Reading material for 04/16/12.

Some reading material from around the internet:

Brangelina are now engaged.

The LAPD is using computers to predict crimes before they happen.

Kim Jong Un speaks publicly for the first time.

Which fictional character shares your birthday?

Baby found alive in morgue hours after being declared dead.

Whatever happened to the iceberg that sank the Titanic?

Very few drivers admit to being tailgaters.

The Office may get rebooted next season.

Finally, a trailer for Rian Johnson’s Looper, a film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the same time traveling hitman.

Is Maggie Smith leaving Downton Abbey?

Tom Hanks to possibly star as Walt Disney in a film about the backstory on Mary Poppins.

A doctor reviews the science on House.

Kevin Costner really did ask Princess Diana to be in The Bodyguard.

For more information about this and other deadlines, see here.

Most of the pictures in this post are of “Home,” a recent sculptural art installation by a very talented artist named Miler Lagos. You can find more information about this project here and here.

J.K. Rowling’s post-Potter book for adults has a title now: The Casual Vacancy.

Bad ass contemporary American poets.

Literary classics with slang makeovers.

Antitrust regulation, price fixing, and e-books.

The 10 most frequently challenged library books.

A video of Tao Lin reading a poem of his called, “Whale,” which may be the most annoying, clever, and also annoying poem in the world.

BTW, it’s National Poetry Month!

What do you think of the smell of a used book?

Watch 10 celebrities reading famous poems aloud, including Bill Murray reading a poem called “Another Reason I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House” by Billy Collins to construction workers below…

Watch a corgi get vacuumed.

Pizza Hut introduces hot dog-stuffed crust pizza in the UK.

John Cleese on how to be creative.

How to get tax breaks by doing things in space.

Classic video games reimagined as children’s books.

A guide to finding sunglasses for lesser known face shapes.

How to blog.

from here.

Physicists continue work to abolish time as the fourth dimension of space.

Swedish town rocked by second child exorcism.

What professors earn.

What a new study of the evolution of names  reveals about China.

Scientists count Emperor Penguins from space.

New space propulsion technology could help clean up Earth orbit.

Star making in France.

* * *

Previous online reading material:

04/09/12.

04/02/12.

03/26/12.

03/12/12.

03/05/12.

Donations.

This post is really about two things…

The first is: Several of our patrons have come in recently asking if we’ll take donations. The simple answer is:

Yes. Yes, we will. In fact, donations from patrons like you is a big part of how we function.

So if you have any books that you just would like to find a new home for, especially those in the “gently used” category, then please consider us. And the same goes for DVDs, audiobooks, and things like that. We can always use them.

(If you’re looking for tax credit for your donations, especially during this time of year, just let us know.)

But if for some reason we can’t, we have a giveaway shelf where they can go to somebody who can use them.

And that’s part two: We have a giveaway shelf! Someone came in the other day and said to me that it was too bad that we didn’t have a paperback exchange, and I said, “Well… actually, we do!” We have a giveaway shelf where you’re free to come and find some items, and if you’d like to to exchange or just borrow those items, that’s fine too, of course.

And I gotta say, you’ll find some perpetually interesting choices on the giveaway shelf. They’re mostly in the aforementioned “gently used” paperback form, which is perfect for quick reads or if you’re traveling. You’ll find some pictures from several of the paperbacks currently on the shelf in this post, but no promises on how long they’ll be there, or what will take their place.

So please keep us in mind if you’re ever looking to donate some of your books, DVDs, or audiobooks and stop on by to check out our giveaway shelf when you get a chance.