Have you Found the Louse in your Book ?

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BOOKLOUSE ( Psocid):

Psocids or Booklice have long, filamentous antennae and a characteristic bulging clypeus (the area just above the mouthparts). They have chewing mouthparts and the wings of domestic species are usually absent. They range in size from 1/25 to 1/13 of an inch (1 to 2 mm) in length. Coloration is from almost colorless to gray or light brown.
PsocidFood: Psocids feed upon microscopic molds. Thus, any manufactured material of plant origin that would support the growth of these molds is susceptible to their attack. They are found in nature on the bark of trees and shrubs, preferring damp, warm, undisturbed environments. They can commonly be found in books and book bindings, storage boxes, paper and goods

Life Cycle: Psocids undergo simple metamorphosis to develop to maturity. Eggs will hatch 21 days after being laid. This nymph will reach sexual maturity in 24 to 65 days. Females lay anywhere from 20 - 50 eggs depending on the time of year. Their total life span is from 24 to 110 days.

Booklice
What do Booklice look like?

Booklice Description

* Booklice are grey to yellowish brown in colour and very small, only about 1mm long.

Where do Booklice live?

* Booklice normally in birds nests, under the bark of trees or on leaves.
* Booklice may however move indoors where they like moist, warm, dark conditions.
* Booklice may sometimes be found in the folds of food packets or in cracks and crevices in cupboards.

What are the signs of Booklice infestation?

* Booklice may be spotted in the folds of food packets and in books and magazines.

What do Booklice eat?

* Booklice eat moulds and mildews and are attracted to dried foods.

Why must Booklice be controlled?

* Whilst book lice are not directly harmful to human health, booklice thrive in moist, damp conditions.
* Booklice spoil food and the bugs and maggots are unpleasant.

How can I get rid of Booklice?

* If you find booklice, any infested food should be thrown away; food in cans and bottles will be unaffected but check under labels for booklice as you don't want to re-infest your food store.
* Clean out the cupboards, allow to dry and then treat with an insecticide.
* Booklice Insecticides may be bought from garden centres and chemists. Choose one which says on the label it is suitable for crawling insects including booklice and is suitable for use near food.
* Follow the instructions on the container carefully.
* Booklice are associated with moist conditions so it is important to find out the cause of the moisture (this may well be condensation) and cure it.
* Remember pesticides can be poisonous to children and pets. After use store container and contents away from children, or dispose of empty containers safely.

How can I prevent Booklice from returning?

* Good hygiene.
* Booklice are associated with moist conditions so it is important to find out the cause of the moisture (this may well be condensation) and cure it.

Booklice Poisons and Booklice Pesticides

* Suitable products can be purchased from hardware shops and garden centres to extermine booklice.
* It is essential to purchase the correct product as treatment for book lice is likely to take place in areas where food is stored.
* Remember pesticides can be poisonous to children and pets. After use store container and contents away from children, or dispose of empty containers safely.

The "Green Option" - Environmentally friendly control of Booklice

* Prevention will be the best method.
* Prevent damp conditions especially where there is food, cardboard or paper. Booklice are attracted to moist areas.

It's great to have a personal library. And it's even better if you can keep it for life. Something to pass on to future generations.

Proper book care starts the moment you strip the shrink wrap off of it.

* Turn pages with care

Books are meant to be read. But the least you can do is to take extra care flipping the pages. Here's a tip on "priming" your book for page turning:
o Lay the book on its back
o Open it a few pages.
o Press lightly along the bound edge to reduce the stiffness.
o Do it with the back cover side.

* Spine wrinkles

Some book collectors are particularly keen on spine wrinkles. I've met book collectors who painstakingly peek into a little opening between pages just to make sure the book doesn't get spine wrinkles. Use a bookmark too, instead of putting the book face down or using dog-ears.

But if you really want a book in mint condition, buy two copies and keep one in its shrink wrap. The other, read and enjoy.

* Repair torn pages

Torn pages do happen and the best way to deal with them is to repair them as soon as possible. Leaving a small tear alone can worsen in the long run with all the stress of page-turning. There are many ways you can repair torn pages but my best bet is to use archival repair tape. Some die-hard book repair people, however, go by Japanese paper (or rice paper) with some starch paste.

* Cover it with plastic

Clear plastic book covers helps in keeping your book in pristine condition, especially your paperbacks. One tip though, allow for extra for shrinkage. Some plastic covers shrink with age.

* Storing in shelves

Make sure that your shelves have ample space and are strong enough to carry the collective weight of the books. You don't want to overcrowd them. You might unnecessarily use too much fore pulling books free that you may damage them. Use bookends if the shelves are not filled. Letting the books slump damages the binding.

For large and heavy books like atlases and unabridged dictionaries, you may want to stack them flat on their back covers. The weight can put stress along the edges of their covers.

* Mind the heat

Too much heat can dry out the pages causing them to be stiff. Some types of paper can crumble with too much stiffness. Too much moisture can cause mold and mildew to grow and ruin them too. So a cool dry place is suitable for book storage. Also, allow for ample space at the front and back of the shelf so air can circulate freely in the shelf.

* Cleaning and dusting

Not because they're individually protected by book cover and shelved, you can be off free not minding your book collection. Dust the shelves once a month. Schedule a yearly individual dusting too.

As for your precious leather-bound books, you may want to condition leather with good petroleum jelly.

During the last decades, the rate of reading traditional books has obviously decreased. Instead, people prefer to buy audio books online and listen to the content of the printed text whenever and wherever they want or can. Figures show that almost a third of the American population prefers listening to books on tapes, CDs, iPods or MP3 players to actually reading traditional books.

This shift of perspective has occurred mainly because our life styles have changed significantly lately. Our normal activities have different importance now in our lives and we are very much preoccupied with careers and studies. We can say we live the busiest times in the human history. This has obliged us to give up entertaining and relaxing activities. Among them, there is reading. Fortunately, technology offers us the possibility to keep in touch with culture and with reading book by listening to audio books. The great benefit is that you can listen to these books while performing a series of other activities. Audio books are all the more attractive than traditional books since we are provided with dramatic flair.

Because people have less time every day to sit down and read a book, they have found the perfect solution: to buy audio books online. They have the chance to listen to a novel while commuting, while working, while doing housework or any other jobs, while walking or jogging. Technology offers nowadays various possibilities to enjoy a good book without being stuck at a table or in bed. Audio books allow you to be dynamic, active and multifunctional.

At the beginning people tend to ask themselves how they can listen to such books once they purchased them from the internet. Basic guidelines on the websites inform people of the choices they have. There are several format possibilities for audio books to be downloaded. All you have to do is to opt for the right format, the one that meet your necessities and lifestyle. You must also take into consideration the place where you listen to the recording.

Audio books recorded on tapes are the oldest format that some people still use. But its sound quality is also doubtable. Still, there is the possibility to convert the tape into a CD and listened to the story in any digital format. CDs represent an audio support that appeared in the early 1990's, its purpose being to replace the conventional cassette. Sound quality is obviously improved and life-like. Also, CDs can be listened to in various devices: portable CD players, computers, home stereo systems, in-car systems. iPods or MP3 players are updated alternatives and at the same time they make people aware of how many possibilities they have. They do not have to restrain to printed books.

If you buy audio books online and listen to them to digital systems, you can say that the author himself speaks to you. This is mostly because to technology we add human voice and interpretation. The fact that the story is read by someone real, a professional actor it gives beauty and sense to the story. Therefore, you cannot find an excuse anymore not to read books for you can listen to them now anytime and anywhere.

So this is why people shifted their interest and attention from traditional formatting books to audio books. And the first method to purchase them is to buy audio books online. It is easy, fast, and fun! People want to read good books, but they tend to give up due to lack of time which is no longer an excuse now. By: David Yuri

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Time was, with most of us, when Christmas Day encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and every one around the Christmas fire; and made the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.

Time came, perhaps, all so soon, when our thoughts over-leaped that narrow boundary; when there was some one (very dear, we thought then, very beautiful, and absolutely perfect) wanting to the fulness of our happiness; when we were wanting too (or we thought so, which did just as well) at the Christmas hearth by which that some one sat; and when we intertwined with every wreath and garland of our life that some one's name.

That was the time for the bright visionary Christmases which have long arisen from us to show faintly, after summer rain, in the palest edges of the rainbow! That was the time for the beatified enjoyment of the things that were to be, and never were, and yet the things that were so real in our resolute hope that it would be hard to say, now, what realities achieved since, have been stronger!

What! Did that Christmas never really come when we and the priceless pearl who was our young choice were received, after the happiest of totally impossible marriages, by the two united families previously at daggers--drawn on our account? When brothers and sisters-in-law who had always been rather cool to us before our relationship was effected, perfectly doted on us, and when fathers and mothers overwhelmed us with unlimited incomes? Was that Christmas dinner never really eaten, after which we arose, and generously and eloquently rendered honour to our late rival, present in the company, then and there exchanging friendship and forgiveness, and founding an attachment, not to be surpassed in Greek or Roman story, which subsisted until death? Has that same rival long ceased to care for that same priceless pearl, and married for money, and become usurious? Above all, do we really know, now, that we should probably have been miserable if we had won and worn the pearl, and that we are better without her?

That Christmas when we had recently achieved so much fame; when we had been carried in triumph somewhere, for doing something great and good; when we had won an honoured and ennobled name, and arrived and were received at home in a shower of tears of joy; is it possible that THAT Christmas has not come yet?

And is our life here, at the best, so constituted that, pausing as we advance at such a noticeable mile-stone in the track as this great birthday, we look back on the things that never were, as naturally and full as gravely as on the things that have been and are gone, or have been and still are? If it be so, and so it seems to be, must we come to the conclusion that life is little better than a dream, and little worth the loves and strivings that we crowd into it?

No! Far be such miscalled philosophy from us, dear Reader, on Christmas Day! Nearer and closer to our hearts be the Christmas spirit, which is the spirit of active usefulness, perseverance, cheerful discharge of duty, kindness and forbearance! It is in the last virtues especially, that we are, or should be, strengthened by the unaccomplished visions of our youth; for, who shall say that they are not our teachers to deal gently even with the impalpable nothings of the earth!

Therefore, as we grow older, let us be more thankful that the circle of our Christmas associations and of the lessons that they bring, expands! Let us welcome every one of them, and summon them to take their places by the Christmas hearth.

Welcome, old aspirations, glittering creatures of an ardent fancy, to your shelter underneath the holly! We know you, and have not outlived you yet. Welcome, old projects and old loves, however fleeting, to your nooks among the steadier lights that burn around us. Welcome, all that was ever real to our hearts; and for the earnestness that made you real, thanks to Heaven! Do we build no Christmas castles in the clouds now? Let our thoughts, fluttering like butterflies among these flowers of children, bear witness! Before this boy, there stretches out a Future, brighter than we ever looked on in our old romantic time, but bright with honour and with truth. Around this little head on which the sunny curls lie heaped, the graces sport, as prettily, as airily, as when there was no scythe within the reach of Time to shear away the curls of our first-love. Upon another girl's face near it--placider but smiling bright--a quiet and contented little face, we see Home fairly written. Shining from the word, as rays shine from a star, we see how, when our graves are old, other hopes than ours are young, other hearts than ours are moved; how other ways are smoothed; how other happiness blooms, ripens, and decays--no, not decays, for other homes and other bands of children, not yet in being nor for ages yet to be, arise, and bloom and ripen to the end of all!

Welcome, everything! Welcome, alike what has been, and what never was, and what we hope may be, to your shelter underneath the holly, to your places round the Christmas fire, where what is sits open- hearted! In yonder shadow, do we see obtruding furtively upon the blaze, an enemy's face? By Christmas Day we do forgive him! If the injury he has done us may admit of such companionship, let him come here and take his place. If otherwise, unhappily, let him go hence, assured that we will never injure nor accuse him.

On this day we shut out Nothing!

"Pause," says a low voice. "Nothing? Think!"

"On Christmas Day, we will shut out from our fireside, Nothing."

"Not the shadow of a vast City where the withered leaves are lying deep?" the voice replies. "Not the shadow that darkens the whole globe? Not the shadow of the City of the Dead?"

Not even that. Of all days in the year, we will turn our faces towards that City upon Christmas Day, and from its silent hosts bring those we loved, among us. City of the Dead, in the blessed name wherein we are gathered together at this time, and in the Presence that is here among us according to the promise, we will receive, and not dismiss, thy people who are dear to us!

Yes. We can look upon these children angels that alight, so solemnly, so beautifully among the living children by the fire, and can bear to think how they departed from us. Entertaining angels unawares, as the Patriarchs did, the playful children are unconscious of their guests; but we can see them--can see a radiant arm around one favourite neck, as if there were a tempting of that child away. Among the celestial figures there is one, a poor misshapen boy on earth, of a glorious beauty now, of whom his dying mother said it grieved her much to leave him here, alone, for so many years as it was likely would elapse before he came to her-- being such a little child. But he went quickly, and was laid upon her breast, and in her hand she leads him.

There was a gallant boy, who fell, far away, upon a burning sand beneath a burning sun, and said, "Tell them at home, with my last love, how much I could have wished to kiss them once, but that I died contented and had done my duty!" Or there was another, over whom they read the words, "Therefore we commit his body to the deep," and so consigned him to the lonely ocean and sailed on. Or there was another, who lay down to his rest in the dark shadow of great forests, and, on earth, awoke no more. O shall they not, from sand and sea and forest, be brought home at such a time!

There was a dear girl--almost a woman--never to be one--who made a mourning Christmas in a house of joy, and went her trackless way to the silent City. Do we recollect her, worn out, faintly whispering what could not be heard, and falling into that last sleep for weariness? O look upon her now! O look upon her beauty, her serenity, her changeless youth, her happiness! The daughter of Jairus was recalled to life, to die; but she, more blest, has heard the same voice, saying unto her, "Arise for ever!"

We had a friend who was our friend from early days, with whom we often pictured the changes that were to come upon our lives, and merrily imagined how we would speak, and walk, and think, and talk, when we came to be old. His destined habitation in the City of the Dead received him in his prime. Shall he be shut out from our Christmas remembrance? Would his love have so excluded us? Lost friend, lost child, lost parent, sister, brother, husband, wife, we will not so discard you! You shall hold your cherished places in our Christmas hearts, and by our Christmas fires; and in the season of immortal hope, and on the birthday of immortal mercy, we will shut out Nothing!

The winter sun goes down over town and village; on the sea it makes a rosy path, as if the Sacred tread were fresh upon the water. A few more moments, and it sinks, and night comes on, and lights begin to sparkle in the prospect. On the hill-side beyond the shapelessly-diffused town, and in the quiet keeping of the trees that gird the village-steeple, remembrances are cut in stone, planted in common flowers, growing in grass, entwined with lowly brambles around many a mound of earth. In town and village, there are doors and windows closed against the weather, there are flaming logs heaped high, there are joyful faces, there is healthy music of voices. Be all ungentleness and harm excluded from the temples of the Household Gods, but be those remembrances admitted with tender encouragement! They are of the time and all its comforting and peaceful reassurances; and of the history that re-united even upon earth the living and the dead; and of the broad beneficence and goodness that too many men have tried to tear to narrow shreds.

THERE were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, who were all brothers, for they had been made out of the same old tin spoon. They shouldered arms and looked straight before them, and wore a splendid uniform, red and blue. The first thing in the world they ever heard were the words, "Tin soldiers!" uttered by a little boy, who clapped his hands with delight when the lid of the box, in which they lay, was taken off. They were given him for a birthday present, and he stood at the table to set them up. The soldiers were all exactly alike, excepting one, who had only one leg; he had been left to the last, and then there was not enough of the melted tin to finish him, so they made him to stand firmly on one leg, and this caused him to be very remarkable.

The table on which the tin soldiers stood, was covered with other playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little paper castle. Through the small windows the rooms could be seen. In front of the castle a number of little trees surrounded a piece of looking-glass, which was intended to represent a transparent lake. Swans, made of wax, swam on the lake, and were reflected in it. All this was very pretty, but the prettiest of all was a tiny little lady, who stood at the open door of the castle; she, also, was made of paper, and she wore a dress of clear muslin, with a narrow blue ribbon over her shoulders just like a scarf. In front of these was fixed a glittering tinsel rose, as large as her whole face. The little lady was a dancer, and she stretched out both her arms, and raised one of her legs so high, that the tin soldier could not see it at all, and he thought that she, like himself, had only one leg. "That is the wife for me," he thought; "but she is too grand, and lives in a castle, while I have only a box to live in, five-and-twenty of us altogether, that is no place for her. Still I must try and make her acquaintance." Then he laid himself at full length on the table behind a snuff-box that stood upon it, so that he could peep at the little delicate lady, who continued to stand on one leg without losing her balance. When evening came, the other tin soldiers were all placed in the box, and the people of the house went to bed. Then the playthings began to have their own games together, to pay visits, to have sham fights, and to give balls. The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and join the amusements, but they could not open the lid. The nut-crackers played at leap-frog, and the pencil jumped about the table. There was such a noise that the canary woke up and began to talk, and in poetry too. Only the tin soldier and the dancer remained in their places. She stood on tiptoe, with her legs stretched out, as firmly as he did on his one leg. He never took his eyes from her for even a moment. The clock struck twelve, and, with a bounce, up sprang the lid of the snuff-box; but, instead of snuff, there jumped up a little black goblin; for the snuff-box was a toy puzzle.

"Tin soldier," said the goblin, "don't wish for what does not belong to you.

But the tin soldier pretended not to hear.

"Very well; wait till to-morrow, then," said the goblin.

When the children came in the next morning, they placed the tin soldier in the window. Now, whether it was the goblin who did it, or the draught, is not known, but the window flew open, and out fell the tin soldier, heels over head, from the third story, into the street beneath. It was a terrible fall; for he came head downwards, his helmet and his bayonet stuck in between the flagstones, and his one leg up in the air. The servant maid and the little boy went down stairs directly to look for him; but he was nowhere to be seen, although once they nearly trod upon him. If he had called out, "Here I am," it would have been all right, but he was too proud to cry out for help while he wore a uniform.

Presently it began to rain, and the drops fell faster and faster, till there was a heavy shower. When it was over, two boys happened to pass by, and one of them said, "Look, there is a tin soldier. He ought to have a boat to sail in."

So they made a boat out of a newspaper, and placed the tin soldier in it, and sent him sailing down the gutter, while the two boys ran by the side of it, and clapped their hands. Good gracious, what large waves arose in that gutter! and how fast the stream rolled on! for the rain had been very heavy. The paper boat rocked up and down, and turned itself round sometimes so quickly that the tin soldier trembled; yet he remained firm; his countenance did not change; he looked straight before him, and shouldered his musket. Suddenly the boat shot under a bridge which formed a part of a drain, and then it was as dark as the tin soldier's box.

"Where am I going now?" thought he. "This is the black goblin's fault, I am sure. Ah, well, if the little lady were only here with me in the boat, I should not care for any darkness."

Suddenly there appeared a great water-rat, who lived in the drain.

"Have you a passport?" asked the rat, "give it to me at once." But the tin soldier remained silent and held his musket tighter than ever. The boat sailed on and the rat followed it. How he did gnash his teeth and cry out to the bits of wood and straw, "Stop him, stop him; he has not paid toll, and has not shown his pass." But the stream rushed on stronger and stronger. The tin soldier could already see daylight shining where the arch ended. Then he heard a roaring sound quite terrible enough to frighten the bravest man. At the end of the tunnel the drain fell into a large canal over a steep place, which made it as dangerous for him as a waterfall would be to us. He was too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the poor tin soldier could only hold himself as stiffly as possible, without moving an eyelid, to show that he was not afraid. The boat whirled round three or four times, and then filled with water to the very edge; nothing could save it from sinking. He now stood up to his neck in water, while deeper and deeper sank the boat, and the paper became soft and loose with the wet, till at last the water closed over the soldier's head. He thought of the elegant little dancer whom he should never see again, and the words of the song sounded in his ears- -
"Farewell, warrior! ever brave,

Drifting onward to thy grave." -

Then the paper boat fell to pieces, and the soldier sank into the water and immediately afterwards was swallowed up by a great fish. Oh how dark it was inside the fish! A great deal darker than in the tunnel, and narrower too, but the tin soldier continued firm, and lay at full length shouldering his musket. The fish swam to and fro, making the most wonderful movements, but at last he became quite still. After a while, a flash of lightning seemed to pass through him, and then the daylight approached, and a voice cried out, "I declare here is the tin soldier." The fish had been caught, taken to the market and sold to the cook, who took him into the kitchen and cut him open with a large knife. She picked up the soldier and held him by the waist between her finger and thumb, and carried him into the room. They were all anxious to see this wonderful soldier who had travelled about inside a fish; but he was not at all proud. They placed him on the table, and- how many curious things do happen in the world!- there he was in the very same room from the window of which he had fallen, there were the same children, the same playthings, standing on the table, and the pretty castle with the elegant little dancer at the door; she still balanced herself on one leg, and held up the other, so she was as firm as himself. It touched the tin soldier so much to see her that he almost wept tin tears, but he kept them back. He only looked at her and they both remained silent. Presently one of the little boys took up the tin soldier, and threw him into the stove. He had no reason for doing so, therefore it must have been the fault of the black goblin who lived in the snuff-box. The flames lighted up the tin soldier, as he stood, the heat was very terrible, but whether it proceeded from the real fire or from the fire of love he could not tell. Then he could see that the bright colors were faded from his uniform, but whether they had been washed off during his journey or from the effects of his sorrow, no one could say. He looked at the little lady, and she looked at him. He felt himself melting away, but he still remained firm with his gun on his shoulder. Suddenly the door of the room flew open and the draught of air caught up the little dancer, she fluttered like a sylph right into the stove by the side of the tin soldier, and was instantly in flames and was gone. The tin soldier melted down into a lump, and the next morning, when the maid servant took the ashes out of the stove, she found him in the shape of a little tin heart. But of the little dancer nothing remained but the tinsel rose, which was burnt black as a cinder. - -

THE END

Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
A rivulet then a river;
No where by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

But here will sigh thine alder tree,
And here thine aspen shiver;
And here by thee will hum the bee,
For ever and for ever.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

THERE 's little joy in life for me,
And little terror in the grave ;
I've lived the parting hour to see
Of one I would have died to save.

Calmly to watch the failing breath,
Wishing each sigh might be the last ;
Longing to see the shade of death
O'er those belovèd features cast.

The cloud, the stillness that must part
The darling of my life from me ;
And then to thank God from my heart,
To thank Him well and fervently ;

Although I knew that we had lost
The hope and glory of our life ;
And now, benighted, tempest-tossed,
Must bear alone the weary strife.

I had been sitting alone with books,
Till doubt was a black disease,
When I heard the cheerful shout of rooks
In the bare, prophetic trees.

Bare trees, prophetic of new birth,
You lift your branches clean and free
To be a beacon to the earth,
A flame of wrath for all to see.

And the rooks in the branches laugh and shout
To those that can hear and understand:
"Walk through the gloomy ways of doubt
With the torch of vision in your hand."

We Now Have Ed Hardy Posters in Stock

Writing Children's poems

If you've read the writings of Dr. Seuss, children's writing may seem to be a snap. However, anyone that has ever tried to write a children's poem knows that the process is much harder than it seems. It's very easy to fall into overused conventions and produce work that is not original. It is a well-known fact that publishers rarely accept children's poetry. This is the reason that there are so few established children's poets. Use the following tips to create original and engaging children's poetry that may just beat the tough market:

1. Don't Be a Mimic

The first mistake that all new writers to children's poetry fall into is writing like another writer. Publishers receive tons of Dr. Seuss-like poems from hopeful writers. If you are going to write children's poems, you first have to develop a unique voice, one that no one can dispute or copy. Courses in this area are usually available at local colleges, and writer's groups are invaluable for testing new work. This is the key to breaking into the poetry market.

2. Know your Market

You can't get a feel for the market that will buy your poems unless you read into it. Spend some time at a local bookstore, and browse other sets of children's poems in order to see the different types that are out there. Order children's magazine, and take a look at what makes the cut.

3. Find Areas of Interest

There are some areas that will always be of interest to publishers for poetry. Some publishers prefer easy reading, other prefer non-fiction and teaching books, and so on. Read up on this.

4. Make your Work Challenging

Children are very intelligent. Many writers feel a need to make their work very simple. Allow children to think while they are reading. Also, provide text that will lend itself to rich illustration, because most children love pictures.

5. Be Original

Stories about "Hairy hare," "tiny turtle" and "purple pig" will not go over well. Avoid moralizing, because everyone does not have the same beliefs. Cute and typical stories will not make it, whereas original, off-the-wall ideas will.

6. Hone your Advertising Skills

If you can write a good query letter, you can often get your poetry in the door. Read up on writing these letters, and sending them in a manner that will incline publishers favorably toward you. Read up on publishers before you send them a manuscript. Some specifically say that they do not accept children's poems, while others may not be suited to your work.

7. Don't Give Up

It is very easy to give up in the field of writing. But remember, if your style is truly original, you have a good shot at getting something in print eventually. Good luck!

8. Test your Work

Kids always love a good story. Find a class, family or preschool and ask if you can read your stories to their children. Feedback from kids is usually the best gauge you can have.

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What is a Sonnet?

THE SONNET

The sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem in predominantly iambic pentameter, with a formal rhyme scheme. Although there can be considerable variation in rhyme scheme, most English sonnets are written in either the Italian (Petrarchan) style or the English (Shakespearean) style. A third sonnet form, the Spenserian sonnet, is also well-known, but far less commonly used than either the Petrarchan or the Shakespearean sonnet.

THE PETRARCHAN SONNET

The Italian sonnet form is commony called the Petrarchan sonnet, because Petrarch's "Canzonieri," a sequence of poems including 317 sonnets, established the sonnet as a major form in European poetry. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (an eight-line stanza), rhyming abbaabba, and a sestet (a six-line stanza), rhyming cdcdcd, or cdecde--or using some other variation of the cd or cde patterns, but without a final rhymed couplet.

The octave usually presents an idea, raises an argument, makes a proposition, or poses a problem. A turning point ("volta") occurs between the octave and the sestet, and the sestet develops out of the octave by illustrating the idea in the octave, varying it, responding to it, or solving the problem it poses.

THE SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

Shakespeare did not invent the English sonnet form, but he is recognized as its greatest practitioner; therefore, the English sonnet is commonly called the Shakespearean sonnet.

The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four-line stanzas), rhyming abab cdcd efef, and a couplet (a two-line stanza), rhyming gg. Because each new stanza introduces a new set of rhyming sounds, the Shakespearean sonnet is well-suited to English, which is less richly endowed than Italian with rhyming words.

As with the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet, that of the Shakespearean sonnet influences the kinds of ideas that will be developed in it. For example, the three quatrains may be used to present three parallel images, with the couplet used to tie them together or to interpret their significance. Or the quatrains can offer three points in an argument, with the couplet serving to drive home the conclusion.

THE SPENSERIAN SONNET

In his "Amoretti" Edmund Spenser used the sonnet form named after him. The Spenserian sonnet has three quatrains, rhyming abab bcbc cdcd, followed by a couplet, rhyming ee. The linked rhymes of his quatrains suggest the linked rhymes of such Italian forms as terza rima.

ORIGINS

The sonnet probably originated among the Sicilian court poets of the thirteenth century, who were influenced by the love peotry of the Provencal troubadours. It then spread to Tuscany, where it reached its highest expression in Petrarch's "Canzonieri," a sequence of love poems addressed to "Laura," his idealized beloved.

THE SONNET IN ENGLISH POETRY

The sonnet, along with other Italian forms, was introduced to England in the sixteenth century by Sir Thomas Wyatt and his younger contemporary Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Both poets translated several of Petrarch's sonnets--often the same ones--as well as composing their own.

The new poetic form seems to have inspired the flowering of English lyric poetry in subsequent decades, reaching its peak during the reign of Elizabeth I. During the Elizabethan period the sonnet often appeared as part of a sequence of love poems, in the manner of Petrarch's "Canzonieri." The Elizabethans were particularly attractee to the complexity of a sequence in which each sonnet was both an independent poem and part of an ongoing narrative development. Many poets employed conventional images and patterns of thought in their sonnets, but the most skilled mangaed to create tension and complexity by playing against the conventions even as they made use of them.

Among notable Elizabethan sonnet sequences (Sir Philip Sidney's "Astrophel and Stella"; Samuel Daniel's "Delia"; Edmund Spenser's Amoretti") Shakespeare's sequence of one hundred twenty sonnets addressed to a "dark lady" and a "fair young man" is considered to be the greatest.

In the seventeenth century John Donne's "Holy Sonnets" used the sonnet sequence as a vehicle for religious themes. John Milton wrote sonnets on religious and political themes, as well as on such personal subjects as his own blindness.

In the nineteenth century the love sonnet sequence was revived in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" (1850) and in Dante Gabriel Rosetti's "The House of Life" (1876).

Even after five centuries the sonnet still attracts the attention of serious poets, partly because of the challenge provided by the rigorous constraints of its fixed form, and partly because of its long tradition of use by most of the important poets in the English language.

How to excel as an English major

I: What to Expect

Expect to read! When you sign up for a literature course, anticipate spending many hours every week in the company of books. Let this be your one great expectation, and you will not be disappointed. Do you like to read? Do you enjoy stories? Do you feel enriched by having your ideas challenged, by thinking philosophically about the circumstances of life, people, and abstract concepts, or by experiencing the beauty that is possible through the skilled or merely felicitous use of language? If so, then you will probably get along just fine with the company you'll be keeping.

But, alas, there are other factors--factors of a decidedly practical aspect--that insist on being taken into consideration. First, there is that most obtrusive time factor. Do you have the time to invest into a literature course? Courses vary, yet it is safe to say that literature will always take whatever time you can give to it, and teachers often demand that you give to it more time than you are inclined or believe that you are capable of giving. Therefore, expect to read even beyond your inclination and supposed capability. Such a conclusion may seem too vague to be helpful, but it is meant to suggest an attitude that may be of benefit when you find that all of your courses have assignments due during the same week. Of course, only you can decide what your schedule will permit, but if you have doubts, allow yourself the liberty of examining the course requirements before you commit yourself.

Second, there is the factor of your reading speed and comprehension. If you know that you lack the reading skills necessary to keep up with the course schedule, you may want to make that self-knowledge the basis of your commitment to the course. If you engage only in those activities in which you know that you can succeed, you're not likely ever to break through to any new success. John Stuart Mill said it best in his Autobiography: "A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can." Not all excellence is measured by an academic grade. If you have a weakness in reading, either in speed or comprehension, a literature course may not be the course to take for an assured "A," and yet it may provide you with the incentive to excell in self-improvement. Therefore, expect to improve as a reader.

What might you expect regarding the class and the way that the course is taught? Well, if you already have expectations, then expect also to be surprised. Some literature courses require considerable writing, others do not. Some emphasize the lecture as a mode of teaching, others favor class discussion, perhaps even allowing for student presentations. No single approach works best for all teachers or, for that matter, all classes. Therefore, aside from the expectation of being required to read, it is best not to have set expectations regarding the way that the course is structured or taught. In fact, whether a particular pedagogical approach works depends as much or more upon each student's willingness to accept that approach as it does upon the instructor's ability to use it. Teachers with any experience at all know this, and they will appreciate your support.

II: The Course Syllabus and Schedule

What textbooks are you going to need to purchase? By what date will you need them? Will there be any writing assignments? If so, what sort of writing assignments, how long must they be, and when will they be due? What about exams? What mode of examination should you expect--essay, short answer, multiple choice, or some other? Over what subjects will you be tested? How will the teacher determine your grades? All of these questions and more should be answered by the course syllabus and schedule.

Think of the course syllabus as a legal contract between you and your instructor. Don't be misled by the fact that there's no dotted line requiring your signature. Your enrollment in the course is a tacit agreement to all the conditions set forth in the syllabus. Therefore, read the small print! Ask for an explanation of any details that are unclear to you. If there are important details missing from the syllabus, politely ask your teacher to make those details available to you. Perhaps, they could be written on the chalkboard during a class session for the benefit of all or, even better, printed as an addendum to the syllabus, so that copies can be distributed to the class. Although you'll want to leave it to your instructor to determine how she or he will make additions to the syllabus, don't be shy about asserting your right to know what to expect from the course and what conditions you are agreeing to by remaining in the class. Remember, though, to be courteous and respectful!

Know the syllabus! Study it as if you were to be tested on it. I've known instructors that have, in fact, formally tested their students on the syllabus. I too have tried that approach. Admittedly, we may have gone a bit too far. Even so, we instructors want and expect our students to know our policies and the requirements of course. At least, study the syllabus so that you know exactly what information it contains and will know, for future reference, when you need to consult it. If you miss an exam, a crucial deadline, or fail to bring the needed materials to class one day, you may want to check the syllabus to see what, if any, excuses may be valid; but, bear this one truth in mind--despite the fact that it is a cliche--that ignorance is no excuse. In fact, ignorance of the syllabus is worse than having no excuse, since it suggests to the instructor a lack of appropriate concern regarding the course. So, if your aim is to excel, don't sabotage your performance by failing to know the syllabus.

III: In the Classroom

Does your course syllabus note that part of your final grade is determined by class participation? If not, you might want to add it in the margin, for unless your grade is determined by a machine, you can be sure that--regardless of how objective your instructor may believe that she or he is--a definite personal impression is likely to have a definite, however small, effect on your grade. Many students make so little an impression on their instructor that their name, printed above the essays and exams they turn in, brings forward no favorable recollections to the instructor's mind. Even if your instructor insists that personal considerations have no bearing upon his or her grading, make it your policy to act as though they do have a bearing. After all, your instructor may be more human than he or she believes. Of course, impressions work on people's unconscious in differing ways, and it is always possible that the student who makes a positive impression in the classroom may create higher expectations in the mind of her or his instructor. This being the case, the surest and safest advice I can offer is this: first, realize that class participation does make a difference, and second, whenever possible, avoid making a negative impression.

More likely, however, your syllabus will state that a portion of your final grade will be determined by the quality of your class participation. What are the basic types of participation that your instructor will be evaluating? Usually, your syllabus will delineate these types. Look for any tasks that cannot be included in the other graded assignments. For example, if your syllabus notes that 40% of your grade will be based upon your exam scores, 40% upon your essays, and 20% upon class participation, then it is clear that anything required of you by the instructor that is not part of an exam or an essay will likely be considered as part of class participation.

Often, teachers will expect students to participate in class discussion, and usually that discussion will be about some aspects of the required reading. Unless both the reading and the discussion take place within the classroom during a single class period, you should allow time outside of class for whatever preparation is necessary for full participation during the class discussion. Occasionally, a teacher will give advance notice regarding the specific aspects of the literature to be discussed, but more often students are simply expected to be prepared for whatever discussion arises. So, come to class having carefully read the texts (see section iv below), and come to class with specific questions and observations that you are willing to share.

Set where you will be seen by your instructor. The more visible you are, the more likely you will be called upon to share your thoughts. At least, the instructor will note your interest in the discussion and your desire to participate. If the seats are arranged in rows and you are setting in the front row, when you participate in the discussion, speak to both the teacher and your fellow students. In other words, encourage a response by making the entire class your audience. Even if you want only the instructor to reply, let your question or remark be heard by the entire class, so that the instructor's reply will be meaningful to all.

Be polite. Never interject while another is still speaking. Don't engage in a discussion with your neighbor while another speaker has the floor. In fact, as a general rule, reserve all private discussion until after the class. Never, never, during class time, read a newspaper or notes or text for another class. Rather, always remain attentive, either to the lecture, discussion, or text under consideration, as the situation dictates.

When and how should you take notes during a class discussion or lecture? Very often students complain either that they can't write fast enough to keep up with all that the teacher is saying, that they take too many notes that prove to be of no use in exams or essays, or that they can't determine when something that is said during discussion should be noted for future use. These are serious complaints, but

PROLOGUE

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

When Prince Henry the Lion's Gospels were auctioned for 16 million euros ($20.7 million) at Sotheby's in London in 1983, the hand-written medieval masterpiece was called the most expensive book in the world.

At that time, Germany's federal government, the state governments of Lower Saxony and Bavaria, the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage and private donors pooled their funds to bring the fully intact book back to Germany for safe keeping.

Strangely enough, nobody knows who got the 16 million euros. But with 800 years of history between its pages, there's plenty of room for mystery.

Commissioned for new cathedral

Monk Herimann is the artist behind Henry's GospelsBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Monk Herimann is the artist behind Henry's Gospels

Henry the Lion, prince of what were then the kingdoms of Saxony and Bavaria, was one of the most powerful rulers of the Middle Ages and a member of the Guelph royal line.

Fitting with the tradition of the time, he commissioned the book in 1188 in honor of the consecration of the St. Mary's altar in the recently completed cathedral in Braunschweig.

Still wholly intact except for minor wear, the text includes all four of the Bible's Holy Gospels on 226 parchment pages. Fifty of these pages are colorful, elaborate pictures with gold leaf.

The book's high liturgical purpose was the reason for its ornate design and distinction: passages were read from it during each mass.

Spotty history

The so-called Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The so-called "Evangeliar" in 1984 shortly after its return to Germany

Only bits of the text's fate after Henry's reign are known. At some point it landed in Prague and in 1861 it was bought by the King of Hanover, who wanted to place it in a museum. When he was dethroned in 1866, he took the precious text with him to Austria.

Helmar Härtel from the Herzog August Library, where the Gospels are now kept, told German television station ZDF that they were offered to the King of England in 1945 after World War II had come to an end. He refused.

The parchments managed to make it to England nevertheless, though the how and why are unclear, and they were auctioned at Sotheby's in 1983. Since that time, the Gospels have been housed in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel just outside of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony.

After March 18, the 800-year-old pages will be returned to their specially designed climate-controlled safe, taking their history -- and mystery -- with them.

DW staff (kjb)
DW-WORLD.DE

J. K. Rowling

J. K. RowlingAKA Joanne Rowling

Born: 31-Jul-1965
Birthplace: Chipping Sodbury, Gloucester, England

Gender: Female
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Author

Nationality: England
Executive summary: Author of Harry Potter series

Harry Potter first popped into Joanne Rowling's head during a long, boring train trip. What if, she wondered, a child rode a train that took him away from the confines of the boring adult world, to a place where he had power, both literally and metaphorically? By the time the train arrived at Rowling's destination, she had outlined several books of Harry Potter's adventures.

Rowling (which rhymes with bowling, not howling) was a writer long before she was a published author. As a first-grader, she says, she was working on a novel. As a teen, she's described herself as "shy, freckly, with no natural athletic ability, but a great love of literature". As an adult, she wrote two novels, both unsold, while working for Amnesty International, and later working as "the worst secretary ever, very disorganized". Her first marriage didn't last long, and left Rowling to raise her daughter alone. She worked intermittently and went on the dole when she couldn't find work, still scribbling Harry Potter's adventures in cafés. The Scottish Arts Council was impressed, and gave her a grant to finish the book, but even then, the finished manuscript was rejected by several publishers.

Finally, in 1997, Rowling was offered the British equivalent of about $4,000 for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (retitled the Sorcerer's Stone for America). It was the publisher's idea to have her use a gender-neutral pen name, as they feared boys wouldn't read a book written by a woman, and it was Rowling's idea to add the 'K' -- she has no middle name -- in honor of her grandmother Kathleen.

The Potter novels are among the most popular books of all time, with each title selling millions of copies. The first three Potter titles were once ranked 1-2-3 on the New York Times bestseller list, leading to the creation of a separate list for children's books. And despite all the praise and publicity, the Harry Potter books really are quite the delight, enjoyable for both children and adults.

Rowling is fastidiously secretive about her personal life. She told reporters she wept after writing a character's death in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She said she walked into the kitchen crying after penning the tragic scene, and when she told her husband what was wrong, he said, 'Well, don't do it then.'" But Rowling explained, "It just doesn't work like that". When you're writing children's books, says Rowling, "you need to be a ruthless killer".

The movies based on the books have all been huge hits. In 2001, as Warner Bros. was preparing the first Harry Potter film for release, the corporation's attorneys sent very lawyerly cease-and-desist letters to the operators of hundreds of Potter fans' websites, threatening to sue if the sites weren't taken down or the domains transferred to Warner Bros. Needless to say, this was not savvy marketing. The subsequent horrendous publicity and fans' threats to boycott the film led the studio to quietly apologize.

In 2002, Rowling was sued by an American writer, Nancy Stouffer, who claimed that Potter had been stolen from Stouffer's The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, which featured a character named Larry Potter. An American court not only ruled against Stouffer, but said she had lied to the court and doctored evidence to support her claims. In 2003, Rowling successfully sued Dmitry Yemets, the author of Tanya Grotter and the Magic Double Bass, a Russian children's book, for lifting major plot elements from her Potter books. Yemets argued that his book was a parody, but the courts ruled for Rowling.

Rowling is now wealthier than the Queen of England, and she is the first person to become a billionaire solely through writing. She remarried in 2002, and lives with her family in an isolated mansion in Perthshire, where she still writes in local cafes.

Father: Peter Rowling (engineer, Rolls-Royce)
Mother: Anne Volant Rowling (d. 1990 multiple sclerosis)
Sister: Diane Rowling (b. 28-Jun-1967)
Husband: Jorge Arantes (TV journalist, m. 16-Oct-1992, div. 1995)
Daughter: Jessica Rowling (b. 27-Jul-1993)
Husband: Neil Murray (anaesthesiologist, m. 26-Dec-2002)
Son: David Gordon Rowling Murray (b. 23-Mar-2003)
Daughter: Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray (b. 23-Jan-2005)

High School: Wyedean Comprehensive, Chepstow, Wales
University: Exeter University

Whitbread Prize 1999 (Best Children's Book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Hugo 2001 (for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
Officer of the British Empire 2001
Amnesty International
Risk Factors: Smoking

Official Website:
http://www.jkrowling.com/

Author of books:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
Quidditch through the Ages (2001, as Kennilworthy Whisp)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001, as Newt Scamander)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)

Duma Key Paperback
Release Date: October 21st, 2008

Stephen's acclaimed novel Duma Key will be released in paperback format on October 21,2008.

$21.3 million

Magna Carta

Manuscript copy from 1297 a.d.

Sold by Sotheby's (New York), December 18

Estimate: $20 to $30 million

$3.98 million
(£1.95 million)

$3.98 million
(£1.95 million)

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

By J. K. Rowling

Handwritten manuscript from 2006

Sold by Sotheby's (London), December 13

Estimate: $60,000 to $100,000 (£30,000-£50,000)

$3.5 million
(£1.7 million)

Vita Christi

Vellum manuscript illuminated in Northern England, ca. 1190-1200, and East Anglia, ca. 1480-1490

Sold by Sotheby's (London), December 4

Estimate: $3.1 to $4.1 million (£1.5-£2.0 million)

$2.3 million
(£1.1 million)

Manuscript Koran

Mesopotamia, 1203 a.d.

Sold by Christie's (London), October 23

Estimate: $500,000 to $700,000 (£250,000-£350,000)

$1.9 million
(£916,500)

Manuscript Koran

North Africa, early 10th century

Sold by Christie's (London), October 23

Estimate: $825,000 to $1,250,000 (£400,000-£600,000)

There are countless rare books in the world, but by most expert's standards the rarest of them all is the Gutenberg Bible. It was the first book ever printed back in 1456, and although several hundred copies were originally printed finding a complete first edition would net you $25-$35 million. In today's market single pages alone go for $25,000 each, and several years ago just 1 volume (it's a 2 volume set) sold for $5.5 million.

Besides the Gutenberg Bible other rare books include the first edition of Shakespeare's collected works from 1623 (worth $6 million), a collection of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts (potentially worth as much as $100 million), and of course any first edition copy of the Declaration of Independence (worth $8 million). Edgar Allen Poe's work also makes in onto the "rarest books" list with his first published poem ("Tamerlane") being rare and difficult to find due to a byline of simply "By A Bostonian." It's worth as much as $200,000 to the right buyer.
More on The Gutenberg Bible

One hot evening in Padua they carried him up onto the roof and he could look out over the top of the town. There were chimney swifts in the sky. After a while it got dark and the searchlights came out. The others went down and took the bottles with them. He and Luz could hear them below on the balcony. Luz sat on the bed. She was cool and fresh in the hot night.

Luz stayed on night duty for three months. They were glad to let her. When they operated on him she prepared him for the operating table; and they had a joke about friend or enema. He went under the anaesthetic holding tight on to himself so he would not blab about anything during the silly, talky time. After he got on crutches he used to take the temperatures so Luz would not have to get up from the bed. There were only a few patients, and they all knew about it. They all liked Luz. As he walked back along the halls he thought of Luz in his bed.

Before he went back to the front they went into the Duomo and prayed. It was dim and quiet, and there were other people praying. They wanted to get married, but there was not enough time for the banns, and neither of them had birth certificates. They felt as though they were married, but they wanted everyone to know about it, and to make it so they could not lose it.

Luz wrote him many letters that he never got until after the armistice. Fifteen came in a bunch to the front and he sorted them by the dates and read them all straight through. They were all about the hospital, and how much she loved him and how it was impossible to get along without him and how terrible it was missing him at night.

After the armistice they agreed he should go home to get a job so they might be married. Luz would not come home until he had a good job and could come to New York to meet her. It was understood he would not drink, and he did not want to see his friends or anyone in the States. Only to get a job and be married. On the train from Padua to Milan they quarreled about her not being willing to come home at once. When they had to say good-bye, in the station at Milan, they kissed good-bye, but were not finished with the quarrel. He felt sick about saying good-bye like that.

He went to America on a boat from Genoa. Luz went back to Pordonone to open a hospital. It was lonely and rainy there, and there was a battalion of arditi quartered in the town. Living in the muddy, rainy town in the winter, the major of the battalion made love to Luz, and she had never known Italians before, and finally wrote to the States that theirs had only been a boy and girl affair. She was sorry, and she knew he would probably not be able to understand, but might some day forgive her, and be grateful to her, and she expected, absolutely unexpectedly, to be married in the spring. She loved him as always, but she realized now it was only a boy and girl love. She hoped he would have a great career, and believed in him absolutely. She knew it was for the best.

The major did not marry her in the spring, or any other time. Luz never got an answer to the letter to Chicago about it. A short time after he contracted gonorrhea from a sales girl in a loop department store while riding in a taxicab through Lincoln Park.

10. New York Public Library
New York City, NY, USA
Founded in 1895, this library stocks over 11 million books.

9. Vernadsky National Scientific Library of Ukraine
Kiev, Ukraine
Founded in 1919, this library stocks over 13 million books.

8. Harvard University Library
Cambridge, MA, USA
Founded in 1638, this library stocks over 13.1 million books.

7. Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow, Russia
Founded in 1969, this library stocks over 13.5 million books.

6. British Library
London, England
Founded in 1753, this library stocks over 16 million books.

5. Deutsche Biblothek
Frankfurt, Germany
Founded in 1990, this library stocks over 18.5 million books.

4. National Library of Canada
Ottawa, Canada
Founded in 1953, this library stocks over 18.8 million books.

3. Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russia
Founded in 1714, this library stocks over 20 million books.

2. National Library of China
Beijing, China
Founded in 1909, this library stocks over 22 million books.

1. Library of Congress
Washington DC, USA
Founded in 1800, this library stocks over 29 million books.

Posters are a simple but effective way of publicizing events and communicating important messages to the public at large. They can be displayed at special events and at school or in the community.

1. Design an effective poster. It is important to make your poster attractive and easy to read.

* Choose a background color that will not overwhelm the message
* Use appropriate pictures or graphics
* Choose fonts that are easy to read - consider colour, size and be careful not to mix too many different fonts

2. Decide how you will make your poster. Are you going to make a poster on cardboard by hand? Or do you have access to a computer and printer? Make it in the way that is easiest and most effective for you.

* Computer: Some computer programs allow you to make much larger posters by sticking several printed pages together. If not, you can use a large piece of lightweight cardboard and print off the message, pictures, title etc. separately and stick them onto the cardboard neatly. Decorate the poster edges with borders or other eye-catching features.
* By hand: If you cannot print a poster, choose the person with the best printing skills and use poster paints and bright and easy-to-use markers or pencils to make the posters. As with the computer version, make sure to decorate in an eye-catching way.

3. Choose one simple, memorable message. Place this message in large lettering that will attract attention. More detailed information can also be added in smaller lettering.

4. Add your information. If you are making your own information posters, you should get the information from a reliable source, such as from books, people working in the field or on reputable internet sites.

5. Have your information checked. Have your information checked by somebody with expertise in the subject. It might be someone who works or volunteers in a non-government organization or public office, for example, or a teacher. Also get somebody to spell check the information.

6. Include contact information. The point of your poster is to get attention. You will also want people to know where they can come for more information, so include contact details such as a phone number or an e-mail address.

7. Think carefully about where you will put up your posters. Try to find a location where lots of people will pass by but where they will not get lost in the crowd.

* Light colored paper, like cream, is great for the background.
* Remember, a poster doesn't always consist of a cut-up essay.
* Larger organizations involved in the issue you have chosen may have posters that you can use for public information.

Posters are cheap, colorful and varied. Why isn't everyone using them to decorate? They make your room look great. Here is a guide on how to use them:

1. Consider your personal style. Are you someone who wants posters neatly framed and aligned, or are you more of a slapdash, double-sided sticky-tape kind of person? Think about what looks have worked in other rooms you've seen. Most styles are self-explanatory, so below there is described a more complicated method. It is not the only method!
2. Start a poster collection. Pick them up at concerts or shows, or check out websites like amazon and posters.com. Check in magazines and album liner notes, or check at movie theatres or video rental places.
3. With a friend or parent, affix all the posters to the wall using lightweight tape. Play with different styles and looks.
4. Remove each poster from the wall one at a time. With a pencil, lightly indicate where each poster will be.
5. Mix glue and water in a 13"x9" or wider cake pan, making it at least an inch deep in the bottom. If you have a lot of stuff to put up, then make it deeper.
6. Quickly and carefully submerge your paper in the water/glue mixture using a pulling motion.
7. Place it on the wall where you have planned and use a soft rubber squeegy and your fingers to smooth it out and remove all the air pockets.

Tips:

* Make a plan for how to use all the posters before you start hanging them. The glue first, think later method is a sure way to get a look you're not happy with. Think about color combinations or what posters you want placed in prominent positions.
* To gain a wallpaper effect, leave minimal room between the posters.
* A ladder might come handy if you want to put posters on high places, like your ceiling or upper wall.
* Also always check that every poster is straight before final hanging because just one crooked poster can lead to a whole wall of crooked posters.
* You dont always want a poster that isn't crooked. Sometimes, if you're going for the slapped on their look, its better to literally just carefully arrange them that way.

I remember seeing my very first bookplate down in the murky (and rather frightening) cellar of the house my family moved to when I was eight. Deep in the shadows lay a battered old trunk. My father prised off the lock and lifted the lid. Inside were heaps of Ex Libris bookplatemusty old books, and, opening the first, I saw pasted inside the front cover a large black and white label. It was an engraving of a massively fancy and impressive family coat of arms. Across the top was written Ex Libris Viscount Molesworth.

Ex libris is Latin for "from the books of..." (or "out of the library of...."). And in the days when books were rare and precious, anyone who owned them would want to take particular care that, if they were lent, or borrowed, or taken away by mistake, there was the best chance of them finding their way home again.

Bookplates fell out of fashion as books became more common, less expensive and easier to replace. But there's a long tradition of using them - about four hundred years. There is even a Bookplate SocietyJames Wilson bookplate who know all there is to know about bookplates and the people who designed them or used them. (The Society's details are at the end of this article.)

Nobles and gentry (like my Viscount Molesworth) often used their own coats of arms. Frequently the family name or family motto was scrolled along the bottom, either in Latin or English. Styles changed through the ages, but most of the old bookplates, from Jacobean through to Victorian and Edwardian, appear stunningly fancy and complicated compared with a lot of the ones we have on our bookplates pages, reflecting the decorative styles of their ages.

Once you start looking, you'll see what a huge range of things show up over and over on bookplates: dragons, cherubs, trophies, animals, festoons, weapons, wreaths, trees, ribbons, landscapes, floral sprays. I could go on and on.

Many very famous artists have enjoyed designing bookplates for themselves, or for others. (The bookplate Aubrey Beardsley made for Mr Pollitt shows a nice fat naked lady with her bottom towards us, taking a book from a tray, and bookplates can easily have puns or jokes tucked away in the picture or the wording.)

Bookplate of girl reading bookLots of people collect them. Some go for one particular artist or style. Some look for bookplates of the royal or famous. You might look especially for owls, lions, children or musical instruments - anything.

One of the great pleasures of charity shops and jumble sales has always been peeking inside the front of really dull-looking old books you're sure that no one will ever read again, and finding a bookplate, often with a name written on it, that sets you wondering . . . wondering . . . It doesn't happen often, but just enough to keep you hoping.

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: A few minutes
Here's How:

1. Cut open a brown paper shopping bag. Remove the flap formed by the bottom of the bag so that you have one large sheet of brown paper.
2. Place the book in the center of the paper.
3. Wrap the paper up across the bottom of the book and make a crease along the bottom cover.
4. Repeat Step 3 for the top of the book.
5. Remove the book from the paper.
6. Fold the paper up at the bottom crease and down at the top crease. You should have a strip of paper big enough to cover the book from top to bottom.
7. Place the book back in the center of the paper. Wrap the paper across the front of the book from left to right and adjust the book position until the two ends of the paper are even.
8. Fold the overlap around the front cover of the book and make a crease. Then insert the front cover of the book into the slot created by the paper folded over at the top and the bottom. Slide the paper down over the book until you hit the crease.
9. Repeat Step 8 for the back cover of the book.
10. If the cover fits snugly, you can stop at this point. If it seems a little loose or the top and bottom folds are not lying flat, you can use small pieces of tape to pull the front and the inside flap together a little more securely.

Tips:

1. If your supermarket no longer offers paper bags, buy a roll of the brown paper designed for wrapping parcels and use that instead. Cut a piece long enough to cover the front, back and spine of the book with at least three inches of overlap at either end.
2. Do not tape the paper cover to the actual cover of the book; the paper cover will move a little when the book opens, and you could damage the book cover.
3. If your child likes and the teacher allows, decorate the cover with drawings or stickers.

What You Need:

* Textbooks
* Paper bags or a roll of brown parcel paper
* Scissors
* Tape

Instructions
Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Step1
Measure the poster to determine the correct size for the mounting board and the frame. Think about how you want the poster to look. Some people prefer a tight fit, while others like to leave an inch or a few inches of mounting board or colored paper behind the poster.

Step2
Go to your local frame store and buy a poster frame an inch or two larger than the poster measurements. It's best to leave an inch or two free or the poster's edges may be clipped. Ask the salesperson for advice or look at framed posters of a similar size to compare.

Step3
Undo the hinges at the back of the frame. If the measurements are exact, you can slip the poster onto the ready-made board inside, then adjust it until it looks even. If you purchased a separate poster board, place the poster on it and adjust until it is even. Trim the poster board for a better fit.

Step4
Slip the poster board inside the frame, checking the glass front and make necessary adjustments. Some posters will stay secure on the backing board without epoxy, but others may need tape or adhesive.

Step5
Clean the glass on the front of your frame before locking the hinges on the back. Experiment with different placements on your wall until you find the perfect spot for your new poster.

On lazy summer days I find a shady spot and become a bookworm.

Materials:

Book of your choice
Fabric, can be an old pair of jeans or plain colored piece of clothing, color of your choice
Piece of green ribbon about 2" wide by 6" long
Small scrap of red ribbon
Small scrap of yellow or metallic gold ribbon
Black permanent marker
Fusible Web about 3" X 8"
Scissors
Iron
Fabric or craft glue
Craft paint brush or applicator stick

Instructions:

Open the book out flat on your fabric and trace around the book. On each end add a rectangle 5" wide. Add approximately 1/4" all the way around for your seam allowance. Using the paint brush and the glue paint a quarter inch line on the wrong side of each end. Allow to dry. Paint a second line on the right side of the fabric at each end and allow to dry. This will seal the edge and keep it from raveling.

Now, paint a quarter inch line all the way across the top and the bottom on the wrong side of the fabric. Fold the two ends toward the center 4 3/4" on each end and rub with your fingers to seal the two edges together. Allow to dry and then paint the right side with the glue in a 1/4" edge to prevent fraying.

As with all projects using electrical tools you will need adult assistance with the iron on the next step.

Trace the bookworm on the paper side of the fusible web and fuse it to the wrong side of the green ribbon. Fuse the hat to the wrong side of the gold or yellow ribbon and the book to the wrong side of the red ribbon. Cut out each piece. On the bookworm using your permanent marker mark his eyes, his mouth, his arms and the segment lines. On the hat draw a line across as pictured. Very carefully fold the green ribbon so you can clip the bookworms arms. You will cut them out from the top around past his hands.

Remove the paper from the back of the fusible web on the book part. Place it in the bookworms hands and peel just the hand part of the paper. Just barely tack to hold the book in place then remove the paper from the rest of the bookworm and the book and position them on your book cover where you think he looks best. Peel the paper from the hat and place it on the bookworms head and iron in place. If you are using a heavy fabric you might need to iron both sides.

Optional: You can take embroidery floss to match the worm, his hat or book and make small buttonhole stitch all around the edge of the book cover for decoration. These will be tiny stitches with just two strands embroidery floss. This will not only decorate the edge it will help strengthen the seams.

Bookmark

On card stock cut a piece 2" wide by 6" long. Trace the bookworm on the card stock. Color him to match the one on the book cover using paint, crayons, pencils or markers. Cut two pieces of clear contact paper 3" X 7". Center your card stock with the bookworm on it on one piece of contact paper, cover the other side with the second piece of contact paper smoothing it down all the way around. Trim close to the card stock but leave a little area where the contact paper is stuck to itself. Trim all the way around. Punch a hole in one end and make an embroidery floss tassel.

Tassel

Cut one piece of embroidery floss 8" long. Fold in half. Place the folded end through the hole in the bookmark so it leaves a loop and bring the two ends of the same piece of floss through the loop and pull it snug. Tie a single knot 2 1/2" from the ends.

Wrap about 24" of floss around a piece of cardboard 2" square. Slip one end of the piece attached to the bookmark under the wraps and tie a knot catching all the wraps on the cardboard. Remove the cardboard and bring the two pieces from the knot down about 1/2", tie a single knot and wrap the two legs, one clockwise and one counter clockwise for two wraps each around the whole bundle and tie off in a double knot. Clip the bottoms of your tassel and trim them straight.

Collectors not only paste their own bookplates in their books, they also frequently have copies made to trade with like-minded colleagues. Later, free of associations with their original owner, such bookplates become ephemeral objects. Artists commissioned to design bookplates will often include images related to their patron's interests. In the case of medical bookplates, such images usually include aspects of medical specialties - an operating scene for surgeons, an infant for pediatricians, etc. There are also many examples with a microscope, caduceus, or scalpel for physicians, a tooth for dentists, or a mortar and pestle for pharmacists.

The bookplate of Frederick G. Banting, a Nobel Prize winner for his discovery of the use of insulin in diabetes, featured a laboratory scene, and that of the movie actor, Jean Hersholt, who played a physician in a film on the Dionne quintuplets, displayed flags of his native and his adopted countries. Bookplates by well-known artists such as the Viennese Michael Fingesten, who made a number of examples for physicians and pharmacists, are especially prized.

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. prepares and motivates children to read by delivering free books and literacy resources to those children and families who need them most.

1. How should I store my books?

Do: Store books in a dry location;
away from windows;
on flat, smooth shelves that are strong enough;
keep similar size books together;
use bookends to keep books from leaning in addition to falling over;
book spine should be perpendicular to shelf;

Do Not: store books in an attic or basement;
under direct sunlight;
under plumbing and water pipes;
put on shelves against outside walls.

2. How can I save wet books? What if my books are moldy?

The most important thing to do to save your wet books is to take action as soon as possible.

Stabilize and air dry as much of the collection as possible. Fan volumes open and stand them on the top or bottom edge on an absorbent material such as paper towel. Change it whenever it becomes wet. As the book dries turn it upside-down. Humidity levels should be maintained below 75% RH with dehumidifiers. Low temperatures will assist in the avoidance of mold problems.

Using electric fans will increase air circulation and dry out most items efficiently, but do not point them directly at the drying books.

What cannot be air-dried in 48 hours, can probably be frozen to stabilize and dry at a later time. Please check with a conservator.

Mold is the greatest risk and hazard, both to books and to humans. If you suspect or see mold, or think that the water may have been contaminated with sewage or harmful chemicals, you must wear protective clothing, gloves, and a mask while salvaging your books. Also, take strict precautions to protect your skin and lungs. If mold is present, seek professional advice and proceed with caution. If any negative health effects are observed, contact a doctor, mycologist, or both, before proceeding. Local colleges and universities can help you find a mycologist.

3. How can I get rid of the smell of mildew in my books?

The smell comes from biological growth on books that are stored in damp, dark, cool locations. Remove the materials to a drier (but still cool) environment, and make sure that plenty of air is circulating around them. These conditions should render the biological growth dormant. If the mildewed materials are stored for an extended period under such conditions, the smell will eventually disappear of its own accord. The same technique can be applied to dry books affected with active mold.

If you can see mold growth, DO NOT attempt to clean it off until the materials are thoroughly dry. Premature cleaning attempts will grind the mold into the covers or paper and cause stains that are often impossible to remove.

A short exposure to sunlight and circulating air outdoors also may help; however, it may result in damages such as some darkening or fading of book materials and paper may occur, so select this approach only with materials for which such damage is considered acceptable.

4. How can I mend a torn page?

The best way to mend a torn page is using Japanese paper. Book suppliers can sell you a variety of Japanese papers. The most common used is called Sekishu. To repair the page, apply a small amount of glue to where the torn ends are aligned. Tear off a piece of Japanese paper and lay it over the tear. (The Japanese paper looks more natural if torn as opposed to cutting). The Japanese paper is thin enough that you can still see through it to read the text but it is also very strong.

5. I have an infestation. How can I get rid of bugs in my books?

Isolate the affected books by placing them in a tightly sealed plastic bag. Seek assistance from an entomologist. A local university or state extension service should be able to put you in touch with one. Fumigation must be performed by professionals under controlled conditions.

Non-chemical preventive measures against insects include:

1). Seal entry points including windows, doors and put filters on vents.
2). Keep room temperatures and humidity levels low (insects need water, too).
3). Keep the environment clean and dusted, and don't store books near food or rubbish, etc.

6. The leather on my books is worn and scuffed. Should I oil my leather books?

Leather dressings were at one time thought to be useful in extending the life of leather bindings. Experience has shown, however, that the benefit is primarily cosmetic and that inexpert use of leather dressing does more harm than good. Studies have shown that leather dressing can cause the leather to dry out over time. Leather may become stiffer, accompanied by darkening or surface staining. If too much dressing is applied too frequently, the surface of the leather may become sticky and attract dust and the oil stains and deteriorate the paper.