America's most and least literate cities

For the third year in a row, Washington, D.C., was rated the most literate city in the United States, with Seattle and Minneapolis close behind. That is according to a study conducted by Central Connecticut State University of the literacy of the nation’s largest cities.

The study ranked 76 cities with populations of at least a quarter-million based on six dimensions of literacy, including size of library systems, presence of bookstores, educational attainment, digital readership, and circulation of newspapers and other publications. The most literate cities in the country were often, but not always, in tech-heavy regions with highly educated populations. Based on the university’s report, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the most and least literate cities in the country, also taking into account 2011 data from the Census Bureau, including income, poverty, educational attainment, and the percentage of workers employed in various job types.

[I find it interesting that they count the number of retail bookstores in each city. Click the link to read the entire article]

Simplicity

Simplicity

atraveleramongthewind

booksdirect: “In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” - Mark Twain

booksdirect:

“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” - Mark Twain

astore.amazon.com

melissarosati:

In Buenos Aries, is it bookstore or is it an opera house that sells books? Can you imagine this at the MET in NYC?

Puccini lovers delight in this Saturday night soundtrack!

I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
Nikos Kazantzakis; Zorba the Greek
Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.
Dave Eggers
Yes, they are.

Yes, they are.

anastasiacaprice

I need about a week’s worth of days like this. Seriously!

I need about a week’s worth of days like this. Seriously!

emiliamujicasolana

Watch Mayim Bialik Explain Her Love of Science

 

She’s one of the brains featured on PBS’s Secret Life of Scientists series.

____

This is cool. 

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, ‘If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we’ll talk.’ All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don’t want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket.
Ray Bradbury
Tolstoy in the middle of telling his grandchildren a story.

Tolstoy in the middle of telling his grandchildren a story.

Growing up is highly overrated.

Growing up is highly overrated.

runswithbustles

You might be have a problem if …

  1. You are currently reading a book
  2. You have 20 or more books on your shelf that you have yet to read
  3. But, you can’t go into a bookstore without buying more books.

But hey, this is a good problem to have, right?

Happy birthday, Richard Ford (February 16th, 1944).  Ford is a novelist and short story writer. His works include The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land, Canada, among others. In 1995 he won the PEN/Faulkner Award and The Pulitzer Prize award for his work Independence Day. Ford is from Jackson, Mississippi. He has written for the magazine Sports Illustrated, he edited the 2007 New Granta Book of the American Short Story, and the Library of America’s two-volume edition of the selected works of fellow Mississippi writer Eudora Welty.

Happy birthday, Richard Ford (February 16th, 1944). 

Ford is a novelist and short story writer. His works include The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land, Canada, among others. In 1995 he won the PEN/Faulkner Award and The Pulitzer Prize award for his work Independence Day.

Ford is from Jackson, Mississippi. He has written for the magazine Sports Illustrated, he edited the 2007 New Granta Book of the American Short Story, and the Library of America’s two-volume edition of the selected works of fellow Mississippi writer Eudora Welty.