How To Improve Your Reading Comprehension As An Adult

This also applies to non-text-based forms of reading. So this article mainly applies to people reading visually, rather than via listening, say, or Braille. The suggestions compiled here aren’t exhaustive. Slow Your Roll The good news from the research that does exist is that older adults do just as well as younger adults, or better, in many aspects affecting reading comprehension. While older adults have more general knowledge they can apply to a particular situation in a book, which helps them to understand it more readily, it takes them longer to encode new knowledge....

January 3, 2023 · 6 min · 1221 words · Richard Daugherty

How To Organize Your Bookshelves To Fit Your Living Space

It seems everywhere I turn, there are beautiful bookshelves that are organized by color or by genre. They always seem to put cute book-related trinkets and magical fairy lights. I wish I had that so badly, but I do not. Sadly, my shelves are lacking what anyone might call an “aesthetic”. If I were to describe my bookshelf organization in a word, it would be “Chaos.” I try really hard to keep my bookshelves neat, but in a skinny Chicago apartment with bookcases bought on a budget I don’t have the beautiful wall of books I wish I did!...

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 702 words · Stanley Salomone

How To Read To A Child Tips For Making It A Great Experience

The first time this happened, I wasn’t prepared. Aside from the fact that she’s an early reader (so I wasn’t expecting her to ask so soon), I had no idea how to read to a child. As the youngest of all my siblings and cousins, everyone in my life already knew how to read by the time I figured it out, so I had no practice. Then suddenly, one day in my mid-20s, a small human approached me expectantly with a copy of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, as though I, like all other adults, was an authority in reading aloud....

January 3, 2023 · 3 min · 618 words · Arthur Zimmerman

How To Start A Booktok

So how do you get started on BookTok? The platform has a steeper learning curve than some, but it’s accessible if you break it down into manageable steps. If you’re serious about specifically having a BookTok, rather than just having a fun TikTok account that also features books (and there’s nothing wrong with that!), you’re going to want to avoid interacting with anything non-bookish. One quick way to train the algorithm is to find some BookTokers to follow....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 410 words · Priscilla White

I Buy Books As Souvenirs In Every City I Visit

This touristy habit started three years ago, by accident, when I went to New York City for the first time. I had always wanted to go, inspired partially, of course, by the many books set there. It was, too, the first time I was traveling traveling. Not just-driving-a-few-hours-to-the-beach kind of traveling. No, it was the get-on-a-plane-for-more-than-thirty-minutes kind of traveling. And I had committed an avid reader’s sin and read the two books I brought too quickly....

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 649 words · Gerald Midgette

I Wish I Weren T A Speed Reader

But I do. I read too fast. Like many readers, I fear that I’ll never be able to read everything I want to no matter how fast I go, no matter how many books I read at once. Even if I lived on a remote island for a year and never had access to other humans or the internet (shudders), I still wouldn’t finish my mountainous, teetering stack of books....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 414 words · Robert Smith

If You Love Gossip Girl These Books Are Perfect For You

As I previously mentioned, Hollywood decided to make a new version of Gossip Girl. It recently went up on the HBO Max streaming service with episodes releasing every Thursday. Gossip Girl (2021) is more like a sequel than a remake because they do mention some of the characters from the original (2007). If you didn’t know, Gossip Girl is a teen drama about the lives of rich kids living in New York City who are constantly stalked by an anonymous blog named Gossip Girl....

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 724 words · Brian Williams

Incredible Literary Jack O Lanterns

What to do next? I went online to get some inspiration for this year’s pumpkin, and after an hour of browsing all I have to say is this: Thanks, Internet, for giving me an inferiority complex about carving pumpkins. Check out these incredible literary jack o’lanterns! the pin Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll the pin Curl Up With a Good Book the pin Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson...

January 3, 2023 · 1 min · 192 words · Virgen Jones

Julie Andrews Has Launched A Bookish Podcast For Kids Critical Linking May 1 2020

“The weekly podcast will feature Andrews and Hamilton reading aloud from children’s books, along with music, guest appearances, children talking about new words they’ve learned, and more of Andrews’ favorite things. ‘When I became a parent, I passed the love of reading on to my children,” Andrews said. “My daughter and I have co-authored over 30 books for children and young adults, and our shared passion for the power of storytelling, literacy, and the arts remains fervent....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 244 words · Nelson Behling

Knowledge And Power Real And Fictional Librarians Leading Resistance

Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change – and maybe even redemption. If the Castle Rock School librarian’s display was indeed deliberate, it was a small but powerful act of resistance designed to draw attention to the hypocrisies of a government that has consistently set itself in opposition to diversity and equality, as we can see its the recent attacks on antiracist terminology, its poor track record on trans rights, and its introduction of legislation to limit the right to protest....

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 751 words · Mark Cann

Latina Authors From The Texas Mexico Border You Should Know

What there is, though, is an untapped fountain of amazing authors and writers who have been neglected for too long. Publishers and readers will complain of their work: “There is too much Spanish in your writing,” or “readers don’t understand what this means.” I would say, look that stuff up! Open up Google and search for words you don’t understand! Educate yourselves! You know…it’s called research! Quit being so small-minded that you are not willing to give Latinx authors a chance....

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 779 words · Hazel Locklear

Librarians Face Possible Charges For Carrying Sex Education Books

In Campbell County, Wyoming, librarians are facing this legal intimidation for doing their jobs — and doing their jobs in an incredibly trying time, with pandemic protocols changing rapidly. After weeks of complaints about 18 of the books carried by the library, including This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson and Sex Is a Funny Word by Corey Silverberg (a trans-inclusive puberty book), Hugh and Susan Bennett approached the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office to pursue charges against librarians for 5 books they claim violate child sex laws....

January 3, 2023 · 7 min · 1387 words · James Cook

Listening Pathways Richard Armitage S Audiobooks

But maybe it’s this very variety that’s the problem for a newbie to Richard Armitage’s audiobooks: where do you even start when there’s so much to choose from? That’s what I’m here for. It’s hard to narrow down so many options into a mere three, but there is a bright side here, and it’s twofold: one, he’s narrated books in so many different genres that there’s quite literally one for everyone; and two, the quality of every single one is impeccable....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 400 words · Brian Boutte

Little Free Library Add Ons To Make Your Lfl A Local Landmark

Unfortunately, moving and house updates and life got in the way, and now it’s too cold to dig a hole for the post that’s needed, so my LFL dreams will just have to wait a few more months until things warm up. I’ve filled my time trying to narrow down the perfect LFL for my vision and needs and I’ve discovered that not only are there about a million different Little Free Libraries to buy (or plans to buy so you can construct your own!...

January 3, 2023 · 3 min · 522 words · David Kale

Meet Our Writers Amanda Nelson

1. When did you begin to think of yourself as a reader? In utero? It’s always been a part of my identity. 2. What is your favorite word? Nutella. Mmmmm. 3. What is your least favorite word? Luscious. It just sounds like the opposite of what it means. It sounds like that gross and comedic (not on purpose) food-sex scene in 9 ½ Weeks. 4. What is your genre kryptonite?...

January 3, 2023 · 3 min · 510 words · Annmarie Torres

More Romance Families To Hang With Over The Holidays

No matter where you fall on the spectrum, the families of Romancelandia have you covered. As in recent years, I offer you additional (or possibly substitute) romance families to spend time with this week and the whole holiday season if you want some extra company. The Fernandez Sisters from Priscilla Oliveras’s Matched to Perfection Series Family comes first in the Fernandez family, and these three sisters are close in ways that are both lovely and genuine....

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 793 words · Ann Mcmanus

Morrison Marginalia The Bluest Eye

Without any further ado, the first installment of Morrison Marginalia.* Needless to say, spoilers abound. Pages 6-12: I’d forgotten how much Morrison tells us at the very beginning. The first ten pages aren’t labeled as a prologue, but they function as one. We know from the start that Pecola is pregnant with her father Cholly’s baby and that her father and the baby are now dead. We know that the narrator Claudia’s childhood was painful, but “it was a productive, fructifying pain,” and we know that Claudia thinks of that pain as par for the course, no more or less remarkable than any other child’s experiences....

January 3, 2023 · 5 min · 1056 words · John Leavitt

New Independent Bookstores In Old Homes

da Shop in Honolulu, Hawai‘i While visiting O‘ahu to welcome the birth of my precious nephew and godchild last year, I experience the ultimate act of aloha for a book nerd. After sandwiches with my sister-in-law in Kaimuki, I knock on the door of da Shop, a “community bookstore and events space” I’ve been Instagram-obsessing over. Locked, we search for their hours. I feel near tears, but a woman answers the door....

January 3, 2023 · 3 min · 534 words · Edmond Kunst

Pop Up Inclusive Kids Bookstore Launches In Brixton

If you’re wondering who Knights Of are, they’re an indie British publisher devoted to publishing inclusive children’s books. They’re pretty great and practice what they preach, both behind the scenes and in the books that they publish. Here’s an article about what prompted them to set up. But what if I can’t make the Knights Of pop-up bookstore? Fear not, there’s other options! You could follow them on Twitter, Insta or Medium, or support one of their titles....

January 3, 2023 · 1 min · 201 words · George Rogers

Postcards Of Kindness Is What We Need Right Now Make Them Bookish

I’m proud to say that it was a program I ran a few times with our book club at Glenthorne High School. I’ve written before on how we use postcards to promote our favourite books to other schools around the world. Writing postcards is something teens today simply don’t do. It’s such an outdated practice that I typically have to explain how postcards work and how important they are. It’s not their fault!...

January 3, 2023 · 3 min · 502 words · Stephen Martinez