Attendees peruse the books available at last weekend's Karachi Literary Festival. Diaa Hadid/NPR hide caption

Ah yes, the erotic color variation of an aged bathtub. Robert Easton/Flickr hide caption

Tavon Tanner tears up before his surgery at Lurie Children's Hospital in October 2016. This photograph is part of the Chicago Tribune series that earned E. Jason Wambsgans the 2017 Pulitzer Prize. E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Courtesy of Columbia University hide caption

#ThanksForTyping began a conversation on the uncredited female labor in academia. askmenow/Getty Images hide caption

Ali Cobby Eckermann. Woodford Folk Festival/Flickr hide caption

Could this dapper gentleman be Marcel Proust? If it is, as a Canadian professor believes, it would mark the first time the great French author was found in film footage. Le Point/Screenshot by NPR hide caption

Author Cynthia Ozick in her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. in 2008. Kathy Willens/AP hide caption

A Fine Dessert, Dinner Scene, illustrated by Sophie Blackall Courtesy of Kathleen Dunn, Penguin Random House hide caption

Dr. David Muller, dean of medical education at Mount Sinai, believes that including in each medical school class some students who have a strong background in the humanities makes traditional science students better doctors, too. Cindy Carpien for NPR hide caption

Would time spent with Anton Chekov, famed for his subtle, flawed characters, make you a better judge of human nature? Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

Matt Langione, a subject in the study, reads Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Results from the study suggest that blood flow in the brain differs during leisurely and critical reading activities. L.A. Cicero/Stanford University hide caption

"The kitchen table was loaded with enough food to bury the family: hunks of salt pork, tomatoes, beans, even scuppernongs." (To Kill a Mockingbird) Dinah Fried hide caption

J.D. Salinger's classic novel, which gave life to Holden Caulfield. Amy Sancetta/AP hide caption