Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Yep. Jeff Wysaski is at it again.


Remember how Jeff Wysaski, 32, was trolling his local bookstore with fake sections? Well, he's got a new thing going on now.


Remember how Jeff Wysaski, 32, was trolling his local bookstore with fake sections? Well, he's got a new thing going on now.


obviousplant.tumblr.com


Yup, making fake self-help books.


Yup, making fake self-help books.


obviousplant.tumblr.com



obviousplant.tumblr.com




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26 Beautiful Words The English Language Should Borrow

There’s a word for that, just not in English.



Sanskrit. Via @nadiakamil.


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Japanese.


Daniel Dalton / BuzzFeed / Via pexels.com



Japanese.


Daniel Dalton / BuzzFeed / Via Thinkstock



Maguindanao, Philippines.


Daniel Dalton / BuzzFeed / Via Flickr: martinaphotography




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If Books Had Internet Comments

Cool story, bro.



Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed



Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed



Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed



Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed




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25 Puns That Will Satisfy All Poetry Nerds

Puns are bad, but poetry is verse.


Why is John Keats such an ass man?


Why is John Keats such an ass man?


Hulton Archive / Getty Images


Why did the free verse poem ignore the sonnet?


Why did the free verse poem ignore the sonnet?


Al Gretz / Getty Images


Why is Dylan Thomas terrible in bed?


Why is Dylan Thomas terrible in bed?


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What's Edgar Allan Poe's favorite TV show?


What's Edgar Allan Poe's favorite TV show?


MPI / Getty Images




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25 Things Every Ravenclaw Needs Right Now

Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.


This sweater which will remind everyone what team you're on.


This sweater which will remind everyone what team you're on.


$28 on Etsy.


etsy.com


Or a shirt for warmer weather.


Or a shirt for warmer weather.


$13 on Etsy.


etsy.com


These pyjama pants which are so damn hot you don't even need to wear a shirt.


These pyjama pants which are so damn hot you don't even need to wear a shirt.


$19.50 on Amazon.


amazon.com


This pillow that'll match your PJ's when you're in bed.


This pillow that'll match your PJ's when you're in bed.


$25 on Etsy.


etsy.com




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22 Getaways Inspired By Your Favourite Book

What 17 Adults Learned From Rereading Their Favorite Childhood Books

It’s never too late to go back.


The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman



I think the mark of a truly great book for kids is that it seems, in retrospect, so rich or subtle or smart that it must have been wasted on your tiny child brain. That's how I felt rereading The Golden Compass (for, I think, the third or fourth time). It doesn't run dry; it always has more to offer than I realized the last time I read it. Pullman's world is magical and gorgeous (The shape-shifting daemons! The hot-ass witches! The father figure who just happens to be a talking polar bear!) and not at all safe. You can't tell exactly who's good or bad, because they don't quite know themselves. Parents lie, children die, and Lyra's reward, in the end, isn't being transported home to live happily ever after. It's just walking alone into a vast, unknowable new universe. I mean, that's deep shit for adults, let alone 11-year-olds. But the thing about 11-year-olds is that they know when they're being told a story that's generous with its goods, and they remember it, and they keep coming back. —Rachel Sanders


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Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh



There is a very good chance that I have read Harriet the Spy 12 or 13 times. I was an obsessive re-reader, especially when I was younger, and I would return to my favorite books the way some people return to their favorite order at McDonald's. This is why I was pretty much floored to see how much I missed during those first dozen or so readings. There's the contextual stuff, for one thing: So much of what Harriet observes is about money and class, even if she herself only faintly acknowledges this in passing. She doesn't yet have the lexicon for it, like so much of her emotional life. Her family owns an entire brownstone on the Upper East Side, employs a nanny and a cook, and sends Harriet to a private school where she is one of something like eight kids in her class. When I was small, this seemed normal, a viable way for someone to live; now that I live here (and, in fact, once sublet a practically windowless basement apartment around the corner from the Welschs' fictional home), it's far more striking, and not at all neutral.


The other thing I missed, that maybe I too didn't quite have the language for at the age of eleven, is that in the book Harriet is still becoming who she is. Her notes to herself change timbre even over the course of two hundred pages; she's not doing any overt soul-searching (the book's lack of proselytizing is, I think, part of why it's stood up so well) but firming up her edges, figuring out what she does and doesn't want to do, how to work well and write well and live well. Maybe when you are young you see everyone who you admire or want to emulate as fully formed. It's only upon revisiting that you realize maybe they have only a glimmer of an idea of what the hell they should do, and that's fine. —Alanna Okun


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Matilda by Roald Dahl



Here is a sampling of words that Roald Dahl used in Matilda: skulduggery (pg. 108), parabola (pg. 116), pustule (pg. 120), exalted (pg. 171) and carbuncle (pg. 168). So did I read this book as a child, or did I watch the movie and just *think* that I read the book? I honestly don't remember, but what I do know is I still don't know what "skullduggery" means.


One huge LOL while (re?)reading this book though: Miss Honey — the bright, sensible teacher who ADOPTS Matilda as her child at the end of the book — is 23 years old. Twenty three. Years of age. I literally can't keep plants alive. —Erin Chack


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Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson



Moominvalley in November is my favorite in Tove Jansson's series of whimsically illustrated, perfectly weird books and comics set in the beautiful and imaginary Moominvalley. The books are originally from Finland and in that part of the world (and in Japan), the series is a huge deal — there are theme parks, collectible merchandise, TV and movie adaptations, and they're a part of most people's childhood. How they became such a big part of mine is a little bit of a mystery to me. I think my mom found one of the books at our local used bookstore and once I read one I was hooked.


Moominvalley In November is kind of unusual within the series because the stories usually focus on the Moomin family, but in this book they are at sea, and their house is populated by friends who've traveled to see them. There are six friends in total: the pipe-playing musical vagabond Snufkin, the extremely fussy Hemulen, the conservative Fillyjonk, senile old Grandpa Grumble, Snufkin's mom Mymble, and my favorite — the lonely, reclusive, shy, but secretly magical Toft, who wants desperately to be part of the Moomin family.


I reread this book at least five times as a child and teenager, but it has sat dusty on my shelf for a decade. It is beautiful — moody, evocative, lovingly detailed, and dotted with charming illustrations. I kind of can't believe that I liked this book as a kid, and it makes me give my kid-self and kids in general a bit more credit. It's really a slow moving, thoughtful book and not at all a page-turner. It is mostly about coping with the complex sensitivities of other creatures, learning to live together, and loving the world around you. Everyone in the book is a bit prickly and broken and, together in someone else's house, they learn to spend time together, to make their own fun, and to feel a little like a family. Maybe this book prepared me for adult life more than I ever realized. —Summer Anne Burton


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25 Gifts Hufflepuffs Will Find Particularly Enchanting

What the hell is a Hufflepuff!?


Hufflepuff Suspenders


Hufflepuff Suspenders


$14.95, available on Amazon.com


amazon.com


Deathly Hallows Hufflepuff Bracelet


Deathly Hallows Hufflepuff Bracelet


$11.05, available on Etsy


etsy.com


Hufflepuff Leggings


Hufflepuff Leggings


$14.90, available on Etsy


etsy.com


Hufflepuff Scented Soy Candle


Hufflepuff Scented Soy Candle


$12.00, available on Etsy


etsy.com




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50 Of The Most Beautiful Sentences In Canadian Literature

“We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?”



BuzzFeed/Juskteez Vu / Via unsplash.com


"We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy."

Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road


"Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart."

Yann Martel, Life of Pi




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