Monday Amusements: The Book Edition

Over on this second's obsession, I, somewhere between regularly and occasionally, post a Monday round-up of relevant links, and it struck me a couple of months ago that I could do the same thing here. I've finally got around to it, hurray!

Isn't this bookplate awesome? It was made by Michel Fingesten (1884 - 1943) for Gianni Mantero, and you can see more from the same artist at A Journey Round My Skull.

How do you feel about bookplates? Although I did like being able to write my name on the This book belongs to... pages of books I had as a kid, I don't think I could bring myself to stick a bookplate into a book now. However, I could happily put them on or inside the front cover of notebooks. If you like them, draw! pilgrim has provided some bright, modern bookplates to download for this post at Frecklewonder (via How About Orange). Alternatively, Design*Sponge has a tutorial and printable bookplates of a more intricate and old-fashioned, slightly macabre style.

I usually find it partly horrifying and partly hilarious when a general news website or paper publishes anything about teen/YA literature. You know the articles. The writer has read no more than three, maybe five, YA books published in the last decade, and has decided to write an opinion piece about how bad they thought they all were, lamenting the 'fact' that nothing decent is being written for that age group. Twilight's feminist backlash has a terrible title, implying that all the books recommended were written as a response to The Saga (as I've taken to calling it) when I'm sure none of them actually were. But it does have interesting suggestions. Don't read the comments though, they'll make you want to hit things.

If you like reading about great historical women, enter the f word's competition to win a free online subscription to HerStoria magazine. All you have to do is leave a comment about your favourite under-recognised woman in history, but hurry, the contest closes tomorrow!

Bored of plain MDF bookshelves? WebUrbanist suggests 15 (More!) Unusually Brilliant Book Shelving Systems. I like the multi-functional shelf.

If apostrophe misuse really frustrates you, open the video for The Apostrophe Song in a tab, then look at something else whilst you listen.

Having gone to see Andrea Levy speak whilst at university, I really enjoyed this interview at Words Unlimited.

Finally, the national children's charity Bullying UK faces closure due to a funding crisis. Their website describes many easy, low-cost ways to help them.