U.S. Poets to Be Honored on 2012 Postage Stamps

Ten 20th-Century American poets will appear on U.S.  postage stamps next year.

The poets selected are Elizabeth Bishop, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, E. E. Cummings, Robert Hayden, Denise Levertov, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams.

These worthies will join a host of other authors previously featured on the postage stamps of the United States and other countries. In fact, there’s an entire website devoted to showcasing those stamps - as well as another website devoted to stamps featuring libraries.

Found at Shelf Awareness

How Much Time Each Day Do You Spend Reading?

Software developer and author Tim Patrick, aka The Well-Read Man, recently posted some summary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ periodic survey of how Americans spend their time.

Among the findings that Tim noticed: 

•  ”On average, out of about five-plus hours of leisure time available to each person each day, Americans are reading around 20, maybe 25 minutes. This includes all forms of leisure reading, including magazines, blogs, and the backs of cereal boxes.”
• “Older people read more than the youngest group, although even that group reads more than the thirtysomethings.”
• “The rich outread the poor, and whites read about three times as much as those from the minority groups included in the statistics.”

[Tim credits the books-in-the-television image above to House of April, the blog of photographer April Chandler.]

Bibliofactoid du Jour

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, is six pages longer than Anna Karenina.”

Source: “Young People are Reading More Than You” (McSweeney’s)

Found via Baby Got Books

Mark Twain Postage Stamp Debuts Tomorrow

According to a Los Angeles Times story, Mark Twain is being honored (for the second time) on a U.S. postage stamp.

The story also mentions the publication earlier this year of the bestselling – and massive – first volume of Twain’s Autobiography, which is currently available in public libraries. As are, of course, the many books – fiction and nonfiction – that Twain wrote.

Found via Shelf Awareness

George Washington, Delinquent Library Patron

A recent article in the Guardian describes a $300,000 library fine owed by the first president of the United States.

Found via The Book Bench

10 Literary One-Hit Wonders

We missed this Times article when it came out last month; if you did too, here you go.

One advantage of finding this list a month after it was posted: the numerous additional literary one-hit-wonders reported by this blogpost’s readers!

Today is World Book Day

And BookNinja blogger George Murray has a few comments to mark the occasion.