The eNotes Blog Top Ten Gifts for Readers and Writers Cyber-Monday isHere!

Top Ten Gifts for Readers and Writers Cyber-Monday isHere! Got a reader and/or writer on your Christmas list? Take advantage of Cyber-Monday with these unique offerings for your favorite nerd. And I mean that in the most loving way possible, of course. 10. Favorite Writers Coasters Even first-class swillers like the infamous indulgers Hunter S. Thompson and Charles Bukowski didnt want nasty water rings left on their bedside table. Honor their memories and wishes with these snazzy coasters from Retrowhale and take advantage of 15% off your order, today only.   Use order code Retro77. 9.   Big Books Tote Bag Make Sir Mix-a-lot proud and your children cringe with this bag from Pamela Fugate Designs. Free shipping! 8.   Tolkein Ring As your favorite Tolkein geek will explain to you, the wizard Gandalf says this in The Fellowship of the Ring.   7.   Bamboo Bath Caddy A book, a bubble bath, and wine? Ill be out around the end of February. Maybe. 10% off with the code Cyber at Macys. 6.   Massage Bed Rest from Brookstone Ooohhh Okay. It does remind me a bit of the flying chairs in the movie Wall-E but Ill take one. I bet any other reader you know would love it as well. Massage, place for a drink, pockets, a reading light? Yes, please. 5% off Cyber-Monday with the code Pinit5. 5.   Hemingway Gift Box from Royal Palm Arts Set includes a 6 oz stainless steel flask, a pair of shot glasses, a leather notebook, a wooden cigar caddy/pencil holder, and two pencils. Fill up the flask and throw in a couple of Cubans and youve got yourself a right manly Christmas there, my friend. 4. Demeter Fragrances: Paperback Forget  pheromones! I hope this comes in a male version. Books and manliness? Gimme.   Description promises, A trip to your favorite library or used bookstore. Sweet and lovely with just a touch of the musty smell of aged paper,  Demeters Paperback harnesses that scent with a sprinkling of violets and a dash of tasteful potpourri. 3.   Scrabble: Book Lovers Edition Gather round kids, where I introduce you to this concept that came, yes, BEFORE Words With Friends. In this Scrabble edition, you get extra points for playing names of novels and authors. Im not entirely sure why you couldnt do that on a regular Scrabble board, but hey, this one looks all library-y and stuff. Cyber-Monday deals at Amazon.   2.   Literary iPhone Covers I love these. Love them! Perhaps Ill even be persuaded to dump my 3G in order to get one. Or several. Hurry, limited editions and sadly, TKAM is already gone.   At Uncommon Goods. 1. Gift Certificate for Uninterrupted Reading and/or Writing Time While all the previous ideas are fabulous, what most readers and writers want more than anything is some unfettered timetime free of needy kids, inquiring significant others, ringing phones, knocks at the door, email Better yet, pair this with one or more of the other gifts listed here and make your favorite  bibliophile/author very happy indeed.

History of the First Crossword Puzzles

History of the First Crossword Puzzles A crossword puzzle is a game of words where the player is given a hint and the number of letters. The player then fills in a grid of boxes by finding the right words. Liverpool journalist, Arthur Wynne invented the first crossword puzzle. Arthur Wynne Arthur Wynne was born on June 22, 1871, in Liverpool, England. He immigrated to the United States at the age of nineteen. He first lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and worked for the Pittsburgh Press newspaper. An interesting side-note was that Wynne also played violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Later, Arthur Wynne moved to Cedar Grove, New Jersey and started working for a New York City-based newspaper called the New York World. He wrote the first crossword puzzle for the New York World, published on Sunday, December 21, 1913. The editor had asked Wynne to invent a new game for the papers Sunday entertainment section. Word-Cross to Cross-Word to Crossword Arthur Wynnes first crossword puzzle was initially called word-cross and was diamond-shaped. The name later switched to cross-word, and then as a result of an accidental typo the hyphen was dropped and the name became crossword. Wynne based his crossword puzzle on a similar but much older game played in ancient Pompeii that translated from Latin to English was called Magic Squares. In Magic Squares, the player is given a group of words and has to arrange them on a grid so that the words read the same way across and down. A crossword puzzle is very similar, except instead of being given the words the player is given clues. Arthur Wynne added other innovations to the crossword puzzle. While the first puzzle was diamond-shaped, he later invented horizontal and vertical shaped puzzles; and Wynne invented the use of adding blank black squares to a crossword puzzle. The crossword puzzle in a British publication was published in Pearsons Magazine in February 1922. The first New York Times crossword was published on February 1, 1930. First Book of Crossword Puzzles According to the Guinness Book of Records, the first collection of crossword puzzles was published in the USA in 1924. Called The Cross Word Puzzle Book was the first publication by a new partnership formed by Dick Simon and Lincoln Schuster. The book, a compilation of crossword puzzles from the newspaper New York World, was an instant success and helped to establish publishing giant Simon Schuster, who continue to produce crossword books to this day. Crossword Weaver In 1997, Crossword Weaver was patented by Variety Games Inc. Crossword Weaver was the first computer software program that created crossword puzzles.