(Roughly) Daily

Posts Tagged ‘preferences

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all”*…

A visual representation of the Literature-Map highlighting authors related to Thomas Pynchon, showcasing the proximity of different authors based on reader preferences.

Ah, but “good”?… Past a certain level of quality, our definitions of “good”– that’s to say, the books that entertain and enlighten– vary for each of us. How to choose? Literature-Map is here to help…

The Literature-Map is part of Gnod, the Global Network of Discovery.

It is based on Gnooks, Gnod’s literature recommendation system. The more people like an author and another author, the closer together these two authors will move on the Literature-Map.

If you found a typo or a duplicate, please report it here.

Is an author missing on the map? Please vote for them here.

Want to jump to a random place on the map? Click here

Help in finding your next book: “The Literature-Map.”

* Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

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As we turn the page, we might recall that this date in 1935 was a big one for the book business:

Allen Lane, Chairman of the London publisher The Bodley Head, was returning home after traveling with author Agatha Christie and her husband. At the train station, he browsed the kiosks looking for something to read on his way home. All he could find were magazines or low-quality paperback stories that he had no interest in reading. Then the thought occurred to him that people, like himself, might be more inclined to read good quality books [literature in paperback was then mainly poor quality lurid fiction] if they were more affordable. And since he was in the position to help build up lagging sales for his company, he ventured into printing previously hard-back books into a paperback format. The first was released on this day in 1935…

– source

Penguin Books featured no photos and were priced about a fifteenth the price of a hardcover book. The traditional book trade initially resisted; but the purchase of 63,000 books by Woolworths paid for the project outright, confirmed its worth, and allowed Lane to establish Penguin as a separate business in 1936. Indeed, by March 1936, ten months after the company’s launch, one million Penguin books had been printed.

[More here]

A comparison of the Penguin Books logo from 1935 and 2003, featuring a penguin illustration on a blue background for the older logo and an updated design on an orange background for the newer version.

source

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook”*…

 

 click here for larger interactive version

As your correspondent flies home from the land of lobster rolls, a consideration of the food preferences that set us, state by state, apart…

Every state in the U.S. has a unique flavor, from Chicken Cheesesteak to Chinese Chicken SaladFoursquare analyzed the data to pinpoint which food or drink is most disproportionately popular in each destination, and worked with Mapbox to create [this] dynamic map…

More at “America’s Most Popular Tastes.”

* Julia Child

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As we place our orders, we might recall that it was on this date in 1892 that the Lea & Perrins label was trademarked.  First sold in 1838 by John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, dispensing chemists from Broad Street, Worcester, “Worcestershire Sauce” remains a staple condiment.

 source

 

Written by (Roughly) Daily

May 31, 2015 at 1:01 am