Mental Floss

BOOKS









Thinkstock

Whether you're settling in for a few days of snowed-in coziness at home or a few days of airport purgatory, you can probably use something to read. Here are some beautiful descriptions of snow from literature.

Arika Okrent




LightFieldStudios/iStock via Getty Images

There’s more to libraries than just plain old books. Many, if not most, also have movies, music, and audio and ebooks to lend out. But what about a parking pass for a Civil War fort? Or a circular saw? Well, depending on where you live, you can borrow tho

Matt Soniak




Maria Rantanen, Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0

Learn more about author Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic, including a canceled film project that could have been scored by Pink Floyd.

Mark Mancini
New York Public Library

People Google a lot of strange things. But while the anonymity of the internet certainly helps them feel comfortable indulging certain inquiries, our curiosity as humans didn't start with the invention of the search engine.

Hannah Keyser








Robert E. Nylund, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

A writer’s home is a kind of autobiography, and visiting the place where a great work of literature was written gives you a deeper understanding of both the book and the person who wrote it. Put these places on the list for your next literary pilgrimage.

Joy Lanzendorfer