This holiday season may set a record for gift returns, and perhaps that’s understandable given the economy. But what does it mean if you simply abandon your things instead? A recent survey by Virgin Atlantic reveals which books are most frequently left behind by their passengers, and it raises that very question.
Abandoned Books
Trading Camp Fires for Factions
First there was The Hunger Games summer camp, and now there will be a Divergent theme camp in Naperville, Illinois. Camp Divergent will feature activities based on the five factions, such as brain teasers on Erudite day and planting vegetables on Amity day. Don't worry; no one will be ziplining off of a skyscraper for Dauntless.
Translate This Book!
The Quarterly Conversation has commissioned short essays from a panel of luminaries, including Juan Goytisolo and Enrique Vila-Matas, for a feature on untranslated masterworks called "Translate This Book!" Highly recommended.
Reading Lolita at Twelve
At the Paris Review Daily, Nick Antosca reminisces on reading Lolita at 12: “Who among my seventh-grade classmates, I wondered with a frisson, was such a creature? What girl had that ‘soul-shattering, insidious charm’ that, while invisible to me, made the antennae of certain adult males tremble?”
Wiesel in Disney
Something to brighten your day -- Elie Wiesel visited Disneyland and absolutely loved it.
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Digital Nation
Point: "Repeated surveys show that children spend less time reading than did previous generations. They instead devote many hours of their waking lives to electronic screens of one kind or another." Counterpoint: "Generation Y, those born between 1979 and 1989, spent the most money on books in 2011, taking over long-held book-buying leadership from baby boomers...with 43 percent of GenY's purchases going to online channels, they are adding momentum to the industry shift to digital." Conclusion?