Friday links, 20. October 2017

Friday links is where I post links to blogs and websites I want to remember without cluttering up my browser bookmarks, along with interesting articles, reviews and lists I want to bring to the notice of others, and other stuff I find on the web.

I took an unplanned break from blogging because I got roped into doing some teaching and preparing for that stuff is time-consuming. I have been steadily reading and listening to audiobooks all this time, and currently have one review in the making and a couple of other posts I am preparing. During the blogging break, I found all sorts of interesting goodies to post in Friday Links, most of them relating to language, books, literature and reading.

Most of the ones below are not brand new, but no less interesting for that.

Today's links:

The secret language you speak without realising it. A look at some of the tech words added to the online edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary earlier in the year.
Since I'm at it, here is the Wikipedia link to M-W's word of the year lists.
Someone Just Ran Over Terry Pratchett’s Unpublished Workwith a Steamroller. Yes, that happened.
In their own words: 10 female translators on the work that inspires them.
Chances are you own or have owned at least one of them: On the Ubiquitous, Economy-Shaping, Library-Defining BillyBookcase.
A new study shows that students learn way more effectivelyfrom print textbooks than screens.

And the list:

In 2012, Ann Morgan set out to read books from every country in the world. She published her thoughts and reviews on the blog A Year of Reading the World. Then she got a book deal and wrote a book about her reading adventure. Today's list contains all the book recommendations she got for the project, classed by country, and would be a valuable resource for anyone planning to attempt a similar feat.

Comments

Icelandic folk-tale: The Devil Takes a Wife

Stories of people who have made a deal with and then beaten the devil exist all over Christendom and even in literature. Here is a typical one: O nce upon a time there were a mother and daughter who lived together. They were rich and the daughter was considered a great catch and had many suitors, but she accepted no-one and it was the opinion of many that she intended to stay celebrate and serve God, being a very devout woman. The devil didn’t like this at all and took on the form of a young man and proposed to the girl, intending to seduce her over to his side little by little. He insinuated himself into her good graces and charmed her so thoroughly that she accepted his suit and they were betrothed and eventually married. But when the time came for him to enter the marriage bed the girl was so pure and innocent that he couldn’t go near her. He excused himself by saying that he couldn’t sleep and needed a bath in order to go to sleep. A bath was prepared for him and in he went...

Book 40: The Martian by Andy Weir, audiobook read by Wil Wheaton

Note : This will be a general scattershot discussion about my thoughts on the book and the movie, and not a cohesive review. When movies are based on books I am interested in reading but haven't yet read, I generally wait to read the book until I have seen the movie, but when a movie is made based on a book I have already read, I try to abstain from rereading the book until I have seen the movie. The reason is simple: I am one of those people who can be reduced to near-incoherent rage when a movie severely alters the perfectly good story line of a beloved book, changes the ending beyond recognition or adds unnecessarily to the story ( The Hobbit , anyone?) without any apparent reason. I don't mind omissions of unnecessary parts so much (I did not, for example, become enraged to find Tom Bombadil missing from The Lord of the Rings ), because one expects that - movies based on books would be TV-series long if they tried to include everything, so the material must be pared down ...

How to make a simple origami bookmark

Here are some instructions on how to make a simple origami (paper folding) bookmark: Take a square of paper. It can be patterned origami paper, gift paper or even office paper, just as long as it’s easy to fold. The square should not be much bigger than 10 cm/4 inches across, unless you intend to use the mark for a big book. The images show what the paper should look like after you follow each step of the instructions. The two sides of the paper are shown in different colours to make things easier, and the edges and fold lines are shown as black lines. Fold the paper in half diagonally (corner to corner), and then unfold. Repeat with the other two corners. This is to find the middle and to make the rest of the folding easier. If the paper is thick or stiff it can help to reverse the folds. Fold three of the corners in so that they meet in the middle. You now have a piece of paper resembling an open envelope. For the next two steps, ignore the flap. Fold the square diagonally in two. Yo...

Reading in Reykjavík

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