Photo: Thinkstock

"I cannot live without books."
--Lilli Leight, 15.
(--Also, Thomas Jefferson.)

No one reads books anymore. Especially not kids and teens. They're all tweetin' and textin' and emoticonning and watching 3-D YouTube videos on their hologram-lenses or whatever it is they do. Or anyway that's the story lately. Then an old-fashioned lady like myself hears about an intrepid young book lover like 15-year-old Lilli Leight and breathes a sigh of relief. Lilli loves books. She loves books so much that she was disturbed when she noticed that the children at the homeless shelter where she volunteered (is she the best kid in the world or what?) automatically turned on the center's TV when they had a free moment. Lilli told Publishers Weekly, " I realized that there were no books available to the children, and that no one ever thought to ask for a book.”

So she did what all 13-year-olds (as she was then) would do: she started a library. On her own. Read the whole article to find out how she acquired over 5,000 books for the homeless kids she works with. And the next time someone bemoans the state of today's youths, think of the library of Lilli Leight.

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Photo: Thinkstock

When you have a new baby, all sorts of things get added to the daily routine: sterilizing bottles, pureeing peas, convincing yourself that spit-up actually makes a nice accessory, feeling bad about not updating the baby book. And new parents deal in all matter of ways, from starting baby-photo blogs to starting parenting blogs to starting baby-gear blogs. Chicago father Ryan Garcia started the blog 366 Random Acts of Kindness.

As he told Chicago Parent, "This is for my daughter, first and foremost. I want her to see how easy it is to give back to others. I have a newborn, a life outside of work and a full-time job, but it's still easy to do random acts of kindness." Okay, guy. I can't even manage to floss every day, but that's just me. Garcia is on Day 151 of his mission of kindness and hasn't missed a day yet, whether it's donating money to  a charity, wearing a color to support a cause, or something more involved like passing out valentines to strangers or making laminated signs for the homeless. Go, Ryan Garcia! Only 215 days until you can start being mean to everyone! (Ed. note: Just kidding.)

The more of Garcia's good works I click through, the more my initial feeling of guilt (so many kind acts!) dissolves into a sense of lightness. He's right. It really is possible to perform one small act of kindness every day, and the key is just that, keeping it small. Donating the extra dollar at the pharmacy register for pediatric cancer; paying a library fine. These really are things every one can do without going broke or having to spend a ton of time, things that can make a little difference in the life of someone else, and will make a big difference in your own life.

Inspired to do some good today? Like or follow Garcia and guess what, he'll donate 10 cents to charity. There, wasn't that easy?

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Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

* Marcel Proust, a man of many talents, is responsible for the ink-on-paper scribble at left. Melville House has a great roundup of other artworks by famous writers. (Melville House)

* NHL fans: Prepare to get a little bit tearful watching this roundup of the best hockey ads. (Co.Create)

* Raise the stakes on your day by watching Alan Rickman drink tea dramatically. (Kottke.org)

* Confessions from Chris Rock: "For years I didn't miss an episode of Sex and the City. That's probably not something a guy should brag about." (O Magazine)

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The Life-Lifter: Now that's a shopping spree. A Kentucky man spends $200,000 to buy out entire K-Mart store and donates everything to charity.

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The Life-Lifter: "For all the kindness you've shown me and all the support you've given me over the years, here's one-hundred, two-hundred, three-hundred dollars to put towards your new a/c." A local news station's "$300 Act of Kindness" campaign, in action.

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Photo: Thinkstock

As a college student in the southwest, I had a brief and humbling hiking phase, during which I often found myself asthmatically ambling up mountain paths, trying to compose Percy-Bysshe-Shelley-esque-poems in my head, only to eat the dust of chipper senior citizens passing me on either side. At the time I thought it was because I was such a weakling, but now I wonder if it's not just that some older people are total bada**es. Think about it: they've had, like, 50 years to train. Probably, their lungs have had time to heal from youthful debauchery. I made a vow to work hard, train every day, and become an all-star hiker. Some day.

Well, here's a dose of inspiration for 70-something-year-old me: Tamae Watanabe just climbed to the summit of the world's tallest mountain (that's Everest, geography whizzkids). She's 73. She broke the standing world record for oldest woman to climb Mount Everest, which had been held by, uh, her. When she was 63. How awesome is this woman? According to the Telegraph, she's scaled "some of the most famous mountains in the world, including no fewer than five of the 14 peaks that are more than 26,246 feet high." My favorite detail about this story comes at the very end of the Telegraph's account: apparently Watanabe has a rival, another septuagenarian climbstress, who is currently in the midst of her own hike to the peak. Maybe this could be a new trend -- extreme retirement for fit ladies. I hope to someday be as bold. And as fit. And as -- check out the photo of Watanabe here -- totally psyched about it all.

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We all have those moments: you finally get through your evening to-do's and gather up your book and blanket and plop down on the couch for a nice relaxing cup of tea, only to realize you've left the cup of tea in the kitchen. So, if you're anything like me, you sit there and gather up your gumption and just try really extra hard to move your tea with your brain. It never works, does it. Nope, not for me either. So you have to gather up all your remaining energy and launch yourself out of the couch and all the way to the kitchen. Stupid brains, why won't you let us be magic?

But what we rarely take a moment to recognize is how amazing, how magical, what an absolute gift from the universe, to be able to (even if begrudgingly) get up and walk and clutch that tea cup. How there are plenty of people who would give anything to be able to move their bodies just by thinking. Like Cathy Hutchinson, who has been completely paralyzed from the neck down for the past 15 years. PBS reports how, thanks to a robot arm, Cathy just served herself a cup of coffee for the first time since becoming paralyzed. That is to say, Cathy moved this robot arm, which is not attached to her body, with her MIND. This is pretty exciting. It's even more exciting if you watch the video, and see the intense look of concentration on Cathy's face as she THINKS the arm into moving. And it's most exciting when you see Cathy's expression after completing the task: relief, pride at a hard-won triumph, and sheer joy. All from a sip of coffee.

Watch The Future of Prosthetics: Mind-Bending Robotic Arms on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

It's a moment that reminds us of our own daily acts of magic. We may not be able to move things with our brains, but there are brains out there that are figuring out how the people who need to, can. And if you ask me, that's pretty magical.

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Watching your kid's first steps is an emotional, exciting, nothing-like-it experience. But imagine you're a marine, and have been deployed in Afghanistan for seven months. And imagine further, if you will, that your son has cerebral palsy and you have been told he would never walk. This video of a marine's reunion with his son is beyond moving. The grinning kid's determined walk, the big bear hug, the happy little clump of kids as the whole family swarms around Daddy. Hello, hanky.

I find myself chewing over the story between the lines here, thinking about Michael's mother. According to the Jacksonville Daily News, she and her FOUR OTHER CHILDREN all helped Michael learn to walk, and kept it a secret until their father's homecoming. Talk about unsung heroes: This family seems to be full of them.

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