Today marks the 200th year since Charles Dickens was born. It’s been fun seeing all of the build-up to today amongst bookish folks. Google has a great artful logo to commemorate the occasion, which will be on their main page all day.

What’s also been fun is following all of the hoopla over in the UK. The Guardian newspaper launched their own “official” Charles Dickens at 200 mini-site late last year as a place to aggregate all of the pieces they’re putting together. It’s worth checking out, but only after you to their archives section to see how the paper covered Dickens way back in 1912 on the 100th anniversary of the author’s birth. It’s neat to be able to compare the thinking and statements.