Loose Ends

I love to read that having a home library is predictive of children’s performance in school: “Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics…” Now I can justify the mountains of books around here. It’s for the kids.

Speaking of libraries, yowsa!

Comedy gold:

A friend of mine goes to Brown and she has a chemistry class with Emma Watson. She said one day Emma answered a question correctly and someone in the back shouted, “TEN POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!” She wasn’t happy.

In an infraction that will make that cherry tree seem like chump change, George Washington has been found to owe $300,000 in late fees to a New York library. And the meter’s still running, George.

Amazon reports net income up 68% in the 1st quarter. That’s a lot of Kindles apparently. The iPad is on the scene just in time to shake things up.

What’s up at Salon? First they announced a deal to post McSweeney’s content on the site. Now they’ve inked a deal with Barnes and Noble Review. I’m just happy to see that someone – anyone- is bullish on book-related content. Go, Salon, go.

Not only is the Beach Book Festival not at the beach, but their web site is a time machine back to the internet circa ’98. My eyes!

Voting for the finalists for Children’s Book Week awards is ongoing. Children’s Book Week is May 10-16.