Books, Design and Culture
The London Review Bookshop visit Shepherds bookbinders in London to watch them put together a special limited edition of Tom McCarthy’s Man Booker Prize shortlisted novel Satin Island (yours for only £185):
Epilogue: The Future of Print is a wonderful student documentary project by Hanah Ryu Chung about book and print culture in Toronto. In the film, eight local book and print professionals talk about their work and what the future holds for the printed word:
(via Letterology)
Comments closedA lovely short film about bookbinder Don Taylor made by Tate Young and Ian Daffern for the new online daily Toronto Standard:
Comments closedIn yesterday’s round-up I briefly mentioned DODOcase who use traditional bookbinding techniques to produce iPad and e-reader covers locally in San Francisco. Here’s a video introduction to the company and their products:
Another reason (were one needed) to get an iPad (right after Swords & Sworcery!).
Comments closedEarlier this week I posted the 1947 documentary Making Books. As follow up, here’s the 1961 documentary Bookbinders from the AFL-CIO series “Americans at Work”:
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The extraordinarily cool binding for Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (Ubu the King), a collaboration between bookbinder Mary Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp, as seen at blog.rightreading (pictured).
Editor Chuck Adams interviewed in the November Poets & Writers Magazine. A very interesting–albeit very commercial–perspective:
“For too long, in New York, we’ve been in this culture of publishing what we like and not what readers want. Hopefully, we’ll come around to trying to understand what people really want to read so we can interest them in reading in the first place.
He also makes a very telling point about the problem of homogeneity of publishing:
“We don’t encourage a diversity of people in the business. We don’t. We just want more of the same because they’re the ones who can afford to work in it.”
I couldn’t agree more…
Not content with Bastards With Bookshops , Bastards With Bookshops 2, and Yet More Bastards With Bookshops , Bookride has gleefully provided guidelines to help aspiring bastard-booksellers achieve their dream. Like they need the help… My personal favourite:
“Greet the customer with a glower, a scowl or a look of deep mistrust. If you are feeling generous a frosty ‘Good Morning! will suffice.”
Following Chapters-Indigo in Canada, Barnes and Noble have launched a social networking site ‘My B&N’ in the US.
Agent Kate Lee interviewed at HarperStudio’s 26th Story:
“I think the building or seeding of buzz online is important–as with film, music or TV, word of mouth is invaluable. That buzz can come through building relationships with bloggers, writing posts that you then try to get linked to, starting up a social network or “fan” group, and/or creating original online content. The main thing is just to be out there–be writing, be posting, be Twittering, be engaging in conversation with other people in the blogosphere.”
A fascinating half-hour interview with novelist John Le Carre from BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.
Comments closedHaving skipped Monday (thanks Amazon grid!), here’s a bumper Midweek Miscellany for your (digested) reading pleasure…
Publishers put on a brave face on the economic downturn in Frankfurt according to the Washington Post (thanks for link Stephanie!):
“While luxuries are increasingly unaffordable, most people still have enough money to buy a book, and booksellers could even use the opportunity to stage a resurgence”
Traditional book binders John and Ardis Mankin featured in the San Diego Union Tribune (via Shelf Awareness):
“Our main machinery is our hands,” said Ardis, 74. “Technology can’t do what we do.”
The Serif Fairy (pictured) for the junior typographer in all of us (via Design Observer).
The Legendary Mr. Typewriter: Reveries on Martin K. Tytell the owner of the Tytell Typewriter Company, in Lower Manhattan who died, age 94, on September 11th, 2008. If I could type for tuppence and wasn’t a pathological re-writer, I would definitely use a typewriter…
‘Books for Bibilophiles’ in The Observer:
“At a time when bibliophiles are an endangered species, these books about books tell us why it’s reading that makes us human”
Literary agent Pat Kavanagh, “doyenne of the London literary scene”, has died:
“She had the values of an earlier generation. People like Kingsley Amis loved Pat. She was old school but she never seemed jaded. We all thought she would always be there, that she would never retire.”
Jonathan Ross revisits Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons for The Times (via LinkMachineGo):
“But what makes this a genre-transcending bona fide masterpiece is that… Moore and Gibbons… manage to deliver a devastating critique that cuts to the very heart of the pitiful, timid male fantasy that is the superhero genre at its purest and worst: muscular men and busty women in tight costumes solving all the world’s problems with a well-placed punch”
Over and out…
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