What Five Local Cops Read

The Seattle Times has a charming feature interviewing five local cops about the books they read. (The last question also asks what they write -- besides crime reports, one has written novels and one just finished a dissertation.) Jennifer Sullivan, By-the-Book Cops - and Their Lit Picks, Seattle Times, March 23, 2008.

Paris and beyond in France

If I ever plan a trip to France, I can turn to Jake and Maureen Dear's blog, Paris and beyond in France, which has lots of recommendations for books, accommodations, and more. Ooh-la-la!

(Jake Dear is the coauthor of an interesting law review article on the influence of state supreme courts. See my post in Trial Ad (and more) Notes.)

NPR: Why Women Read More Than Men

NPR: Why Women Read More Than Men, Sept. 5, 2007 -- a look at the gender difference in reading, especially the "fiction gap."

NEA report on reading, critique

The NEA came out with a report decrying the reduction in reading skills. Here a scholar shows some ways that the report presented the data in a misleading way: reading responsibly: nancy kaplan on the NEA's data distortion, if:book, Nov. 30, 2007.

Bill Patry on Why I Wrote a Treatise

Why would a professor sink years into writing a huge treatise? PrawfsBlawg: Bill Patry on Why I Wrote a Treatise.

Teens buying books at fastest rate in decades

Here's some good news: Teens buying books at fastest rate in decades, Seattle P-I, March 7, 2007.

Harvard University Library: Open Collections Program

Harvard University Library has a cool Open Collections Program where it's digitizing books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs in topical areas. So far it's launched Women Working, 1800-1930 and Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930. Valuable resources for students and scholars -- as well as idle browsers!

Books - Forbes.com

The Dec. 1 issue of Forbes has a special report on Books. Looks interesting, but I don't have the time to read it now. Thanks, beSpacific.

James Patterson PageTurner Awards

Author James Patterson last year launched a very cool awards program, giving money to libraries, bookstores, and schools that promote literacy and the joy of reading. Home : James Patterson PageTurner Awards.

NYPL Goes with LC in Reference

The New York Times editorialized about the New York Public Library's move to using LC classification in its reference collection: Where the Books Are, NY Times, Aug. 22, 2006.

This change may seem like a trivial matter to you who Google everything. But the Reading Room at the New York Public Library is one of those places so common in this city where the clientele is both passionate and knowledgeable. Sooner or later, everyone who loves a library broods about how the books are arranged. Thomas Jefferson did. He sent 18 or 20 wagonloads of his books to the nascent Library of Congress. He wrote a long letter about the problems of classification and prepared a detailed catalog of his books on a system of his own devising. He loved books and loved arranging them. But that letter is easily his driest piece of writing.

And here's the news story: Sewell Chan, With a New Classification System, the New York Public Library Makes a Change for the Clearer, NY Times, Aug. 17, 2006.