On Friday, YCIS and ISB wordsmiths displayed their poetry chops at The Poetry Project’s Interschool Poetry Slam. They were, in a word, amazing.

The Bookworm is up for top honors in a few categories for The Beijinger Bar & Club Awards – including Best Cafe, Best Networking and, of course, Best Quiz. You can vote for us here and Voting is open until May 9th.

The Bookworm makes it onto the Financial Time‘s list of favorite foreign language bookshops.

They write:

Gone are the days when expats in Beijing had to rely on the government-run Foreign Languages Bookstore for its stodgy selection. The city got its first international-calibre mega-emporium last year with the opening of Page One, but many people still prefer the quainter confines of the Bookworm, an English-language shop with a café and a lending library. It hosts a literary festival every spring.

Head over to read the rest of the list.

Flavorwire has named The Beijing Bookworm one of the twenty most beautiful bookstores in the world.

The list’s compilers write:

With Amazon slowly taking over the publishing world and bookstores closing left and right, things can sometimes seem a little grim for the brick and mortar booksellers of the world. After all, why would anyone leave the comfort of their couch to buy a book when with just a click of a button, they could have it delivered to their door? Well, here’s why: bookstores so beautiful they’re worth getting out of the house (or the country) to visit whether you need a new hardcover or not.

Head on over for some serious bookstore eye candy to brighten up your day.

Here’s a peek at some of the other honorees.

Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cafebreria El Pendulo, Mexico City, Mexico

Selexyz Bookstore, Maastricht, Holland

What, BLF alumnus Leslie T. Chang, asks in the latest issue of The New Yorker, do the most industrious people on earth read when they’re not working?

The answer as it turns out: novels about, what else, work.

In the piece, the Factory Girls author mines Chinese bestsellers like The Diary of Government Official Hou Weidong, Du Lala’s Promotion Diary and The Get-Rich Diary of China’s Poorest Guy for insights into Chinese society and some practical career advice (see below) for would-be cubicle kings (and queens).

“Socialize with rich people. They know more than the poor.”

“Hire subordinates who are barely adequate or they’ll make you look bad.”

“When bribing an official, have your business partner deliver the money so your hands stay clean.”

New Yorker subscribers can access the article here.

For non-subscribers, a completely non-inclusive list of workplace books.

Tom Rachman’s The Impressionists 

Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End 

Studs Terkel’s Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do 

Joseph Heller’s Something Happened

Tim Clissold’s Mr. China

In October, Yoram Bauman, the world’s first and only Stand-Up Economist, brought his act to the Beijing Bookworm.

Check out this report of the event by China Radio International’s Dominic Swire:

Yoram Bauman at the Bookworm