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Midweek Miscellany, June 10th, 2009

#BCTO09BookCamp Toronto organiser Mark Bertils’ stream of links about the event at his blog Index//mb. There is also a  list of related press at the BookCamp wiki. I will try and organise my jumble of thoughts about BookCamp sometime… soon… (ish).

The Book Seer — A nice little web project from James Bridle and the chaps at Apt Studio. Tell it what you’ve read and it will suggest what to read next based (currently) on LibraryThing and Amazon recommendations. James has more about the project at Times Emit.

Cultural Life — An interview with Granta magazine’s newly appointed acting editor John Freeman:

We need to expand how we define what it means to publish great writing. This means reaching readers in the way that they want to hear from us. Such as having a print edition for people who treasure the beauty of text and the photo essays on the page; having a dynamic website for those who want to read us online; having a Kindle or iPhone-compatible edition for people who want to read stories in the palm of their hand; sending out links by twitter to readers who want to know the moment new stories appear; hosting events and conversations and parties for people who want to interact with the magazine in person. The challenge is to make sure that none of these respective endeavors cheapens or reduces the complexity and integrity of the work we publish.

Passion and Daring — Ben Myers at The Guardian is heartened by  Canongate winning  publisher of the year.

Frightening But Cute — Illustrator Axel Scheffler,  talks about drawing the much-loved Gruffalo in a video interview also for The Guardian. Which reminds me — I’ve been meaning to link to Terrible Yellow Eyes for a while. It’s a collection of artwork inspired by Where the Wild Things Are (Robert van Raffe‘s contribution to the project pictured below).


Plastic Banality — Author Warren Ellis’ unique take on the “dubious virtues” of  e-books in Wired. Not for the sensitive or the faint of heart:

[W]hen print was king, we would speak of “reaching an audience”. We would talk of doing these things via advertising, or appearances – which were when you’d show up somewhere in the real world, deface books with ink and communicate using small mouth noises… This has changed in fairly savage ways. The complex net of processes designed to take your money and give it to me is kind of ragged, what with newspapers collapsing and the concept of authority being passed… to, in 2009, a Twitter post from the sainted Stephen Fry. It was great to get a review in a music paper (remember those?) and it was amusing to see Oprah recommending Cormac McCarthy’s The Road to housewives, but here’s the new audience mediation: Stephen Fry popping up on your bloody iPhone to tell you he’s enjoying reading The Watchmen graphic novel.

And finally…

I’m rather charmed by The Mandate Press’ customizable letterpress calling cards. I have always wanted a business card set in blackletter… But what literary theme should they add to their list I wonder?

You can see more of The Mandate Press’ lovely work on Flickr (via The Strange Attractor)