#books

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🧠🇸🇪 Swedish officials are scaling back digital device usage in schools after reports indicated a decline in basic skills.

The new strategy prioritizes printed and handwriting to support cognitive focus and deep . suggests that physical materials enhance memory retention and reading comprehension compared to digital screens.

👉 https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/04/sweden-goes-back-to-basics-swapping-screens-for-books-in-the-classroom/

Monday's book recommendation is from LM Jones, a detective story, 1st in the Sarah Allerton series. I normally like cosy crime novels and this one is a bit earthier but I enjoyed it nevertheless. There are three books featuring Sarah Allerton, and I am about to start on number two, a mark that I enjoyed the first.

Book cover of North Run by LM Jones

I'm halfway through The Poetry of Survival : Post-War Poets of Central and Eastern Europe and wanted to share this poem by Miroslav Holub with you.

Wings

We have
a map of the universe
for microbes,
we have
a map of a microbe
for the universe.

We have
a Grand Master of chess
made of electronic circuits.

But above all
we have
the ability
to sort peas,
to cup water in our hands,
to seek
the right screw
under the sofa
for hours

This gives us wings.

(trans. George Theiner)

The deaf blacksmith who married in 1576 – and the history of sign as a legal language

The medieval church’s acknowledgement that signs were equivalent to a spoken language was transformative for deaf people.

by Rosamund Oates

https://theconversation.com/the-deaf-blacksmith-who-married-in-1576-and-the-history-of-sign-as-a-legal-language-276686?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833+CID_4dad2f3a225cc1558f32f04d20318006&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=The%20deaf%20blacksmith%20who%20married%20in%201576%20%20and%20the%20history%20of%20sign%20as%20a%20legal%20language

Sign language at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=sign+language

Detail of an historiated initial 'S'(sponsus) of a man placing a ring on a woman's finger. By James le Palmer / anonymous illustrator British Library Royal MS 6 E VI, fol. 104 A historiated initial S from a medieval illuminated manuscript, painted in blue, pink, ochre, and olive green. Within the curved body of the letter, two figures face each other: on the left a young man in a blue tunic, on the right a woman in a white veil and rust-coloured garment. Between them, the man places or holds a small ring, their hands meeting at the centre. Both faces are simply rendered with calm expressions. The initial is framed by a blue and pink border with a dark speckled ground filling the background behind the figures. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Omne_Bonum_Royal6EVI104_Anulus.jpg

Captured in the Prague Castle Archives during the 1940s, this photograph features an archivist (often identified as a woman) examining the "Velká Knihovna" (Great Library)

These massive, hand-scribed volumes are primarily medieval choir books, that were intentionally crafted at this scale so an entire congregation or choir could read the music and lyrics from a single vantage point during services.
@BluebellRaven

These massive, hand-scribed volumes are primarily medieval choir books

One of several honesty booksellers in Hay-on-Wye, Wales

‘Hay-on-Wye is a destination for bibliophiles in the United Kingdom, with two dozen bookshops, many selling specialist and second-hand books… Richard Booth opened his first shop there, called The Old Fire Station, in 1962… by the 1970s Hay had gained the nickname "The Town of Books".’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hay-on-Wye#Book_town

A window completely full of books. Any gaps between the eight piles of books have been filled with more books. Most books have their spines horizontal, but some are vertical. White stencil lettering on the window reads INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER RECEPTION.

The Madrid Codices: Leonardo da Vinci's treasure trove digitised by Spain's National Library

On 13 February 1967, the Spanish National Library announced the discovery of the Madrid I and II codices, two manuscripts by Leonardo da Vinci that had remained poorly catalogued for more than a century. But they are being digitised to make them accessible to the public.

By Lucia Blasco

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/02/20/the-madrid-codices-leonardo-da-vincis-treasure-trove-digitised-by-spains-national-library

Leonardo da Vinci at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1629

Leonardo da vinci, Double manuscript page on the Sforza monument. The left page is devoted to mechanical studies — five carefully rendered technical drawings arranged vertically, each showing wooden joining or clamping mechanisms in three-quarter perspective. They appear to depict interlocking beams, bolt fastenings, and timber joints of increasing complexity, with short annotating notes flanking each drawing on both sides. The right page is dominated by a large, commanding drawing of what appears to be the lower torso and hindquarters of a horse rendered as a structural armature — a grid of horizontal and vertical ribs forming a curved, basket-like framework that captures the swelling volume of the animal's form. The gridded surface suggests a mold or internal scaffolding for casting, with the waist cinching inward before flaring out again at the haunches. Dense blocks of mirror-script text surround the drawing on the left and bottom, and a folio number — 157 — is visible in the upper right corner. A faint institutional stamp appears near the bottom center. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Madrid_(Leonardo)#/media/File:Leonardo_da_vinci,_Double_manuscript_page_on_the_Sforza_monument.jpg