Mental Floss

BOOKS









Fernando Guerra

Sure you can buy books on Amazon, but there’s something about going to a bookstore and picking the right title out by hand. Here are some unique bookstores that have almost as much charm as they have books.

Rebecca OConnell
Rare Book School

Once a beloved teaching tool, Dick and Jane was later denounced as dull, counterproductive, and even misogynistic. Still, whether you loved or hated them, there’s no denying that little Dick and Jane have earned their place in history.

Mark Mancini




An annotated page from Roal Dahl's 'The BFG' by Quentin Blake is displayed at Sotheby's auction House on December 4, 2014 in London, England.

The BFG is a whoopsey-splunkers tale about a young orphan girl and her friend, the Big Friendly Giant. Learn more about Sophie and her adventure in propsposterous Giant Country.

Rebecca OConnell












A portrait of the writer Mark Twain—author of several unfinished manuscripts—circa 1900.

When an author dies with their work unfinished, do we let it molder in vaults, stash it away in archives, or publish it for all the world to see—even if that’s not what the writer wanted?

Bess Lovejoy