Another Reason to Skip E-Books and Happy Birthday Edgar Allan Poe

Studies are now beginning to show that fonts that are easy to read make it harder for you to remember things. Kindles (for one) have a limited range of fonts, although you can change the size but that doesn’t seem to have any impact. Here’s one study from Princeton that says fonts that use bold or italics make things easier to remember. Maybe we focus harder and put a little more effort into the reading when confronted with unconventional or odd fonts.

And the Mystery Writers of America has announced their nominees for the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe awards, “honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2010.” Today is of course Poe’s birthday, and for the second year in a row, the Poe Toaster was a no-show (although, it’s giving me a go at assonance to say so). One person who stayed the night watching reported the twelve die-hards who lasted all night went ahead and laid roses on his grave anyway. Joseph White’s account can be found here.

My rose for Edgar:

Sigh. Happy Birthday, Edgar, we still remember.

Here’s a link to the Web site for his house.