Infographic: Timeline of the One Ring

Swedish Lord of the Rings fanatic Emil Johansson, who has previously mapped the entire genealogy of Middle Earth, visualizes the timeline of the One Ring.

Book Reading: J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien reads from The Hobbit

"When Tolkien visited a friend in August of 1952 to retrieve a manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, he was shown a “tape recorder”. Having never seen one before, he asked how it worked and was then delighted to have his voice recorded and hear himself played back for the first time. His friend then asked him to read from The Hobbit, and Tolkien did so in this one incredible take."

Interview: Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson Interview

Trivia: Puzzlewood

Puzzlewood is an ancient woodland site, near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. The site, covering 14 acres, shows evidence of open cast iron ore mining dating from the Roman period, and possibly earlier.

In 1848 some workmen, after moving a block of stone in the woods, found a small cavity in the rocks. In this cavity, hidden away, were three earthenware jars containing over 3,000 Roman coins. No-one knows why the coins were hidden away in the cliff face nor by whom.

J. R. R. Tolkien, a frequent visitor to the Forest of Dean, may have visited Puzzlewood, and many believe Puzzlewood was the inspiration for the fabled forests of Middle-earth, such as the Old Forest, Mirkwood, Fangorn or Lothlórien contained within The Lord of the Rings. J.K Rowling is also said to have visited Puzzlewood, and it may have been this that influenced her idea of The Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter books.

Gadgets: Albatros

Albatros by French designer Oscar Lhermitte

Lhermitte is currently raising funds on IndiGoGo to manufacture these simple but clever bookmarks that automatically mark the page as a reader progresses through a book.

"The Albatros bookmark consists of a thin piece of polyester that is inserted in the book; thanks to its structure and shape, every time you turn a page, the bookmark follows it. Placing the bookmark in a book is done in the blink of an eye. Its repositionable adhesive allows it to last a long time without damaging any pages."

Video: A Year in Full Colour

"A Year in Full Colour" directed by the graphic motion designer Rogier Wieland

Moleskine notebooks come to life in the company's stop-motion animated commercial by Roger Wieland.

Interview: Cory Doctorow & Charles Stross at Google

Authors@Google: Cory Doctorow & Charles Stross

Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross put in an appearance at Google to plug their new book, The Rapture of the Nerds.

Cory and Charlie intend to write a third novella in the sequence begun with "Jury Service" and "Appeals Court," and THE RAPTURE OF THE NERDS will consist of all three novellas, possibly with some small additional connective tissue if necessary.

Many distinguished SF "novels" have actually been stitched together from short-fiction serieses like this; the venerable industry term for such a book is "fix-up", which doesn't imply anything deprecatory.