The Drainage Ditch Weekly Link Round-Up

You're probably wondering how on earth a drainage ditch figures into this week's link round-up. Did I fall in one? Did someone dig one along my property line? Did I find treasure in one? No to all of the aforementioned. This weekend I spent two afternoons out in the pool during high winds, and I think I inhaled every speck of dirt and pollen that was in the air. Now all that lovely soup is draining down the back of my throat, and I feel awful. In fact, I'd much rather be laying across the bed with a good book (an ARC of A.D. Scott's The Low Road, as a matter of fact).

Just let me throw a rope on these here links and tie 'em down good, and then I'll be outta here! (I swear... I haven't been reading any Holmes on the Range mysteries...yet!)

Book News

• During the Hachette kerfluffle booksellers have been trying to stake their claim on The Silkworm.
• Good news for me, since he is one of my favorite poets: poems of extraordinary quality written by Pablo Neruda have been discovered.
• Judges have ruled that Sherlock Holmes belongs to the public.
• Self-published titles in the UK have increased by 79%.
• This is the absolute worst way to teach your kids to read.

Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones

• After having read Empty Mansions, a book about Huguette Clark, I couldn't resist sharing an article about some of her possessions that were sold at auction.
• Payback was swift for a boy who sneaked into an abandoned house: he discovered a mummified corpse in the closet.
• It's nice to get some good news once in a while, as long as we don't rest on those laurels. The rarest whale on earth is bouncing back from the brink of extinction.
• A miniature skull model found by a German couple may have been made by Leonardo da Vinci.
• A deep-diving exosuit allows scientists to explore a 2,000-year-old shipwreck.
• Last week it was a beached whale, this week a hidden man has been revealed in a Picasso painting.
• The remains of an "end of the world" epidemic have been found in ancient Egypt.
• I loved the story of the disappearing D-Day veteran, Bernard Jordan.
• A bachelor party in New Mexico discovered a 3 million-year-old elephant skull. Why can't I ever discover something like that?!?
• Russia's Popigai meteor crash has been linked to mass extinction.
• Art looted by the Nazis could be hiding in plain sight on the walls of Europe's great museums.
• Historians think they have tracked down the remains of Vlad the Impaler (Dracula).
• 100 years later, a soldier's story shows the tragedy of World War I.
• Poachers massacre elephants in a national park in the Congo. And before you think all the poaching occurs outside the United States, how about our own national parks that are dealing with theft?
• Ancient Mayan altars and sculpted artwork have been discovered in Guatemala.
• The ocean to end all oceans have been discovered near the Earth's core.

Book Candy

• I love this moving illustration by Rebecca Mock.
• Can you identify the book from its map?

I  ♥  Lists & Quizzes

• How authors from Dickens to Dr. Seuss invented the words we use every day. 
• The 20 most magnificent places to read books.
• Are you a true literature expert? (I got all 20 correct-- after one very lucky guess!)
• The 40 coolest Sci-Fi book covers.

That's all for this week. Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll have a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure. Have a great weekend!