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The Books Portal

Johannes Trithemius'Polygraphiae (1518)
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page. A book produced in electronic format is known as an e-book.Books may also refer to a literature work, or a main division of such a work. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals or newspapers. The body of all written works including books is literature.
  

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First page of the first edition of Thoughts (1787)

Thoughts on the education of daughters: with reflections on female conduct, in the more important duties of life is the first published work of the British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Published in 1787 by her friend Joseph Johnson, Thoughts is a conduct book that offers advice on female education to the emerging British middle class. Although dominated by considerations of morality and etiquette, the text also contains basic child-rearing instructions, such as how to care for an infant.An early version of the modern self-help book, the 18th-century British conduct book drew on many literary traditions, such as advice manuals and religious narratives. There was an explosion in the number of conduct books published during the second half of the eighteenth century, and Wollstonecraft took advantage of this burgeoning market when she published Thoughts. However, the book was only moderately successful: it was favourably reviewed, but only by one journal and it was reprinted only once. Although it was excerpted in popular contemporary magazines, it was not republished until the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s.

  

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Diagram of a warship, From the 1728 Cyclopaedia, Volume 2.

Credit: Cyclopaedia

Diagrams of first and third rate warships in the Cyclopaedia: or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (folio, 2 vols.) an encyclopedia published by Ephraim Chambers in London in 1728, and reprinted in numerous editions in the 18th Century. The Cyclopaedia was one of the first general encyclopedias to be produced in English.
  

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In the news

January 1, 2007

Per the ISO, the International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, will expand from its current standard of 10 digits to a new standard of 13 digits beginning January 1, 2007. R. R. Bowker, the official ISBN agency for the United States, is providing an online guide to the "ISBN-13" conversion and its impact on publishers, retailers, and consumers.

January 27, 2006

O'Reilly Media is opening up editing of its books through Safari Books Online, the company's joint venture with the Pearson Technology Group. The company is allowing ordinary people to buy access to manuscripts before they are finalized. Customers are given access to software to that allows them to make notes on the manuscripts, to expose errors, or make suggestions.

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Selected biography

Thomas Pynchon in 1957, one of the few photographs of him ever to be published

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. (born May 8, 1937) is an American writer based in New York City, noted for his dense and complex works of fiction. Hailing from Long Island, Pynchon spent two years in the United States Navy and earned an English degree from Cornell University. After publishing several short stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began composing the novels for which he is best known today: V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), Vineland (1990), Mason & Dixon (1997), and Against the Day (2006).Pynchon (pronounced /ˈpɪntʃɒn/, with /ˈpɪntʃən/ a common mispronunciation) is regarded by many readers and critics as one of the finest contemporary authors. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Both his fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, styles and themes, including (but not limited to) the fields of history, science and mathematics. Pynchon is also known for his avoidance of personal publicity: very few photographs of him have ever been published, and rumours about his location and identity have been circulated since the 1960s.

  

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A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

Robertson Davies

  

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