Friday Round-Up

Each week I round-up all the (mostly book-related) articles/blog posts/book reviews/websites/videos that entertained me during the week. Enjoy!

Articles

HuffPo features "Books on Screen: Our Favorite Bookish Love Scenes From Films"

Oh, Amazon. It's so hard not to hate you and your attitude toward a positive, successful, mutually-beneficial, non-manipulative, not-a-monopoly book industry: "Amazon Pulls Thousands of E-Books in Dispute [AGAIN]"

As a chronic re-reader (there are at least three or four books I reread on a yearly basis), I feel gratified that there really can be a mental health benefit from rereading.

The very early news that JK Rowling will now write an adult book for Little, Brown.

Thoughtful commentary on a longer article: "E-Books Can't Burn"

I can't explain the book/word/art collaboration known as Round Robin, but Grain Edit can.

Book Products

Bookplates from Mac & Ninny Paper Co.

Get a painting of your favorite books on your own bookshelf here at Ideal Bookshelf. Beautiful work!

Children's Books

Remember the children's book Stephen Colbert wrote during the Maurice Sendak interviews I posted a couple of weeks ago? Well, surprise, surprise, it's getting published.

Does this list surprise you? "The 100 'Greatest Books for Kids" ranked by Scholastic Parent & Child magazine.

Letterpress



Quiz

Name the titles of these book covers (I got 17 of 24)

Typography

<-- An experiment in 3D letterforms by Letters are my Friends. Read more about it on the Co.Design blog.

"From the retrotastic typographic signage to the beautiful vintage color schemes, these storefronts are priceless time-capsules of an era as faded as their paint coats, haunting ghosts caught in the machine of progress." Read more in this article.

Alphabet Roadtrip, the blog of Iskra Design.


Letterology, an open classroom discussing book design and experimental typography.

Videos

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Ann Patchett
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Websites

A Tumblr blog dedicated to book photographs and quotes: PrettyBooks

Friday Round-Up

Each week I round-up all the (mostly book-related) articles/blog posts/book reviews/websites/videos that entertained me during the week. Enjoy!

Articles

The New York Times offers a slideshow of "Books as a Way to Grace a Room" - if you can stomach how much money people spend on the personalized service hired here, it's worth the look.

Book Trailer of the Week

Thank you to Publishing Perspectives for turning me on to this book trailer for "La agenda del fin del mundo (Diary for the End of the World), an irreverent 2012 almanac and agenda featuring anecdotes, sound bites and trivia that topped Amazon Spain’s bestseller list." I wish I could get my hands on one!



Children's Books

The appropriate follow-up to the Colbert/Sendak interviews regarding Colbert's proposed children's book, I am a Flag Pole, and So Can You. From Melville House.

NPR highlighted The Snowy Day this week: "The Snowy Day: Breaking Color Barriers, Quietly"

FANTASTIC query about why there are so few female Caldecott Medal winners.

Milk + Bookies is a "non-profit organization that exposes young children to how great it feels to give back while celebrating the love of a good book."



Quiz

Wolves in children's fiction - how well do you know them? I only got a 7 out of 10.

Introvert or Extrovert? Take the informal quiz at NPR's interview with the author of Quiet, Please. I'm apparently split right down the middle - what does that mean?

Video

An absolutely mesmerizing and magical 15-minute film, nominated for an Oscar, all about the power of books.


The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Websites

This IS a UK-based site, so I don't know how applicable it will be to most of the readers of this blog, but this is an idea I've been in support of for a long time - smaller, quicker reads for commuters, non-readers, and anyone else looking for a small, quick read. QuickReads

For all other English language enthusiasts, I stumbled across this site: English Language & Usage (and no, I'm not promoting it solely because they use my ampersand tattoo as their and symbol). "This is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required."

Friday Round-Up

Each week I round-up all the (mostly book-related) articles/blog posts/book reviews/websites/videos that entertained me during the week. Enjoy!

 

In the words of Book Riot (where I found this photo), it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Articles

"In the Land of the Non-Reader" - a man spends several weeks as a non-reader and this article talks about why and what he learned.

Flavorwire article of the week: "15 Great Works of Literature-Inspired Nail Art" - just to prove there really IS something out there for everyone.

Second Flavorwire article of the week: "10 Cult Literary Traditions for Truly Die-Hard Fans"

Okay, okay, THIRD Flavorwire article of the week: "10 Legendary Bad Girls of Literature" (I had to include it, especially as I think they did a much better job on this list than the previous 10 Legendary Bad Boys of Literature).

"Some of my worst friends are books" from The Guardian. Some of my best friends are, too, though I also enjoy people IRL.

"Nine Coolest Literary Siblings"

"The Business Case for Reading" in the Harvard Business Review

Blogs

The Penguin Press (where I found the typewriter poster on the right, entitled "Typewriters and the Men Who Love Them")

Bookstores

The Last Bookstore, LA, CA.

I have never been to this bookstore, but if I ever find myself spending time in LA (doubtful), you can bet this will be my first stop. This is the article that got me interested. The sentences that sold it for me?

"The Last Bookstore lets you hold a new or used book in your hands in a chic-vintage, one-of-a-kind interior. The store is decorated with things like elephant tusks and mannequins. Even when you go to the checkout, you will see that the counter is made up of books. It’s like an Amoeba Records meets Best Buy meets Borders meets Goodwill, decorated by someone’s hipster sister."

How could you not want to go see a store like that?

"25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore"

Book-to-Screen

The filming of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is back on! Thanks to EarlyWord for this info:

Kate Winslet is set to star as WWII magazine columnist, Juliet Ashton in the film version of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Random House, 2008). Kenneth Branagh will direct (and, some speculate, star as Dawsey Adams). Filming is to begin in March.
Back in November, Variety reported that Branagh had abandoned Guernsey for an adaptation of Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell (New Press, 2009), starring Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins. That project appears to now be on the back burner.

Children's Books

Dr. Seuss was almost never published! But a chance street encounter led to the fateful publication of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. NPR relates "How Dr. Seuss Got His Start 'On Mulberry Street'".

Want to know what district you'd live in, if you were in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games? Check out this map of Panem. I'd be living in the Wilderness which I'm pretty happy about.

Watch this RIGHT NOW (Colbert interviews Maurice Sendak. Hilarity ensues.).

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Libraries

The Huffington Post's Arts section presents a photo montage of Eric Fonteneau's "Haunting Library Installation"

"20 Heroic Librarians Who Save the World" - and yes, I've seen all THREE The Librarian films (though whether I'm proud or ashamed of that, I haven't figured out yet). Also, you must read that Garth Nix series if you haven't already. Lastly, HUGE crush on Giles, even though I'm not a Buffy fan.

Quizzes

Can you name these popular children's book characters?

Tattoos

"The 5 Books That Inspire the Most Tattoos" (though I would hasten a guess that the movie "Fight Club" has more to do with the tattoos than the book does).

Friday Round-Up

Each week I round-up all the (mostly book-related) articles/blog posts/book reviews/websites/videos that entertained me during the week. Enjoy!

Articles

IndieBound Reader App!

My heart cries with Egypt: "Thousands of Rare Books, Journals, Writings Burned at Institute d'Egypt In Cairo"

My favorite type of list: "The Most Overrated Books of 2011"
My second favorite type of list: "The Most Overlooked Books of 2011"

David Foster Wallace showcases his early writing talents in a response to a fellow Amherst College student's Letter to the Editor back in the 80s: "Stick Them In Your Ear"

Suggested Chanukah romance novel titles, to compete with the onslaught of Christmas romance novel titles (sadly none of these actually exist): "Love Among the Latkes"

"Favourite covers of 2011" post from The Casual Optimist.

Book Fetish gift guide on BookRiot - what to get the booklover in your life. I'm going to ask the Chanukah armadillo for this literary pin-up calendar.

Cartography

Okay, okay, I know - two weeks in a row of something not entirely book related, but I think I should just add "cartography" to the list of "other" things that might be mentioned on this blog and be done with it.

Matador has a great article featuring this blog that features amazing maps. That is all.

Quizzes

Thanks to Molly over at Adventures of a Blonde Librarian for recommending this quiz: Famous Female Heroines (in children's books). I got 9 out of 10, having never read the final book on the quiz. Obviously now I'll have to pick up some Robin McKinley.

Which Austen Heroine Are You?

Take the Quiz here!

Videos


Book TV - Top Nonfiction Authors and Books - premiers on C-Span this Saturday.

My personal favorite book trailer of the week.



Also, both of these things are not like the other - book reviews.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Websites

ReadIt1st is a website where you can sign up to receive newsletters about what movies coming out are adaptations of books. You can pledge to read the book first or read the book whenever you want, but either way, read the book and get the news about the movies.

BookSneeze is a way for bloggers to receive free books in exchange for a book review. While not for everyone, it IS another way to get some free books. The catch is you have to blog your review, whether good or bad, stating that you received it from the publisher, and you have to post it on a commercial site, and send these links back to BookSneeze. Lots of Christian/Religion/Spirituality-focused books, just FYI.

Ryan Gosling Works in Publishing

Ryan Gosling Likes Libraries

Ryan Gosling Reads YA

For New Yorkers: NewYorkBoundBooks.com is a new website dedicated to bringing you "all things New York for readers and writers". I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it's the online offshoot of the former brisk & mortar in Rockefeller Center, as well as the online stomping grounds of Barbara Cohen, former owner & operator of said bricks & mortar.

The English Spelling Society. I want to be supportive, but reading over the site, I'm more than a little confused what exactly it, ya know, does. Maybe it's just me, but I was actually a little put off by its aggressive, almost anti-English, tone. Or perhaps I was oddly sensitive the day I discovered it.