Category: Miscellaneous

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Book of the Month Club Celebrates Their Centennial

This year is not only the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Book of the Month Club—it also marks a decade since chairman John Lippman relaunched the iconic service and rebranded it Book of the Month. When Lippman, whose background is in finance and music, acquired BOTM in late 2012 from parent company Bookspan, it was being buffeted by both the rise of online bookselling and the explosion of e-books. Lippman’s goal was clear: to create a new business that would appeal to readers who were increasingly buying books online. Even after the acquisition, Lippman wasn’t sure his plan would work. But now he’s happy to report to PW that BOTM has grown every year since the relaunch, and it currently has more than 400,000 members and around 60 employees. Read more

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The Rise of Smutty Book Clubs

Smutty book clubs are now gaining traction across the world. In London, Main Character – a new romance-novel-themed shop in Spitalfields – is holding monthly Smut Clubs and “spicy read” open-mic nights. Toronto-based romance-only book store Hopeless Romantic now has four book clubs to keep up with demand and the breadth of the genre – contemporary romance, ‘dark and spicy’, queer, and romantasy. Read more

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How Math and Literature Are Unexpectedly Connected

“The universe is full of underlying structure, pattern, and regularity, and mathematics is the best tool we have for understanding it,” writes [Sarah] Hart in her book, Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature. “That’s why mathematics is often called the language of the universe, and why it is so vital to science.” In her book, Hart reveals a long list of literary greats who love mathematics such as James Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe and George Eliot. She also points to popular authors today who use math in their work like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Michael Crichton who wrote Jurassic Park.

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Reading Books Can Help You Live Longer—Here’s How

Every January, many of us resolve to finally read more. A new book appears on the nightstand, an audiobook gets downloaded, or we dust off an old library card. We keep finding our way back to it because reading feels like a wholesome promise of more calm, curiosity, and escape. But research increasingly suggests that reading may be more powerful than we realize. In fact, doing so regularly has been linked to lower stress, stronger memory, protection against cognitive decline and dementia, and even a longer life. Read more

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