A blog for young readers (and YA lovers) from the Providence Athenaeum.
The Providence Athenaeum is a unique library and cultural center in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island. Growing out of the Providence Library Company (fourth library in the United States), the Athenaeum as we know it was formed in 1836. Our handsome building on the corner of Benefit and College was completed in 1838.
We are one of the few surviving membership libraries in the nation. Student memberships are available - visit or call for more information.
This blog is updated by one of our circulation assistants (and YA enthusiast), RJ. Follow us to find out what's new in our Young Adult corner, or just for a daily dose of literary shenanigans.
You can follow the Ath on twitter or facebook. Our catalog and much more information about us can be found at our homepage.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Five innovative reading chairs:
- The Bibliochaise, a stylish, blocky chair that has 5 meters (about 16.4 feet) of shelf space.
- The Bookinist, a cart-shaped portable chair with built-in shelves, a lamp, and a secret compartment for bookmarks, reading glasses and more.
- The Bookworm, a swooping wrap-around shelf and chair that’s also a work of art.
- The Dondola, a stainless steel rocking chair that allows you to adjust its angle by moving your books from one shelf to another.
- The Cocoon 1, a cozy clear sphere with customizable cushions - great for avoiding the elements while reading outdoors.
Which one do you think is the ultimate in reader relaxation?
In news that only matters to publishing nerds, the New York Times has changed its bestseller lists to become format neutral (so it counts e-book sales and doesn’t distinguish between hardcover and paperback), and is now split between young adult books and chapter books written for 8- to 12-year-olds.
I love this change! Very interesting to see the middle grade list skew towards non-fiction and hobby books, while the YA list is all novels, including literary dynamite like The Book Thief, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Fault In Our Stars.
How and Why We Read: Crash Course English Literature #1
In which John Green kicks off the Crash Course Literature mini series with a reasonable set of questions. Why do we read? What’s the point of reading critically? John will argue that reading is about effectively communicating with other people. Unlike a direct communication though, the writer has to communicate with a stranger, through time and space, with only “dry dead words on a page.” So how’s that going to work? Find out with Crash Course Literature! Also, readers are empowered during the open letter, so that’s pretty cool.
Don’t miss YA author John Green’s fabulous new series of Crash Course videos on literature!
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This weekend, seven hundred members of the Jane Austen Society of North America congregated in Brooklyn for its inaugural meeting, a discussion of sex, money, and power. Anna Quindlen delivered the keynote. Cornel West addressed suffering. And, of course, bonnets were worn. “This is a place where people can let their Jane Austen freak flag fly,” said one attendee. [New York Times]
Whatever your literary obsession is, there are always places to find your tribe.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbn09wdNBd1qced37o1_500.jpg)
This weekend, seven hundred members of the Jane Austen Society of North America congregated in Brooklyn for its inaugural meeting, a discussion of sex, money, and power. Anna Quindlen delivered the keynote. Cornel West addressed suffering. And, of course, bonnets were worn. “This is a place where people can let their Jane Austen freak flag fly,” said one attendee. [New York Times]
Whatever your literary obsession is, there are always places to find your tribe.
Happy birthday to playwright and novelist Alice Childress.
Lord of the Rings Dress
Wow! You can wear a map Middle Earth! Unfortunately, the website that was carrying the dress appears to be down, and even if it comes back, this lovely literary gear will cost you $100. Oh well… why not announce your Tolkienite pride with this t-shirt of an imaginary Middle Earth metro map instead?
There is good and reason in us, in human beings, with whom fortune plays, and we can be stronger than nature and fate, if only for a few hours. And we can draw close to one another in times of need, understand and love one another, and live to comfort each other. And sometimes, when the black depths are silent, we can do even more. We can then be gods for moments, stretch out a commanding hand and create things which were not there before and which, when they are created, continue to live without us. Out of sounds, words, and other frail and worthless things, we can construct playthings — songs and poems full of meaning, consolation and goodness, more beautiful and enduring than the grim sport of fortune and destiny.
Hermann Hesse, author of Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and other works. He was born on this day, July 2nd, in 1877.
I’m a 56-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer. I’m comfortably asocial — a hermit living in a large city — a pessimist if I’m not careful; a student, endlessly curious; a feminist; an African American; a former Baptist; and an oil and water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.
Octavia Butler, author of Kindred, The Parable of the Sower, Fledgling, and many other works. She earned both Hugo and Nebula awards, was the first science-fiction writer to be awarded the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, and this year was honored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America with the 2012 Solstice Award. A scholarship in her name was established in 2007 to provide opportunities for writers of color.
Today would have been Octavia Butler’s sixty-fifth birthday.
My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each day. And if you were found with a book, it was an automatic death penalty. She had gotten hold of a copy of ‘Gone With the Wind’, and she would take three or four hours out of her sleeping time each night to read. And then, during the hour or so when they were sewing the next day, she would tell them all the story. These girls were risking certain death for a story. And when she told me that story herself, it actually made what I do feel more important. Because giving people stories is not a luxury. It’s actually one of the things that you live and die for.
Neil Gaiman
(Source: lupanthropy)
I should dearly love that the world should be ever so little better for my presence. Even on this small stage we have our two sides, and something might be done by throwing all one’s weight on the scale of breadth, tolerance, charity, temperance, peace, and kindliness to man and beast. We can’t all strike very big blows, and even the little ones count for something.
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, writer best known for creating Sherlock Holmes. He was born on this date, May 22nd, in 1859.
