Readers

Goodreads has created a massive infographic analyzing the Fifty Shades of Grey effect around the country.

Vintage has already sold ten million copies of E. L. James‘ erotica trilogy, and the literary social network discovered some fascinating trends. They charted both the geographic distribution of readers and the books that have received a bump from a new national interest in erotica.  We’ve embedded the infographic below. Here’s more from Goodreads:

The states with the highest readers per capita are located primarily in the Tri-State and New England area: New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New York. Fifty Shades of Grey has given some readers a new taste for erotica, and we’ve found a jump in interest in similar books on Goodreads. Just recently, Penguin’s Berkley Books imprint snatched up Sylvia Day‘s self-published novel, Bared to You, which has generated 2,500 reviews in the past two months … Other books potentially joining the sultry summer reading list are Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard, Rock Me by Cherrie Lynn, Captive in the Dark by C.J. Roberts, and The Reluctant Dom by Lesli Richardson.

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

The classic kid’s book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein inspired intricate invitations for an upcoming wedding, making headlines in the wedding blog world.

Offbeat Bride has the scoop: “I have to confess, I got a little teary-eyed over Andrew and Jackie’s Giving Tree wedding invitations, made by Kim from NMI Creations. (Did you pick up on the special wording of “share” and “give” like for The Giving Tree? Subtle, eh?) If you think the invitations are cute, wait until you see their matching Save the Dates AND the completed invitation suite with the hidden tear-inducing surprise!”

This could very easily produce a wave of children’s book inspired wedding materials. What classic book would you use for your wedding invitations? (Via Reddit)

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Amazon has unveiled its Most Well-Read Cities in America list, an annual list of the leading cities with 100,000 or more residents that have the most Amazon sales of “all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format.”

The complete list follows below–what do you think? Here’s more from the release:

Berkeley, Calif., is a city full of jet-setters – it topped the list by ordering the most Travel books. Boulder, Colo., keeps the closest eye on its waistline by topping the list of cities that order the most books in the Health, Fitness & Dieting category. Virginia is for lovers – Alexandria, Va., that is, which tops the charts in the Romance book category. Cambridge, Mass., grows the most budding entrepreneurs. These locals topped the list for ordering the most books in the Business & Investing category.

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Novelist Cynthia Thayer watched her family’s 153-year-old barn burn to the ground. Friends and supporters have organized an online fundraiser to help the novelist rebuild.

Author Kristen Britain attends a weekly writing workshop at Thayer’s house in Maine, and she shared a picture (embedded above) of herself with one of the Fjord draft ponies that died in the fire. Follow this link if you want to help the the family.

Here’s more from Britain’s post: “In the early hours of Monday, May 7th, my friends awoke to every farmer’s nightmare: their barn, full of livestock, was engulfed in fire. The fire was too far gone to save the animals–pigs, cattle, horses, sheep and lambs, ducks, chickens and chicks. Only two animals survived the blaze by some miracle: a chick now named Lucky, and the barn cat … I and many others have ridden in a wagon and sleigh drawn behind [the horses] either at the farm itself or the Common Ground Fair. The horses helped Bill with the haying in the summer and working in the woods during the winter, and brought delight to many of us in between.”

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Designer Jared Fanning created a simple infographic comparing the Top 10 Most Read Books in the World.

Follow this link to see a larger image–are you surprised? The list was compiled by freelance writer James Chapman, based on the number of copies each book sold over the last 50 years.

Check it out: “I have compiled this list of the 10 Most Read Books In The World after completing a long project of research to establish exactly which are the most read books in the world … You will find in this list a varied array of subject matter, covering a considerable number of years of some truly talented author’s work. Some of the authors are no longer with us, but the majority are still producing their masterpieces for our ongoing delight.” (Via Reddit)

Exactly how big is America’s illiteracy problem? The Understanding Illiteracy infographic will help you actually see the scope of the problem.

We’ve embedded the complete infographic below–what do you think?

Childhood literacy groups need your support. Yahoo created a handy directory of literacy nonprofits. In addition, we recently linked to a series of posters supporting Burning Through Pages, a literacy organization encouraging kids to read in school.

 

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The Hunger Games trilogy now rules Amazon Kindle’s Most Highlighted Passages of All Time List. Out of the ten most popular quotes underlined by Kindle readers, eight passages were from the dystopian trilogy that spawned a blockbuster film.

The only non-Hunger Games book to crack the top ten most highlighted passages of all time list was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This quote has been underlined by more than 8,800 Kindle users: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Here is the most highlighted passage of all time on the Kindle, a quote from Catching Fire (the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy): “Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not equipped to deal with them.” This quote has been underlined by 17,784 Kindle users.

The Denver, Colorado nonprofit literacy group Burning Through Pages has gone viral with a gorgeous black and white poster encouraging parents to share books with their kids.

The poster (embedded above) has earned more than 3,500 Facebook likes, 2,500 online shares and hundreds of comments. Follow this link to donate. The poster was designed by Mike Anderick. We’ve embedded more of his work below…

Here’s more about the group: “the literature assigned by public and private schools, while important, contains dated prose and often antiquated ideals. While the classics are classics for a reason, they are not always easily relatable to the current generation reading them. That’s where we come in. We are here to introduce new and updated literature to Denver’s youth. We buy books, give them away, and take the time to talk about them.”

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Walk down any busy street today in Barcelona and you are sure to see vendors selling books and flowers on the streets. That is because today is St. George’s Day (La Diada de Sant Jordi in Catalan), a holiday for lovers and readers. Like Valentine’s Day in the U.S., the holiday is meant to be spent with your special someone.

But instead of chocolates, according to Catalan tradition, today is about books and roses. Specifically, a man buys a rose for his special lady and a woman buys a book for the man in her life. (While it may sound a bit sexist, the tradition is sometimes broken and everybody gets a book and a rose).

Where did the tradition begin? Cervantes.org explains: “A smart bookseller began to promote the holiday in 1923 as a way to honor the simultaneous deaths of the two greatest men of literature: Spain’s Miguel de Cervantes and Britain’s William Shakespeare, both deceased on April 23, 1616 … In Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s principal street, as well as all over the city, hundreds of flower stands selling roses and makeshift bookstalls are hastily set up for the occasion. By the end of the day, some four million roses and 400,000 books are purchased in the name of love, registering half of the total yearly book sales of Catalonia on this day alone!”

Do you want to learn how to speed read?

Mindflash has created a handy infographic that will teach you how to train yourself to speed read. We’ve embedded the complete infographic below for your Friday afternoon reading pleasure.

If you want to know how fast your read, AppNewser linked to an online reading test: “Your task is to read a short piece of text and then answer 3 questions (just to prove you read it). After you’re done you’ll be shown your speed and how it compares to others (including speed readers and the world record).”

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