Back in 1953, the world was a different place. We were somewhere between a Truman and an Eisenhower presidency, Dean Martin and Perry Como were leading the charts, and people used these rather crude and uncivilized collections of books called libraries. Egads, how did they live before the internet?

The new book Library: A World History, is filled with gorgeous photography of book palaces around the world. That one above is the grand Philosophical Hall, at Strahov Abbey in Prague, and it's straight Beauty and the Beast-style. I half expect Belle to come flying by on a rolling staircase talking about the book…

According to unnamed Gothamist sources, the Hunger Games trilogy was checked out more than any other books in NYC libraries in 2012 (that includes Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx branches).

This Valentine's Day, tell that bro to get lost*, and lose yourself in a good book!

Spurred by reading Walter Isaacson's two-million page love letter to Steve Jobs, San Antonio County Judge Nelson W. Wolff pushed for the creation of the first bookless public library system.

Katie already reported on the phenomenon of library sex — please sing that in your heads to the tune of Birthday Sex and later let's rewrite the words, OK? — but just to recap, Nadine Cho, the sex columnist for UC Berkeley's student paper The Daily Californian, encouraged students to get down and dirty in the stacks.…

More than 10 million copies of Fifty Shades of Grey have been sold in the past six weeks, a rate its publisher says is "unprecedented" and expects to continue "exceeding even our most optimistic forecasts." Sales even jumped the week before Mother's Day, meaning women didn't put aside their hunger for Twilight…

The erotica spectacle known as the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy may be a hit with the ladies, but it's not so popular with the libraries. It turns out libraries in several states have pulled the books off their shelves or refused to stock them in the first place because they deem the work "too steamy or too poorly…

Here's something to make you smile: bibliophiles all over the country are setting up Little Libraries, teeny tiny buildings on their lawns, full of books to check out. They're on the honor system, and you can leave books too. I really hope there's at least one that's entirely little-themed, with copies of The Borrowers

A woman in California has been slapped with $7,600 in fines and ordered to stay away from public libraries after it was discovered that she had stolen thousands of library books and was attempting to sell them online. For shame, California book stealer.

People in Georgia can rest easier, knowing that police are protecting them from moms who make a scene in libraries. Donnetta Foster was at the Decatur Library last October using a computer to prepare for a job interview when her toddler laughed too loudly at a flash card. Foster says she quieted the boy, but security…

In what book lovers may see as a sign of the coming end times, a California library is considering eliminating all books and librarians. The Los Angeles Times reports that instead, Newport Beach's new community center would feature a sitting area, kiosks that let patrons video conference with librarians stationed in…

Former creative outspoken nerdy children, curse that you weren't born late enough to participate in the "90 Second Newbery" film festival, which encourages young readers to humorously condense award-winning young adult fiction.

According to the latest Best of Craigslist, stack-nookie is a recurring dream for many. If only it were just a dream.

Remember last September, when the book banners crawled out of their pits of nastiness to try to remove YA literature from classrooms and libraries? It is September again, my friends.

A New Jersey mom (and Glenn Beck supporter) has successfully gotten Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology removed from a public library — because, of course, gay sex is "obscene."

Tina Harden saw references to weed and sex and decided the books were "filled with everything I don't want my [then 13-year-old] daughter to do or be." So… Do all 5th graders become pickpockets after reading Oliver Twist? [Orlando Sentinel]

Need some reading material for Banned Books Week? You might want to check the American Library Association's list of frequently challenged books, which includes everything from To Kill A Mockingbird to Harry Potter to Beloved. [ALA]

So what do libraries do when a book like Tintin in the Congo is deemed too offensive for normal perusal? According to a piece in today's Times, a sort of semi-banned purgatory.