The Monstrosity Gazette: A weekly smattering of all things literary...

Bookish Quote of the Day:

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested."

-Francis Bacon

---

Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1602 the refurbished Bodleian Library at Oxford University was officially opened to the public. Sir Thomas Bodley, a wealthy retired diplomat, made it his cause to restore what had been in ruin for a half-century, spending four years and his own and his friends' money to repair buildings and fill bookshelves. Sir Francis Bacon praised Bodley for "having built an ark to save learning from the deluge," though not all books -- including Shakespeare's -- were welcome aboard.


 For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

---

Literary Pic of the Day:

 

                        © 2008 by Katie Flindall and by Owl Square Press

---

 New Book on my Radar:

The Children's Book
by A.S. Byatt
Pub: Knopf, 2009
675 pages
Fiction

Summary in a Sentence:

This novel spans from the Victorian era through World War I and finds famous children's book author Olive Wellwood taking in a runaway who reminds her of the characters in her books.
  

Check out these reviews from some fellow bloggers:

Things mean a lot, The Indextrious Reader, Boston Bibliophile

---

Interesting Links to Peruse: 

• Check out these knitted covers to classic novels.
• Eva over at A Striped Armchair reviews Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English.
• Edward Cullen underwear? WTF!
• The Second Pass reviews new Simpsons biography...