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If you’ve ever played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, then you know how much detail the developers put into creating the in-game books your character can read. That’s why it’s so darn amazing that Reddit user notadoctoreither put together all of the books from the game into one immense leather-bound book. While even the most die-hard fans might not want to flip through the pages when they could be out closing oblivion gates, you can now take time out of your non-gaming life to read the stories and history of the in-game world.
Link Via Geekosystem
The Republic High School in Missouri recently banned Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five. In response, the Vonnegut Memorial Library is offering the students a free copy of the novel so they can read it on their own and draw their own conclusions. According to the library’s representative:
We have up to 150 books to share, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor… We’re not telling you to like the book… we just want you to read it and decide for yourself.
Link Via The Mary Sue
Christian Boer, a graphic designer based in the Netherlands, has developed a typeface especially designed for people with dyslexia.
A study made by the University of Twente shows that Dyslexie, which is the name of the typeface, decreases reading errors.
via kottke.org
I know you Neatoramanauts are a smart bunch, so many of you probably have piles of books lying around your house. If you’re looking for some new bookshelves and bookcases to put all of those great books away, here are some of the coolest book shelving systems that money can buy.
With a little clever placement of elastic, Instructables user fungus amungus was able to create this simple, but seriously eye-catching inverted bookshelf.
If you have a lot of books, you may have wished your home came with a set of bookcases built into the walls, but I’m willing to guess you never conceived of using your staircase to hold all of your novels. Architect Tim Sloan did though, and the result is perhaps one of the most functional staircases I’ve ever seen.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m always running out of space in my bookcases, which is why I simply love this expanding Twin Bookshelf by Zeynep Cinisli. Essentially, you get two sets of cupboard shelves and when those fill up, you can just pull them apart for even more shelf space.
Like the Twins, REK by Reiner de Jong is brilliant in that it can be consolidated or expanded as needed. As a bonus, the detailed linework in the design makes it look cool room no mater how extended it happens to be at any given time.
more …
Danny, a greyhound, has an important job at Oakhill primary school in Tamworth, Staffordshire. He trained for five months to become a “listening” dog. As a representative of the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) program he listens to children read. He is a registered therapy dog who helps children improve their literacy skills by listening nonjudgmentally to students. The program has been found to improve the confidence and self esteem of young readers.
Link - Via boingboing
When you thought texting while driving is bad, someone out there took it up a notch. Here’s the multitasking driver, who’s reading a book, using a Kindle AND talking on the phone at the same time while driving on the freeway. BuzzFeed has more: Link [embedded YouTube clip]
Many years ago, while riding on the school bus, I saw my own version of the multi-tasking driver: he was shaving (yes, with shaving cream and razors) while driving.
Howard Engel is an accomplished Canadian novelist. One day, he had a stroke and lost the ability to read — that is, his brain could no longer process text as a fixed reference. But Engel found that he could still write, even though, shortly after writing a piece of text, he was unable to read it. So Engel devised a way to use this remaining ability to regain his literacy. Cartoonist and animator Levni Yilmaz produced this video for National Public Radio explaining how Engel was able to do it.
Link via The Agitator | Levni Yilmaz | Previously: Tales of Mere Existence by Levni Yilmaz
After 26 years of teaching children (literally my entire life), Reading Rainbow is being cancelled. It’s not for a lack of interest, but a lack of funding for the show. NPR says the show also was victim of a “shift in the philosophy of educational television programming,” that started under Bush.
I don’t know how many of you grew up in the 80′s, but Reading Rainbow will be sorely missed by those of us who did have the show to thank for our early interest in reading.
Ever since the dawn of civilization, men have demonstrated their cultural sophistication, scientific knowledge and philosophical aptitude in written word kept in libraries for peers and, less often, the public, to access and review.
We have a tendency to assume that knowledge and the availability thereof is a modern concept, but in actuality the huge Great Library of Alexandria and the Celsus library in Ephesus prove that the concept of libraries is an ancient one.
We tend to take for granted the notion that the people of the world can or should be taught to read. The ability to read is even used as an indicator of poverty and development. In 1998, the UN defined 80% of the world population as literate, defined as the ability to read and write a simple sentence in a language. It was not always thus. In ancient times, literacy was the trade secret of professional scribes.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Arby.
This video is truly amazing to watch. City made of books, sounds like my idea of a good hometown.
