Best Of MetaFilter

image via pixabay.com (not the book cover art!)

I remember this old paperback in my old used bookstore where Greek or Roman voyagers end up in America and meet the Mayans ... suburbanbeatnik is looking for a particular hard-to-find DAW paperback from the 1970s

Alvy Ampersand highlighted cartoonist Chris Ware's look back at American author and illustrator Richard Scarry. Just in time for the 50th Anniversary of Scarry's beloved illustrated book, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go!

screenshot from Blake Watson's 'HTML for People' book site

"I feel strongly that anyone should be able to make a website with HTML if they want": JHarris posted Blake Watson's great, free, web book with simple directions and <em>a ton</em> of resources for marking it up old-school. [this is good]

What are you reading for this spooky season? Whatever it is, hop on over to Wobbuffet's post about spooky reading! It covers horror novels, haunted house novels by women, new horror books, novellas, and even more scary reading that you can shake a ouija board at (don't do this)!

Have you ever heard of the book, “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” ? Part philosophy, part woodworking guide, it's about building an ethical life by creating furniture that will last for generations. It is now free to download, as noted in this post by slogger!

"This book is a critique of gamification by an actual game designer, games journalist, and former neuroscientist that 'goes far beyond the usual suspects like Fitbit and Duolingo to look at the historical roots of gamification'": Discussion of "You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All," by MetaFilter's own Adrian Hon.

By Tropenmuseum, part of the National Museum of World Cultures, CC BY-SA 3.0

A swift and satisfying answer to a mysterious handmade book find question in Ask Metafilter

I seriously would have a read a whole book just about two fifteen year old best friends/runaways running a store with cool platform shoes: thivaia on the best thing about Go Ask Alice ... what kitten kaboodle calls "aspirational shopkeeping goals."

Chirin’s Bell is like if, instead of Bambi being raised by his father after the death of his mother, he sought out the hunters who killed his mother and insisted they teach him how to use a gun: interesting post from J.K. Seazer on an unusual children's book (and film), plus a great analysis of the work.

Bears and Codpieces by timkelley (cc by-nd)

Bits and bobs of recent-ish quirky questions on Ask MetaFilter:

What did historical laydeez think about those codpieces?

Films that occupy that "liminal space between being a bad movie and an art movie"?

Babushka lady behaviour? Examples, real or fictional, of people acting in noticeably strange or incongruous ways during important events or crowd scenes?

I vaaant to be alone! Temporarily deserted places that usually bustle during daylight hours?

No Chuck Tingle? What is the weirdest book in the history of English literature?

Not quite myself today. Is my body composed of a different set of atoms from when I was born?

The Green Book

We're working on some neat ideas for a project around these materials -- not quite ready for me to link to, but if anyone wants access to the OCR data of the page images, or anything like that, just let me know!

Cool! NYPL Labs' Josh Hadro (who also happens to be Mefi's own Hadroed) shows up in the thread for MonkeyToes' great post about the now digitized "Green Book" travel guide that provided black motorists with peace of mind while they drove through a country where racial segregation was the norm.

Hannibal Rising

For those suffering Hannibal withdrawal, here's a reminder that the fannibals are still dissecting the last episode in FanFare, with over 1,000 comments (wherein Kitteh executes a real-life Mads and Gillian Fanfare.Metafilter photo op!), plus the brand new Cannibal Club has cooked up some ideas for those hungry for more, including a club talk post to discuss the book "Hannibal Rising" in anticipation of a movie re-watch. Dig in, my fiends.

"NeuroTribes" by Steve Silberman

Oh, hey, the author of new book "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity" is Steve Silberman, also known as Mefi's own digaman, and he showed up to say hi and answer some questions in the thread about the book.

Discussed in MetaTalk: MetaFilter member Marquis (Sean Michaels) has won Canada's prestigious Giller Prize for his debut novel, "Us Conductors." (... and Ask Metafilter helped!)