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The year is almost over, and 2020 has been, well, a doozy. While we're choosing to look ahead and plan our reading lists for the new year, we want to take a moment to look back at some memorable books from recent years—with a twist. Check out these emoji covers designed by Molly Murphy, Quirk designer extraordinaire!

[Header image by Oliver Hale on Unsplash]

December 29th is Tick Tock Day, and no that doesn’t mean it is time to look at short videos all day. As the year winds to its inevitable end and we can at last say goodbye to the seemingly endless 2020, it is time to consider the things that have been yet to be done this year. As the clock ticks ever onward all around the world, we at Quirk wanted to take a look at some of the greatest clocks in popular culture as a reminder of the hours spent cooped up at home watching TV and reading books this year.

December 31 is Make Up Your Mind Day, so of course we’re thinking about classic Choose Your Own Adventure novels, the Give Yourself Goosebumps series, and our very own interactive romance novel: My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris. We love the thrill of making a choice in our reading experience, completely altering the course of the novel – or at least feeling like we have that kind of control. But what if we had the power to change the course of some of our favorite classic novels, simply by making a different choice? Imagine what a wild reading experience that would be.

(Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash)

Last year North American, indie and foreign film distributor Film Movement did the world a favor and registered December 28th as National Short Film Day. This amazing new celebration commemorates the day in 1895 when the Lumière brothers projected a program of 10 short films to a captivated audience of 33 at the Grand Café in Paris (read more about it in Venice Gondolier Sun’s article).

To honor the igniting of a global fascination with cinema and to celebrate how far the world’s come with film, here’s a small collection of beautifully done shorts, paired off with some familiar and hopefully new reads. Grab your popcorn and your TBR list!

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It’s time for the longest night of the year in a year that has felt like a long cold night in and of itself. So what to do in the dark? Traditionally, solstice celebrations are common in any culture where the weather gets cold, and most have the same basic idea: get warm, get inside (ideally with a nice fire, good food, and some excellent booze), and keep your inner light burning until the sun comes up.

Some pagan traditions keep a candle or fire light through the night, with celebrants awake to watch over it, carrying the light through the long night, and there are ways to capture the spirit of this old tradition (without the fire hazard). Instead, set up some soft lighting, and as the sun goes down at 4pm, snuggle up with a good book. What better way to spend a long night than sitting up till sunrise with a page-turner?

The Quirk Books team has attended BookExpo and BookCon for many years now, so when ReedPop announced the retiring of BookExpo and BookCon earlier this month, it'll come as no surprise we were sad to see it go. But, if 2020 has taught us anything it's that people are resilient and adaptable, and there will continue to be new and exciting opportunities to serve the book-loving community. We can't wait to see what Reed Exhibitions thinks up in the coming years.

For now, as a final farewell to America's largest book publishing trade show, the Quirk team would like to share a handful of their favorite memories of BookExpo and BookCon.