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

Titles on the Man Booker shortlist are discussed via cover design.

Stunning paper sculptures appeared in a the Scottish Poetry Library. Read about it and see pictures here and here.

Flavorwire article of the week: "20 Amazing Reimagined Bookcovers". My favorite is here, and no, not just because it's P&P. Okay, not only just because it's P&P.

"11 Literary Holidays That Every Book Lover Should Know" - my favorite: Winnie the Pooh Day, January 18th: Travel back to your childhood with this holiday that commemorates the honey-obsessed bear and his pals. Observed on the birthday of author A.A. Milne, this holiday invites celebrants to read the classic stories to themselves or to share them with the next generation of book lovers.

A very long article on authors and their pets.

World Book Night and the 2012 Top 100 books. I'm pleasantly surprised and supportive that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy made the top 10.

Autostraddle has compiled a list of the "Top Ten Fantasy Novels That Have Gay People In Them". Personally, I'm a huge fan of anything Jacqueline Carey writes, and am looking to get my hands on the sequel to Santa Olivia.

Borders employees have a final say:

Blogs/Websites

Facsimile Dust Jackets - for those who love vintage book covers, they have over 7,000 to choose from.

Children's Books

Emma Thompson to pen new Peter Rabbit tale!

I don't agree (or maybe just don't want to agree) with everything this article says, but at least it's celebrating "The Children's Authors Who Broke the Rules" - Sendak, Silverstein, and Seuss (2 Jews and a German - just thought that was an interesting bit of trivia)

Here's a slideshow of recently published children's fairy and folk tales in the Sunday Book Review of The New York Times. And here's the article that accompanies it.

Shel Silverstein, despite being dead for over 10 years, has a new book coming out: Everything On It. NPR discusses.

Comics

Archie comics to feature a gay wedding. Read more here (snarky) and here (serious).

Typography

For the person who has everything? Design your own type ring at Typerings.com.

Drool over this website: Wood Type Revival.

Interested in designing your own website with some unique fonts? Check out Typekit.com.

Just in case those websites weren't enough, check out Linotype.com, while you're at it.

Typographers complain about wildly successful recently released book Just My Type in this article "Not My Type".

Video

Sorry to do this to you, but the cutest book-related video ever:

Thanks to SBT for this: "A Typewriter That Transforms Words Into Cocktails"

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

When (Dead) Writers Tweet: The Art of Concise Imitation

Lev Grossman defends the codex (a.k.a. the book) in the New York Times:
"The codex won out over the scroll because it did what good technologies are supposed to do: It gave readers a power they never had before, power over the flow of their own reading experience. And until I hear God personally say to me, “Boot up and read,” I won’t be giving it up."

Letters of Note features this classic internal Walt Disney company communication: "Seven Little Men Help a Girl" (left).

Sophie Blackall's illustrated Missed Connections discussed on NPR.

Blogs/Websites

Publishing Perspectives is a newsletter I've been receiving about international publishing. Two articles that caught my eye this week were "What Do You Look for in a Translation? Edification or Entertainment?" (as I don't like to read a lot of translations, I would say more entertainment) and "Are Games a Gateway into Classic Lit for Reluctant Readers?" (I say tricky, despite having been an early advocate of graphic novels as the "gateway drug" into full-length novels. Sometimes gaming only leads to more gaming.).

Proud to feature the blog of a former grad school classmate: Adventures of a Blonde Librarian.

Children's Books

I only got 19 correct, much to my chagrin. Can You Name the Characters from Works of Children's Literature?

Brian Selznick's new children's novel, Wonderstruck, came out on September 13th. Speakeasy offers an exclusive preview for those who haven't already purchased it or checked it out of the library.

Michael Chabon talks about his new super hero children's book over at Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy.

Today's Inspiration features children's book illustrations. I get one to my inbox daily.

Maurice Sendak interview about his new children's book, Bumble-Ardy.

Lists

Independent bookseller recommendations compiled here.

Typography

What Your Font is Secretly Telling the World About You by Simon Garfield, the author of Just My Type

A delightful and meaningful short film about the life of the late Doyald Young, legendary typographer.



Video

NBC's Brian Williams addresses "digital geek speak" and what this actually means (i.e. "Netflix for books" = libraries)...



And the strangest, least-informative Kickstarter video EVER award goes to author Neil Gaiman and singer Amanda Palmer as they raise funds for their West Coast tour/CD compilation project: An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer.

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!

Ads

 I wish this wasn't a Kindle ad because I love the vintage look, but oh well.







Articles

Despite being tired about reading about the same books over and over again, here is a round-up of the "Top 20 Most Iconic Bookcovers Ever", as according to Flavorwire.

The second Flavorwire article of the week is "The Literary Baby Name Dictionary" (and I have to admit I've always wanted a daughter named Auden).

"Where All My Boys At?" is a thoughtful blog post about being a male bookseller, and often the only one.

Blogs/Websites

Graphic designer Matt Roeser has a blog called New Cover, dedicated to his book reviews and beautifully redesigned book jackets.

Letters of Note is a blog to bookmark. I hope you'll agree after reading this letter from Ian Fleming.

Publishing Perspectives offers information about international publishing, including a new children's newsletter. I've registered for it; have you?

Those near Pittsburgh should check out the blog for East End Book Exchange to find out when and where this pop-up bookstore will be operating next.

Check back in October for the site to be officially launched, but for now, bookmark the UK's Alliance of Radical Booksellers.

Children's Books

Readingrockets has an impressive collection of children's book author interviews. Watch them here.

Two posts about letters from Roald Dahl, unrelated to each other, in one week. It's a sign. Time to watch Matilda, read The Twits, and check out this "Weird and Hilarious Letter to a Class of Children" from BuzzFeed and his "Thank You for the Dream" letter from Letters of Note.

Retronaut compares the 1963 version to the 1991 version of Richard Scarry's The Best Word Book Ever with some pretty progressive results.

Tolkien

He obviously deserves his own section. Here are two articles about a German art student who "hand illuminates" a copy of Tolkien's Silmarillion. Blog link and an interview.

Typography

PBS Arts (which you should also check out) has a series titled "Off Book" (which you should also check out) which produced this video on typography:

Listen to this NPR broadcast: "Know This Headline's Font? You're 'Just My Type'".

Interview

Podcast with Ursula K. LeGuin on CBC Radio.

Misc.

Maybe someday: A Library Themed Wedding Shoot.