Lightsaber bookends cost $50, illuminate with the help of batteries and begin shipping at the end of March. Theoretically, they could also double as an amusing hat. [StarWarsShop via Newlaunches]

The deckle edge dates back to a time when you used to need a knife to read a book. Those rough edges simulate the look of pages that have been sliced open by the reader. The printing happened on large sheets of paper which were then folded into rectangles the size of the finished pages and bound. The reader then sliced open the folds.

'It is like I showed a chain saw to a early American colonist, and he said, "Can I cut down the tree without starting the engine? I don't like the noise. Maybe I can just bang it against the tree?"'

A great starter on Blender. I've learned quite a bit in just an afternoon.

Without us on the Earth, what traces of us would linger? What would disappear?

Inform is a design system for interactive fiction, a new medium for writers which began with adventure games in the late 1970s and is now used for everything from literary narrative fiction through to plotless conceptual art.

Distributed Proofreaders provides a web-based method to ease the conversion of Public Domain books into e-books. By dividing the workload into individual pages, many volunteers can work on a book at the same time, which significantly speeds up the creatio

A new book has rekindled old rumours that renowned psychologist BF Skinner used his baby daughter in his experiments. Stop this rubbish about me and my dad, says Deborah Skinner Buzan

"Fie, fie how franticly I square my talk!"

"Make Projects: Small Form Factor PCs is the only book available that shows you how to build small-form-factor PCs ... that are more interesting and more personalized than ... a full-sized PC."

"In 2000, Ari Feldman wrote a book called Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics. Unfortunately, it was taken out of print (although copies still exist in the retail channel)." Now it's available free!

A book for learning Ruby. Sort of like Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby, but less obtuse.

"If a retailer offers a price guarantee but doesn't tell customers about it, does the price guarantee exist? Only for the few who hear about it somewhere else."

Author of Monster Island also has a special offer if you actually buy Monster Island.

Aptly-named, though it had no idea what to suggest after it found out I'd been reading "Twisty Little Passages."

Due to legal problems with Nintendo this can't be released as a real dead-tree book, so it's here as an e-book in multiple PDFs. Enjoy!

"In Lifes’s Little Annoyances, Ian Urbina chronicles the lengths to which some people will go when they have endured their pet peeves long enough and are not going to take it any more."

"Access All Areas" launches soon. Get into areas YOU'RE not supposed to today! (Or, rather, Tuesday.)

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. You can finally buy Twisty Little Passages for less money.

Zombie serials! Yay! Available for the iPod, for reading online, and (now, anyway) one of them is getting published in dead tree format! Makes me want that Librie even more.

Beyond Bullet Points: making PowerPoint presentations that inform without boring. The suggested presentation almost looks like three-panel storyboarding.

"Banned Books Week is about upholding a fundamental American value," says Gorman. "We don't believe in suppressing other peoples' right to read..."

Yet another piece of Mac freeware to convert text to an audiofile

Book nerds unite! Tagging, booklistings, ability to find books even if you're entering sloppy information, and best of all, inexpensive: it's only $10 if you want to enter more than 200 books, which is worth it. Especially once RSS feeds go in...

Must remember to subscribe to Make's podcast.