Hitting the Books: Why we like bigger things better

We Americans love to have ourselves a big old time. It's not just our waistlines that have exploded outward since the post-WWII era. Our houses have grown larger, as have the appliances within them, the vehicles in their driveways, the income inequalities between ourselves and our neighbors, and the challenges we face on a rapidly warming planet. In his new book, Size: How It Explains the World, Dr. Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, takes readers on a multidiscipline tour of the social quirks, economic intricacies, and biological peculiarities that result from our function following our form.William MorrowFrom SIZE by Vaclav Smil. Copyright 2023 by Vaclav Smil. Reprinted courtesy of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Modernity’s Infatuation With Larger SizesA single human lifetime will have witnessed many obvious examples of this trend in sizes. Motor vehicles are the planet’s most numerous heavy mobile objects. The world now has nearly 1.5 billion of them, and they have been getting larger: today’s bestselling pickup trucks and SUVs are easily twice or even three times heavier than Volkswagen’s Käfer, Fiat’s Topolino, or Citroën’s deux chevaux — family cars whose sales dominated the European market in the early 1950s.Sizes of homes, refrigerators, and TVs have followed the same trend, not only because of technical advances but because the post–Second World War sizes of national GDPs, so beloved by the... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-06-04 14:30:20 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Why we like bigger things better

We Americans love to have ourselves a big old time. It's not just our waistlines that have exploded outward since the post-WWII era. Our houses have grown larger, as have the appliances within them, the vehicles in their driveways, the income inequalities between ourselves and our neighbors, and... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-04 14:30:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #harpercollins


London Book Fair 2017: Bigger Crowds, Optimism as London Book Fair Hits Its Stride

Surging visitor numbers and a weaker pound have buoyed spirits at a busy 2017 London Book Fair. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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NBF’s Book Rich Environments Program Hits Two Million Book Donations

The National Book Foundation program, launched in 2017, has distributed more than two million free books to young people and families in public housing communities across the United States. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Things (Some) Readers Find Annoying About Books and the Book World

Even the most passionate bibliophile gets annoyed by aspects of books and the book world sometimes. Here are some examples. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-22 10:34:00 UTC ]
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Daynes scoops SLA Information Book Award for 'gentle' book on why things die

Katie Daynes' Why Do Things Die? (Usborne), illustrated by Christine Pym, has been announced as the overall winner of the School Library Association (SLA) Information Book Award for its “gentle, non-judgemental” tone on "a rare topic" for young readers. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-25 10:32:58 UTC ]
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iBooks Bestsellers: A Book Editor's Book Hits #1

Audiences have moved toward fun fiction and away from furious facts as Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury' takes a tumble to #3 on the iBooks list, while 'The Woman in the Window' by A.J. Finn—a book editor who now writes thrillers under a pen name—takes the #1 slot. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little Free Library has a new map to help places hit hardest by book bans.

Little Free Library has debuted a new interactive map on its website that charts the locations of Little Free Libraries across the United States, alongside the number of book bans that are in place in each state. The organization built the tool as a way to quickly find the nearest free library —... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-05 18:27:15 UTC ]
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New YA Books Hitting Shelves, August 26, 2024

Read your way into a boatload of new YA books hitting shelves this week in hardcover and paperback. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-08-26 15:00:00 UTC ]
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New YA Books Hitting Shelves This Week, July 29, 2024

Dive into the best new YA books hitting shelves this week in hardcover and in paperback. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-07-29 11:30:00 UTC ]
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New YA Books Hitting Shelves This Week, July 22, 2024

Cool off with this week's new YA book releases, featuring romance, time loops, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-07-22 14:45:00 UTC ]
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New YA Books Hitting Shelves This Week: July 15, 2024

Scary short stories, grief and the afterlife, and more of this week's new YA releases in hardcover and in paperback. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-07-15 15:15:00 UTC ]
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23rd Street Books Hits the Road at Macmillan

The grown-up sister imprint of Macmillan’s eclectic graphic novel powerhouse, First Second Books, will launch next year with graphic novels from Gene Luen Yang, Damon Wayans Jr., Saul Williams, Ben Hatke, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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New YA Books Hitting Shelves This Week: July 8, 2024

Read your way into the excellent new YA books in hardcover and paperback hitting shelves this week. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-07-08 15:30:00 UTC ]
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From 'Bridgerton' to 'Ripley,' Netflix's latest hit adaptations have also boosted book sales

Several recent hit Netflix series were adapted from books, leading to a boost in book sales. Next, the streamer is turning to Holly Jackson's book series "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-07-08 10:00:33 UTC ]
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New YA Books Hitting Shelves This Week, July 1, 2024

New YA books hitting shelves this week in hardcover and paperback for your holiday week reading delight. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-07-01 15:30:00 UTC ]
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Panel Mania: 'My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book Two' by Emil Ferris

Emil Ferris’s ‘My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Book 2’, the eagerly-awaited sequel to her 2017 debut graphic novel, returns to her irresistibly curious queer protagonist, 10-year-old Karen Reyes, and her working-class life in 1960s Chicago. A six-page excerpt. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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‘We didn’t expect this phenomenon to last’: France’s comic-book tradition is hitting new heights

The market for bédé visual storytelling almost doubled over the course of the pandemic, but can the birthplace of Asterix continue to nurture creators?Like thousands of French people, Sylvie Pinault discovered comic books during the pandemic. Though bandes dessinées – literally meaning “drawn... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-02-06 14:00:36 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Critical Hits,’ edited by J. Robert Lennon and Carmen Maria Machado

In the anthology “Critical Hits,” gamers like Hanif Abdurraqib, Alexander Chee and Larissa Pham explain what the medium means to them. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-11-20 10:00:28 UTC ]
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Hitting the Books: Voice-controlled AI copilots could lead to safer flights

Siri and Alexa were only the beginning. As voice recognition and speech synthesis technologies continue to mature, the days of typing on keyboards to interact with the digital world around us could be coming to an end — and sooner than many of us anticipated. Where... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-10-15 14:30:20 UTC ]
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3 Nerdy New Books on How Things Get Made

Ever wonder how a dictionary, a NASA telescope, or a handcrafted wooden globe gets made? These new books will tell you. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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