full width of the page and dominates the layout, conveying the immense significance of the event. Beneath it, several subheadings and bulletins provide urgent details, such as the hour the cease-fire would take effect and reactions from world capitals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day#/media/File:NYTimes-Page1-11-11-1918.jpg

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream: Stories by Ellison, Harlan 9781497643079| eBay

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? November 11

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

338d

"There are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps..."

Happy birthday to local lad, & one of our favourite storytellers, Robert Louis Stevenson (portrait by Nerli, in the National Galleries of Scotland collection)

.

#books #livres #RobertLouisStevenson #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #author #auteur #birthday #anniversaire #ScottishLiterature #Scotland #Ecosse #LitteratureEcossaise

Nerli's 1892 oil portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson, sitting relaxed, facing the viewer, in an open-necked shirt

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

337d

📚 The Emperor of Gladness: Oprah's Book Club by: Ocean Vuong

The hardest thing in the world is to live only once…

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-emperor-of-gladness-oprahs-book-club

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #lgbtq #general

The hardest thing in the world is to live only once…

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

Listed in 'best books of 2025', according to the Amazon Editors.

The instant New York Times bestseller. Oprah’s Book Club Pick. A 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction finalist. A TIME Best Boo

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

340d

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

She’s small and cute, but this half-demon New Yorker lives to exterminate demons, because they murdered her parents. The demonic curse preventing her from saying anything but “it’s a secret” only fuels her desire for revenge.

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