Link Salad (5)

It’s Friday once again (funny how it keeps coming around!) and time for another Link Salad. In my reading this week I stumbled upon a couple of things that I recognized from the world of Harry Potter—in other books—which made me curious. For example, in the novella Asher’s Dilemma (review coming soon) one of the characters talks about Nicholas Flamel, an alchemist who was famous for his search for the Philosopher’s Stone. (Ring any bells?) And I’m currently reading She Returns From War, which mentions a large dog-like creature with glowing eyes, sometimes called “Padfoot.” I knew that J. K. Rowling took many of her ideas from mythology and has even admitted to being influenced by fantasy novels like The Lord of the Rings, but I didn’t realize how much speculation is out there about this subject. I started googling and ran across this article from io9. Yes, it’s a couple of years old, but I found it fascinating. Some of the similarities are staggering!

Did Harry Potter Really Steal All These Story Ideas? looks at various books that have similar plot lines, characters, and ideas. The list is long, and the author of this article presents the material in an unbiased way, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. This article doesn’t address the “padfoot” and “philosopher stone” puzzle that first had me googling, but when I ran across it, I found it interesting to say the least.

Little Free Libraries began four years ago and has since grown to more than 50,000 registered libraries around the world. These pint-sized houses allow people to borrow, return or donate books for others to enjoy. I love the idea that most people are honest at heart, and I really want to start one of these myself! According to the Publishers Weekly article, you can purchase the materials to build your own library for $250-$600. You can also build your own from scratch and register it with the company for $25. Learn more about this wonderful project from Publishers Weekly, and visit the Little Free Libraries website here for even more information.

From Mental Floss (via Shelf Awareness) comes this wonderful Brief History of the Typewriter. Most of us (well, me at least!) grew up learning how to type on one of these, so this could be a trip down memory lane for you! There’s even a typewriter style I’ve never seen before that looks like it came right out of a steampunk novel! You can read the article here.

Every year, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) complies a list of the Best Fiction for Young Adults. This year’s list has just been revealed, and consists of 102 books, most of them released in 2012. I’m sure those of you who read YA fiction will recognize and approve of many of the titles. You can see the list here.

It wouldn’t be Link Salad if I didn’t throw in a contest or two, so today I’m going to send you over to The Midnight Garden to enter for a chance to win an Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. You can also read about how they chose the title for the book. And for a very funny post with the two authors, head over to Cuddlebuggery to hear Meg and Amie chat about how the cover came to be, and enter their contest for an ARC as well! Good luck!

Let’s end this post with something completely random: this cool duvet cover that turns the sleeper into an astronaut! (Via The Fire Wire) From the company Snurk, you can now pre-order this duvet. Doesn’t it look three-dimensional??  They have a bunch of other duvets that are pretty awesome as well. For more info click here.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the internet today! Did you miss last week’s Link Salad? Click here to read now.

And don’t forget to enter the two giveaways I have going on right now. Check the top right-hand sidebar for details!