I make things on the internet
Pages is shutting down in Toronto. It’s quite a shame, it was definitely one of my favourite bookstores, and always one of my stops along Queen St. I also discovered that Shipley Books on Charing Cross Road, in London, was forced to shutdown this year. Hopefully, both are able to find affordable spaces to continue operation, or we’ll just continue the march towards big box store hell.
Awful Library Books brings us the best of the worst books held in public libraries.
Rob Matthews printed a five thousand page book featuring all of Wikidedia’s featured articles. It shows the impracticality of physical encyclopedias, despite the fact that they were generally produced in volumes.
Thomas Allen cuts up pulp books and arranges them in a new context to create stunning photographs. I recently came across this post featuring samples of his work, and his desktop wallpaper for Kitsune Noir. Allen’s work is also featured at Foley Gallery, Carroll and Sons and Joseph Bellows Gallery.
Cornell has opened up their archive of public domain works, removing restrictions on reproduction and use of the works. On top of that, they have released more than seventy thousand works to the internet archive.
The Rare Book Room allows you to read old manuscripts in their original form, including works by Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin and Galileo.
Appreciating the practice of book cover design. Faceout Books focuses on one book or series each week, delving into the challenges and outcome of the project.
Barrack Obama reads Where the Wild Things Are. There are so many awesome things about this video, you can’t help but smile.
Six Projects That Could Change Publishing for the Better is Michael Tamblyn’s presentation from the BookNet TechForum outlining projects, changes and initiatives that could help change the industry. It’s forward thinking and funny to boot, definitely worth watching if you’re at all interested in the book industry.
Three video clips about the design process of a book. C.S. Richardson briefly explains the history of book design, interior layout and cover design. One of his most important points is that good book design is invisible.