BOOKS

We've posted photos of gorgeous libraries before, but we just can’t get enough of these stunning book repositories. For those of you who share this opinion, here are fifteen of the most beautiful libraries throughout Europe, in no particular order. Trin

This past week I spent some quality time in the children's section of the Wayne Public Library. Over on Instagram (we're @mental_floss), I've been sharing photos of books with facts related to them. Since only 1,030 people have joined us over there — way

Here are some old photos of librarians showing both the diversity of their duties and the diversity of the workers themselves. All images courtesy of the Library of Congress, unless otherwise mentioned.Helping OthersHere are a few images of librarians bei

It’s hard to make that first trip to the college bookstore for required texts without leaving with a bit of sticker shock. Why are textbooks so astonishingly expensive? Let’s take a look.

When we think of Jules Verne, we think of the genius behind 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Journey to the Center of the Earth (my personal favorite of only because I read it first, at an impressionable age, and it got me on a sci-fi kick). In these stori

These days, damp, rainy spells usually inspire us to curl up on the couch and watch an American Pickers marathon (tell me that's not just me). But back in 1816 - also known as "The Year Without a Summer" - the results were much different. The summer was r

Ask someone what his or her favorite parody movie is and you'll hear Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, or some other classic of the genre. But ask what their favorite parody novel is and you'll likely get a blank stare. To help you answer this difficult, life-d

YouTube phenoms Pomplamoose have released a Christmas album -- but it's not for sale. The only way to get the album is to donate a book to the Richmond Book Drive. The deal is this: you buy a book for kids in Richmond, California public schools, and Po

Bill Bryson's new book At Home has the subtitle "A Short History of Private Life," but it could be more accurately called "Really Interesting Stuff Nobody Knows." Stuff like a Stone Age village discovered in Scotland – older than the Great Pyramids – th

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Sir Allen Lane is the creator of Penguin Books, which is credited with popularizing high-quality mass-market paperbacks. Paperbacks existed prior to Penguin, but they were often poorly made and/or had trashy subject matter. Lane changed all that, publis

The mystery of the boy detective.