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Happy National Day, Iceland! Hope your World Cup journey goes well. A good day to read about Icelandic sagas, perhaps... 

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Happy Father’s Day

To all celebrating tomorrow 17th June! Why not get your father something more unusual as a present, something that will surprise and delight him every month? An Asymptote Book Club subscription will enable you to travel the world together.

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To discover a new culture every month, join the Asymptote Book Club!

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This is not your average pocket dictionary or mobile phone translation. Which of these untranslatables have you encountered? Mine would be ‘dor’ in Romanian, sometimes associated with the Portuguese ‘saudade’.

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When the University of London’s Senate House was built in the 1920-30s, it was the second highest building in London. It was not allowed to be as tall as St. Paul’s because Education was not supposed to look down the Church. In 2018, the corporate world is looking down on all of us, as this view from Senate House rooftop demonstrates.

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Happiness lies in the human imagination.

Marquis de Sade, born on this day in 1740

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s last apartment where he lived and died, and where he also wrote his last masterpiece “The Brothers Karamazov”; now a beautiful museum dedicated to the famous Russian writer. Kuznechny per. 5/2, St. Petersburg, Russia. 07/04/2015

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The ultimate summer books preview: The most-recommended summer reads, drawn from 28 reading lists and 437 titles.

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Wonderful to see so much interest in translated fiction at Hay Literary Festival! Bogota 29, Man Booker International, Javier Cercas, Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Maylis de Kerangal and so many more.

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Europe is not really even a geographic entity; it is separated from Asia only at one point, the Bosphorus, by a small stretch of water. North of that there is continuity over the Russian steppes, a complete terrestrial flow. I suggest that is also true of culture, and indeed of social organization. Indeed Europe has never been purely isolated, purely Christian. Instead of Christian Europe, one has to see the continent as penetrated by the three world religions that originated in the Near East and which indeed had a common mythology or sacred text; in order of arrival these were Judaism, Christianity and Islam. (...) All have equal entitlements to be present, and in this general ('objective') sense none can be considered only as the Other; they are part of Europe, part of our heritage.

Jack Goody

Good to remember the day after Eurovision Song Contest...

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https://www.asymptotejournal.com/book-club/

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Boats of the poor Made sails for the faces of refugees only those who are scared build houses in the wind

Ashur Etwebi, Lybian poet

https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/ashur-etwebi-five-poems/

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In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

S. T. Coleridge

On this day in 1260 Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.

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World Press Freedom Day 2018

Freedom of the press means such different things in different countries. Indian photojournalist Dibyangshu Sarkar creates a montage in memory of ten journalists, including Agence France-Presse chief photographer Shah Marai, killed in assaults in Afghanistan on Monday, April 30. 

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There are also some people amazingly content with the middling, not that that’s probably so very amazing. Our wishes and desires do, when all is said and done, always harmonize with our abilities, and not a year goes by before a person can sense what he is capable of, more or less.

Robert Walser, who would have been 140 years old this month

Read more here https://www.asymptotejournal.com/fiction/robert-walser-circle-dance/

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World Book Day, World Book Night, Shakespeare’s birthday and date of death - whatever we choose to call today, may it be full of glorious books!