books

189d

#books #bookstodon #Khayyam #OmarKhayyám @bookstodon

Omar Khayyam

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38d

The Portrait of a Lady. Henry James.

You are an orphaned young, late 19th century American woman with a strong vision for yourself, you head to Europe, where you attempt to avoid the matchmaking of various female friends, and the aggressive courtship of various men; you receive an unexpected boon, but the stronger you get, the more misery comes too.

4 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈.

@bookstodon #books #reading #women #marriage #19thcentury #europe #bookstodon

Book cover featuring a painting of a pensive young woman in an old fashioned dress

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1y

Currently reading Agatha Christie's "The Murder on the Links" which I downloaded free of charge thanks to @gutenberg_org

A top-notch book. Hercule Poirot mysteries are such a joy. Thoroughly enjoying it. Get your copy at:

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/58866

#Books #Bookstodon

A book cover for The Murder On The Links by Agatha Christie

The image is of a narrow dagger, surmounted by an eagle with spread wings on the end of the handle. Behind it is an orange circle on a white background.

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264d

Over 32,000 medieval manuscripts transcribed in four months using AI

Medievalists can now access automated transcriptions of 32,763 digitised medieval manuscripts, produced in just four months as part of a project called CoMMA—a large-scale corpus designed to make manuscript texts searchable and analysable at a scale that would be impossible to tackle by hand.

https://www.medievalists.net/2026/01/32000-medieval-manuscripts-transcribed-using-ai/

Original paper:
https://inria.hal.science/hal-05299220

The CoMMA website:
https://comma.inria.fr/homepage

#books #old_manuscripts

First page of Chronicon Pictum, the "Illuminated Chronicle" from the court of King Louis the Great of Hungary from 1358.

Main illumination shows:

A multi-paneled scene within an elaborate architectural frame
Central figure: A crowned king (likely representing Hungarian royalty) seated on a throne
Left panel: Armed warriors or knights
Right panel: Groups of courtiers or nobles
Rich colors: deep blues, reds, golds, and ochres
Gothic architectural elements including towers and arches

Latin text in two columns
Red lettering (rubrics) for important headings and initial words
Black text for the main chronicle
Beautiful calligraphy in Gothic script

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript#/media/File:K%C3%A9pes_kr%C3%B3nika_els%C5%91_lapja.jpg

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267d

I love that The Expert of Subtle Revisions is on a list with Octavia Butler, Emily St. John Mandel, Emma Straus, Audrey Niffenegger and so many other great writers.

Let's Time Travel with 60 Reality-Bending Novels:

"a collection of interesting time-travel stories and temporal mischief. This specially curated list deliberately draws from all genres, and it’s actually pretty fascinating to see the range of styles and themes in circulation."

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

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/3028-let-s-time-travel-with-60-reality-bending-novels

Edited 267d ago

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156d

Today is Omar Khayyam’s 978th birthday
(May 18, 1048 — December 4, 1131)

There is something beautiful about celebrating the birthday of a man who helped humanity measure time. Khayyam was a brilliant scholar, respected for his work in mathematics, astronomy, and calendar reform.

His rubaiyat are small poems with a long shadow — a reminder that life is too brief to waste.

#birthday #today #Khayyam #poet #wtiter #poem #poetry #books #book #time #astronomy #bookstodon @bookstodon @poetry

Omar Khayyam’s poem

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1y

#OTD in 1914 (dated February).

Publication of the first issue of New Numbers, a quarterly collection of work by the Dymock poets in England edited by Lascelles Abercrombie with Wilfrid Gibson. It containing poems such as Brooke's "The Soldier", published in 1915.

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

The Soldier at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/48306/pg48306-images.html#v-the-soldier

#books #literature #poetry

Image of Rupert Brooke (frontispiece) from For remembrance: soldier poets who have fallen in the war

Arthur St. John Adcock - https://archive.org/details/forremembranceso00adco

Brooke is depicted as a young man with wavy hair, gazing into the distance with a contemplative and idealistic expression.

The lighting emphasizes the classical features of his face, often described as handsome and romantic.

The portrait conveys a sense of youth, intellect, and melancholy, fitting for a poet who became a symbol of lost potential during World War I.

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236d

A Review of Five Miles Out Of Black Creek: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-five-miles-out-of-black-creek/

#BookReview #Books #LGBTQ #Horror

Book cover for Five Miles Out Of Black Creek by Neil Shooter. Image on cover shows a dry, dusty country road that has no one travelling on it. It shoots straight ahead and, in the far distance, turns up over a hill. There are mountains even further in the distance. The trees on either side of the road and brown and leafless as it appears to be late autumn in this scene. The sky overhead is hazy and blue.

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226d

"Books and screens: Your inability to focus isn’t a failing. It’s a design problem, and the answer isn’t getting rid of our screen time."

what-we-think-is-a-decline-in-literacy-is-a-design-problem

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225d

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

Nicole’s brain is slowly being taken over by an ancient, magical artifact, a small fragment of a magic city. She seeks a cure, before the city can destroy her sanity and then eventually, take her life by replacing her mind. Racing against time, she gathers pieces of the city, hoping to find an answer among them.

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

(Left) The cover of Jigsaw City, by Owen Tyme.

The background is a futuristic city of sky scrapers covered in greenery, with water ways in place of some streets. The background has been divided by dark lines that cut it up, into a jigsaw puzzle.

The foreground is a hexagonal coin with an indentation in the center that follows the same shape, with raised lines forming a hexagram in the center, which has a smaller one turned at a ninety-degree angle inside the hexagon at the center of it. The smaller hexagram has another inside it, a pattern that repeats until the lines become so fine and indistinct, they blend together.

(Right) There's a pool of lava at the base of a rocky slope, with some sharp rocks sticking upward out of it and the following text over the top:

“I’m immune to heat and fire. I can easily carry and protect one of you…”

“Ye’d need to deliver an army to make a difference, not one person!”

“I *am* an army.”

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

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268d

I have to say I feel we're missing a few steps towards an explanation of how "for suppository use only" got in the mix of approprite warning lables 🤔😂

@libraries @Libraries@fedigroups.social @library @books @bookstodon @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#Library #LibraryMemes #Meme #Memes #Libraries #Librarians #Book #Books #BookMemes #Meme #Memes #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Litterature #Novel #Novels #Mastobooks #BooksofMastodon #Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #Bookstodon #BookLove

Post by Jennifer Goodland

At today's staff meeting we discussed the need for warning labels for our books.
Like “not microwave safe”
“not dishwasher safe”
“for suppository use only”

The discussion was prompted by another library where a patron got their book wet, tried to dry it out in the microwave, and the metallic RFID tag destroyed both the microwave and the book.

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266d

📚 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by: Haruki Murakami

In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat—and then for his wife as well in a netherworld beneath the city's placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, an...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #fantasy #contemporary

In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat—and then for his wife as well in a netherworld beneath the city's placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, this is one of Haruki Murakami’s most acclaimed and beloved novels.

A dreamlike and compelling tour de force (Chicago Tribune) an astonishingly imaginative detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets from Japan’s forgotten campaign in Manchuria during World War II.

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1y

🦊

I am downright delighted to announce that my latest book, YOU DESERVE A TECH UNION, has a brand new look. I really love it, and I hope you do too.

Here’s a look at what’s changed and—maybe more importantly—what’s stayed the same:

https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/refresh-a-new-look-for-you-deserve-a-tech-union/

#YDATUbook #books #bookstodon #blogging #labor #TechLabor #unions #TechUnions #1u

Edited 1y ago

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267d

On Being Ill at 100: Virginia Woolf’s ‘best essay’ still shapes how we read sickness

Woolf argues that illness is ‘the great confessional’ which is never talked about in literature.

by Lucyl Harrison

https://theconversation.com/on-being-ill-at-100-virginia-woolfs-best-essay-still-shapes-how-we-read-sickness-274061?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2026%202026%20-%203655137341&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2026%202026%20-%203655137341+CID_adf3f1b5c74478478c0668be85d67378&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=On%20Being%20Ill%20at%20100%20Virginia%20Woolfs%20best%20essay%20still%20shapes%20how%20we%20read%20sickness

Virginia Woold at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/89

#books #literature

A portrait of Woolf by Roger Fry c. 1917.

Virginia faces the viewer with a slightly tilted head and a calm, introspective expression. Her dark hair is parted and swept back into soft, rounded shapes, framing a pale face with large, elongated eyes and lightly flushed cheeks. Her lips are small and red.

She wears a muted, loose-fitting jacket or cardigan over a darker blue garment, with a narrow green trim adding contrast along the edges. Her hands rest together in front of her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#/media/File:Roger_Fry_-_Virginia_Woolf.jpg

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267d

"You've come, have you? – You've come, you source of tears to many mothers. It is long since I saw you; but as I see you now you are much more terrible, for I see you brandishing the downfall of my country."
William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum

Halley’s comet may need a new, medieval name

Astronomers suggest the honor should go to an 11th century monk known for a disastrous flying attempt.

by Andrew Paul

https://www.popsci.com/science/halleys-comet-new-name/

At PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=halley+comet

#books #astronomy

The 1066 CE appearance of Halley's comet is famously depicted in the Bayeux tapestry.

The image shows:
Left panel: Figures pointing upward at the sky, gesturing in what appears to be alarm or wonder
Center: A stylized representation of the comet with streaming tail, labeled "ISTI MIRANT[UR] STELLA[M]" (These men marvel at the star)
Right panel: Shows King Harold II of England seated on his throne, with the label "HAROLD" visible. Attendants are informing him about the omen
The comet: Depicted with a bright head and flowing tail in the characteristic medieval artistic style

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156d

Inside Yale University’s Fascinating Collection of “Magic Books” Making Sense of the Medieval World

By Sage Helene

https://mymodernmet.com/yale-hidden-magic-manuscripts/

1742 Library of Yale at the Beinecke Library
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzR1hWIXtNk&t=19s

Library of Yale at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Library+of+Yale+

#Books #Manuscripts #Library

Pictorial; Ownership; FROM THE FVND IN MEMORY OF FRANKLIN BOWDITCH DEXTER | SECRETARY-LIBRARIAN-HISTORIAN OF YALE; YALE BIOGRAPHIES AND ANNALS 1701 1815; YALE VNIVERSITY LIBRARY; Building and books

Yale University Library bookplate featuring a Gothic collegiate building in a circular vignette, ribbon scrolls noting "Yale Biographies and Annals 1701–1875,"…Yale University Library bookplate featuring a Gothic collegiate building in a circular vignette, ribbon scrolls noting "Yale Biographies and Annals 1701–1875," dedicated to Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Secretary, Librarian, and Historian of Yale.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Yale_University_Library#/media/File:Yale_University_Library_-_DPLA_-_ad5a5989e2cdb4204220dd6602f17c08.jpg

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226d

The ARC of my new novella is now ready, via BookSirens. It's a #solarpunk story set in an African nation without capitalism, or governments and politicians, and centers on a 70yr old peasant woman who has to coordinate the defense of the country when a colonizer invades. https://booksirens.com/book/BUG035E/WXLHD4W

You can also pre-order the book, or read a sample, without any sign-in, on this link https://www.ododopress.com/novellas/the-blossoming-of-the-big-tree/

#books #bookstodon #sff #scifi #writing #writingcommunity #reading

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158d

Simply Track Your Reading Journey Using a Markdown Book Log

Keep track of your reading journey using a simplified Markdown book log solution while staying focused on the activity of reading.

https://www.adamsdesk.com/posts/track-reading-markdown-book-log/

#blog #markdown #books #reading

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188d

Take a chance on one of my otherworldly novels about people who risk everything for the friendship, trust, & love. You also get heaps of humor, whimsy, sarcasm, & optimism. Sometimes gritty but never grim.

Paperbacks & DRM-free ebooks via my website:
https://kmherkes.com/the-bookshop1

kindle: https://www.amazon.com/stores/K.M.-Herkes/author/B00GRLYEL2

Nook, Kobo etc here: https://
books2read.com/kmherkes

(DRM-free where possible)

#bookstodon #BookPromo #books #SciFi #ScienceFiction #fantasy #hopepunk #reading

The covers of seven books by K. M. Herkes shown against a green background with blossoming cherry branches.
The book titles are: Rough Passages, The Sharp Edge Of Yesterday, Relics From A Traveling Show, Controlled Descent, Flight Plan, Weaving In The Ends, and Novices.
Various included tropes are shown as if falling down around the book covers:
chosen family
heists
hopepunk
science fiction
fantasy
short stories
romance
novels
disability rep
feisty heroines
superpowers
suspense

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1y

#OTD in 1888.

During Joseph Conrad's career at sea as Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, he departs from Bangkok for Sydney in his first command as master, on the British barque Otago. This provides a basis for his novella The Shadow Line (1916).

It was first published as a serial in New York's Metropolitan Magazine in the English Review and published in book form in 1917 in the UK and America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Line_(novel)

The Shadow Line at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/451

#books #literature

First edition (UK) of Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad.

The title, The Shadow Line, is prominently displayed at the top in bold, dark lettering. Below the title, a red-bordered box contains text posing a mysterious question about the challenges faced by the captain and crew in passing latitude 8° 20' in the Far East.

Centered on the cover is a black-and-white portrait of Joseph Conrad, framed within a red rectangular border. He has a distinguished look with a mustache and beard.

At the bottom, the author’s name, Joseph Conrad, is printed in bold, capitalized letters on a red background, ensuring visibility.

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226d

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.

Omar Khayyam

@bookstodon
#books #literature #bookstodon

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1y

It's here! Available now from Apress/SpringerNature, "We Just Build Hammers: Stories from the Past, Present, and Future of Responsible Tech" brings to life tales of the unsung heroes of responsible tech, and the science fiction that inspired them.

Find your copy at your favorite online bookstore, or learn more at https://thehammerbook.com

Boosts appreciated!

#TechJustice #EthicalSource #ResponsibleTech #TheFutureIsSoft #books #bookstodon

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266d

What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? January 27

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1y

Happy birthday Shakespeare (born #OTD in 1564)!

#OTD in 1932. To mark Shakespeare's birthday:

The Royal Shakespeare Company's new theatre opens at Stratford-upon-Avon.

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

The Folger Shakespeare Library opens in Washington, D.C.

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

Shakespeare at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/65

#books #literature #theatre

Artistic depiction of the Shakespeare family, late 19th century

Perine, George Edward, 1837-1885, printmaker. - engraved for the Eclectic by Perine & Giles.

Illustration of William Shakespeare reciting his play Hamlet to his family. His wife, Anne Hathaway, is sitting in the chair on the right; his son Hamnet is behind him on the left; his two daughters Susanna and Judith are on the right and left of him. (Hamnet shown younger than his twin, Judith, as he had died a few years before Hamlet was written).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#/media/File:Shakespeare's_family_circle.jpg

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237d

Yesterday I finished reading "Shift", by Hugh Howey.

It's the second book in the Silo trilogy and definitely the one with the most lore-building / world-building in it, but narrated in a great way to not make it so boring.

Usually I don't like continuously shifting through different timelines but in this case I felt it was a great choice, given the whole concept.

I will shift towards another book and after that I will go for the last book in the trilogy :)

#Bookstodon #Books @bookstodon

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