Bookstores come in all shapes and sizes, but these 10 featured by WebEcoist are some of the world's coolest locations for selling books.  All ten places featured are repurposed buildings and transportation methods that have been converted to carrying the written word. The shop pictured was once a Dominican church in the Netherlands. While it now features black and silver metal shelves, the antique stone columns, marble arches and stunning frescoes provide a beautiful contrast between old and new... READ ON

Bill Bryson's new book At Home has the subtitle "A Short History of Private Life," but it could be more accurately called "Really Interesting Stuff Nobody Knows." Stuff like a Stone Age village discovered in Scotland – older than the Great Pyramids – that had built-in dressers, storage shelves, plumbing, and even breezeways between houses. Or the tale of how salt and pepper became the condiments found on nearly every table. ("Why not pepper and cardamom, say, or salt and cinnamon?" Bryson... READ ON

(Click to enlarge.) When you're writing a book (actually, a series of books) with a bunch of plot lines, you need a way to keep track of what's going on. How can you structure the book so that everything fits, and moves, and you don't leave out any of those zillions of characters and subplots? How do you figure out what goes in each chapter? Well, apparently J.K. Rowling made a spreadsheet -- the old-school way, using a piece of paper. (Yes, prior to computer spreadsheets, a "spreadsheet" was done... READ ON

I've launched a new Neatorama Sub-Blog today, BitLit. Bit, as in binary digits, Lit, as in literature! As far as we know, this is unique to the blogosphere in that we’ll be serializing entire novels and short stories—even some poetry, many published by major publishers like Random House. Every day, a new chapter until the entire story is complete. Plus, we’ll be interviewing authors and having contests to give away free, autographed copies of their books! Today, we launch with three stories:... READ ON