What if reading could help us heal? That’s the wager some doctors are taking these days — prescribing books alongside medication. Here’s a look at stories that might just do you good.
Tag: books
In a region known for its strong, centuries-long ties to the mining industry, areas once dedicated to coal are now being transformed into cultural hubs. Among these is a disused mine in the town of Pszów, which has now been transformed into a library.
Joe Rogan is considered America’s king of podcasters and the voice of hyper-masculinity in the United States. His support for Donald Trump is considered by some to have been decisive in the presidential election. But what’s behind this world of hyper-masculine podcast bros? For Die Zeit, Berlin-based author Norman Ohler writes about his experience as a guest on Rogan’s show.
After more than 30 years, the “Golden Owl” has been found, ending frantic quests by thousands of players from around the world that involved wild excavations, low blows and even lawsuits. Based on mysterious clues from a book, this treasure hunt turned into a flourishing business, while keeping thousands of hunters hooked over decades.
From the Nakba to now, Palestinian authors have used the trope of amputation as a literary symbol of loss and unity in the face of adversity.
As Putin’s Russian propaganda aims at Islamist terrorists now, justifying the use of torture, Russian literary critic Ilya Kukulin takes a step back to understand how we can keep our humanity amidst such violence. Human rights are perceived as something natural, akin to a birth right. But this is not so in reality: these rights can only be established by human will.
While literary distinctions are evolving, the divide between local and foreign literature remains firmly in place. In 2024, it is easier for writers to change passports than to change bookshelves, says Vincenzo Latronico, an Italian writer who lived in Berlin and published a book in German.
The new batch of Michelin-starred restaurants was announced on March 18, with 52 new establishments honored, more than ever before. While the little red guide calls the shots among restaurateurs, it’s also the stuff of dreams for aficionados, for whom the bible of gastronomy has become a true collector’s item.
The phenomenon of retranslation is both paradoxical and inherent in every culture but it’s also a true source of vitality for literature, as well as pleasure for the readers.
Bookshops’ shelves display an increasing number of books with a smaller number of pages. Data seems to confirm that books with more than 400 pages are increasingly becoming a rarity. Why are shorter books being published, and what does that tell us about how we engage in our free time?
If Chinese food is a link to the homeland, then so is Chinese literature. Two Chinese immigrants in Europe have found a way to connect themselves and others to their culture by setting up spaces where people can buy or borrow Chinese paperbacks.
Inside an old watchtower dangling over the crashing waves of the port of Capraia, dwell 6,000 books and their keeper: 33-year-old Viola, a librarian who took the time during the COVID-19 pandemic to ask herself, “What makes you truly happy?”
In his early journalistic writings, the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez showed he had an eye for factual details, in which he found the absurdity and ‘magic’ that would in time be the stuff and style of his fiction.
The Librairie du Tiers monde, which has functioned as an important intellectual spot in Algeria since its founding in 1964, continues to have an open and critical outlook on the country, even at a time when power represses dissidents.
Shortly before being appointed Undersecretary for Education, Rossano Sasso dashed off for Rome, amid around-the-clock negotiations in the capital to form Italy’s new government. And Sasso made sure to share the moment with his Facebook followers. “He who stops is lost, a thousand years for every minute,” the 45-year-old politician from the southern Puglia region […]
Every fictional plague has an origin story, and an ending — happy or otherwise. We hereby issue a pandemic spoiler alert!
It is telling that parents in Silicon Valley, who would know, are restricting and even banning screen time for their children. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has just released a new set of guidelines on how much time parents should allow young children to spend with screens: Kids younger than 1 year old should have […]
From Madrid to Cork to Shanghai, some of the most revered old bookshops are closing doors as they face pressure from big chains and e-readers. But our bookworm writer found some small signs of hope.
Teachers and volunteers in a rural Daraa town are braving bullets and airstrikes to rescue books from beneath the wreckage and stock a new public library.
GAZA CITY — Escaping the besieged Gaza Strip, often described as “the world’s largest open-air prison,” is a nearly impossible dream for many of its two million residents. But 24-year-old Mosab Abu Toha has found a way to free himself — through books. “Freedom is a state of mind. With books, you’re liberating yourself by […]
Kaciane do Nascimento’s love of reading led to her open a library in the backyard of her house, in a low-income housing development in São Paulo state. Now she’s working on a book of her own.
KARLSRUHE — Both of Annette Röser’s parents suffered from dementia, and she remembers a precious means of connecting with their hidden world was music. Her mother’s eyes would light up when Röser played folk songs or “Memories of Heidelberg.“ Röser’s experience with her late parents led her to found SingLiesel Verlag, a German-language publisher specialized […]
A recent study shows overwhelming agreement that it’s unnecessary to offer pre-school children digital training. And nearly all parents agree on strict limits to screen time as kids get older.
I was the manager of Logos Bookstore in Calgary, Canada for more than 30 years, and during the last 15 years we primarily served the education community. That experience allowed me to witness sweeping changes in technology, and the way it is being applied in the classroom. As parents and board members became more familiar […]
BAGHDAD — On Fridays, you can get a taste of just how special Mutanabbi Street used to be. For a couple of hours once a week, this neighborhood in the Iraqi capital returns to its former glory when everybody who is anybody in the Baghdad’s art and culture scene is out on the famous “book […]
A French journalist upset by the shuttering of local book shops gets a temp job with Amazon, where only the “supermotivated” survive to work under conditions that violate labor codes.
In Spain and Latin America, debate is raging in the publishing world about whether a dead writer’s heirs have the right to publish works, which in life, the author did not want to publish.
MUNICH – It is shortly past 10 a.m. in a Munich middle school and Tammy is lying on the floor, muzzle tucked between his paws, stomach rising and falling gently as he breathes in and out, apparently asleep. Occasionally, when Salma leafs through the pages of her book, the dog’s eyes blink open then shut […]
PARIS – Kevin Kelly is a stimulating iconoclast. How many books are bought but not read? Probably many more than we think. Hence the idea of paying readers who read a book from the beginning to the end. Kevin Kelly thought about patenting his idea, but, since ideas don’t necessarily make a project, he decided […]
BERLIN – “I think it totally sucks that you think that word should be left in children’s books. You can’t imagine how it makes me feel to hear or read that word. It’s really really terrible. My Dad is not a ‘negro’ and neither am I.” That was written by nine-year-old Ishema Kane in her […]
BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch NEW YORK– Dan Brown, the bestselling author of the Da Vinci Code, is set to release a new novel on May 14. According to The Guardian, Dan Brown’s dapper, tweed-suited symbologist Robert Langdon, the man who cracked The Da Vinci Code and found The Lost Symbol, is about to embark […]
PARIS – Do the Internet and digital devices make us happier and more efficient. Or do they just make us less intelligent? Two new books try to answer the question asked by Nichols Carr in The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains. Italian linguist Raffaele Simone and French philosopher Jean-Michel Besnier deliver […]
The German publishing giant has completed a mega merger of its Random House publisher with Penguin books. And it isn’t done yet.
FRANKFURT – Even before the world’s biggest book fair opened this week in Frankfurt, figures from a study conducted by the PwC consulting firm added more worry for printed book dealers about the uncertain future of their trade. According to the study, released Tuesday, demand for e-books is getting ever-larger in Germany. By 2015, the […]
-Analysis- PARIS – Whether or not they pose a real threat to the traditional book publishing industry, e-books are indisputably the talk of the town. Still, few in the sector are able to fathom the full extent of the ongoing digital transformation, which is both far-reaching, yet still largely invisible. From booksellers to printers, everybody […]