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 most beautiful home office/library I've ever seen (probably). -->

Oddest Book Titles of the Year (in pictures), including such favorites as The Great Singapore Penis Panic: And the Future of American Mass Hysteria and The Mushroom in Christian Art (actual article).

Author with 5 books published tries to sell 6th novel. 12 publishers pass due to previous sales figures. She changes her name, and her book is sold. Triumph.

In other cool news, Street Art of the Day at The Daily What is this colorful repurposed telephone booth in NYC - now a free "library"/book drop!

Children's Books

"A Brief History of Children's Picture Books and the Art of Visual Storytelling, OR What Modern E-books Can Learn from Mid-Century Design Icons"

Sad news: "Jan Berenstain Dies at 88". My mother even texted me - that's how important the Berenstain Bears were in my life.

Typography



Video

Yup, I'm doin' it: World's Geekiest Handshake. I'm also lovin' it (no copyright infringement intended, McDonald's).


Website

Just discovered! We Love This Book

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

Even if you're not a non-fiction fan or a reader of alternate histories, this is a fascinating and engrossing article about writing in general, non-fiction history writing in particular, and an in-depth look at 5 unusual histories chosen by Geoff Dyer for The Browser.

Of all place, Boston.com has a roundup of "7 book recommendation websites to find your next good read".

Mystery Bus Tour! That's exactly what it sounds like. Read all about it.

Featured in Speakeasy, for all authors out there - "How to Be an Indie Bookseller's Dream" - and being a former bookseller, I concur!

A new international literary magazine presents an intimate look at war: "Warscapes — with sections that include literature, poetry, art and reportage — treats the subject elegantly by publishing stories that underline the personal, the intimate and the introspective."

Love lists like this! From Inhabitat: "7 Amazing Green Bookstores and Libraries from Around the World"

Today's Inspiration is blogging a series of "Female Illustrators You Should Know". You can find the links here, here, and here so far.

Children's Books

"If Dr. Seuss Books for Titled on According to Their Subtexts"

Flavorwire article of the week: "Literary Mixtape: Jo March"

Mitali Perkins, children's lit author extraordinaire, discusses how "Children's Books Explore Real-World Issues"

Lemony Snicket book deal news.

Korean children's book and magazine covers for the 40s/50s and 60s.

Product

"In My Book" - book-themed greeting cards and bookmarks, featured on Books on the Nightstand

Typography

An infographic showing "The History of Western Typefaces" (thanks to Shane for this!)

Video

William Blake is one of my favorite poets. This Brazilian short film was inspired by his poem The Tyger.
(Shout out of thanks to Chelsea for turning me on to this!)



Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?


In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?


And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?


When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?


Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

This image is made up of thousands of little tiny stars.

Thank you to Sandy for this.

Discovered here.

Own a copy by buying it from here.

Design*Sponge

Run, don't walk, to Design*Sponge for more fonts than you can handle. Today is their Font-Themed day!

Check out how people use font-inspired decorations in their home (here & here), watch videos of font designers talking about their work, and enter the "Design Your Own Alphabet" contest.

If only I had 80 more hours in my day to sit here and read this blog cover-to-cover. Enjoy!

Typography Tuesday: Measuring Type

Ever wondered how economical your favorite typeface might be?
Me neither.

But these guys have, and they've created the Measuring Type project. The picture to the left shows how much ink was used to write the same word at the same point size in the different font styles.

While I've never thought about it before, I admit I was pleased to discover my favorite everyday font - Garamond - used the least ink.

What's your favorite everyday font?

Typography Tuesday: Intro to Typography II

TYPOGRAPHICS from BoCa on Vimeo.

View the first Intro to Typography video here.

Type Joke

Now I Know My ABCs...

For more fun font-y things, check out MyFonts.

Intro to Typography

Here is a very basic introduction to four different fonts. It's a fun little video that gives DOB, distinguishing characteristics, and some vocab for font description. If you're at all interested in typography, like me, it's worth the four minutes of your life. Enjoy!


Type: Four from R. Ballermann on Vimeo.

Typography Video II

Wish I knew how to create something like this!


Type Music Video: US3 "Cantaloop" from boon on Vimeo.


If you liked this one, check out this earlier post.

What Type Are You

Wondering what type you are? Font type, that is? Check out this great website to find out.

I'm either:

Cooper Black Italic












or

Pistilli Roman













Yes, I did it twice. You probably will too.

Creative Alphabet

I love that other people take the time to do these things. Then I can just sit back and admire it. Take a look at this blog post that captures a whole lot of people creating the alphabet in unique ways. These two are my favorite:






The Alphabet Photo Gallery by Abba Richman at pbase.com.










Inspired by Abba Richman’s collection, prior to this, Thomas Fredriksen created his own alphabet photo collection on pbase.com.

Dear Typography

Typography Video

Thank you to everyone who has sent me typography "things" - videos, pictures, websites, etc. - over the last few days! I'll now be sharing them with you all:


Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Books and Tattoos

Penguin Publishers has found a way to combine two of my favorite topics - books and tattoos - into one magical moment. Okay, actually six magical moments.

Penguin has created a new line of books known as Penguin Ink. Already published adult novels are getting a face lift with new cover designs created by tattoo artists. Paul Buckley is the design director for this new line.

The first six novels are being re-released at the end of June. They are:

Bridget Jones's Diary
by Helen Fielding, cover design by Tara McPherson
Paperback: 9780143117131, $15, Penguin, Pub. Date: June 2010

Money: A Suicide Note
by Marin Amis, cover design by Bert Krak
Paperback: 9780143116950, $15, Penguin, Pub. Date: June 2010

From Russia With Love
by Ian Fleming, cover design by Chris Garver
Paperback: 9780143116943, $15, Penguin, Pub. Date: June 2010



The Broom of the System
by David Foster Wallace, cover design by Duke Riley
Paperback: 9780143116936, $15, Penguin, Pub. Date: June 2010


Waiting for the Barbarians
by J.M. Coetzee, cover design by Chris Conn
Paperback: 9780143116929, $15, Penguin, Pub. Date: June 2010


The Bone People
by Keri Hulme, cover design by Pepa Heller
Paperback: 9780143116455, $15, Penguin, Pub. Date: June 2010

Read more about this here.

And in case you missed it in an earlier post, some adult Penguin Classics have been redone to have intricate typography covers in shades of black, white, and red - the red is to spark AIDS awareness, the cause behind the repackaging. Read more about the Penguin Classics here.

Too Much Typography to Handle

Thanks to @bookavore via Twitter (@rebf if you want to follow me) for starting me off on this post!

Penguin Classics and their new typographic covers. Read about it here.

Watch this short video starring different fonts, in your spare time. Sound helps.



Last but not least, I want this on a t-shirt.






Or maybe I want this one.

The Only Thing That Could Make Me Want an iPhone

In my post a few weeks ago, Now I Know My ABCs..., I neglected to mention that the first two books discussed focused on a certain construction known as a Calligram.

A very basic definition of a calligram is "a poem, phrase, or word in which the typeface, calligraphy, or handwriting is arranged in a way that creates a visual image. The image created by the words expresses visually what the word, or words, say" (according to Wikipedia, which I don't hold as the gospel truth, but in this case, I think it's safe enough).

This delightful confection of characters was introduced to me by a friend with the words, "Google it. You'll thank me." So here I am, thanking her for bringing this to my attention. In Googling it, I stumbled upon all sorts of delicious websites to spend hours drooling over.

• PantheonDesign has a heartwarming story to tell about artist Laura Ruggeri's calligram work.
• There is an iPhone app where you can create your own calligram (oh, how this makes me long for an iPhone or iTouch, something no other app has done before!).
• Here is a blog of Calligram Designers. Don't miss The Royalty Series in older posts on the blog - A calligramed Prince? Yes, please!

What's wonderful about the calligram, in addition to its very existence, is its ability to be used by many languages. For instance, Arabic calligrams make use of serene Arabic script, while this website showcases Assyrian Calligraphy, and this website shows off Georgian calligrams. You can even make a calligram out of musical notes!

It's a lot of fun, and hard work, to make one yourself. I may post an attempt or two if I ever finish one of my own. In the meantime, I'll just admire everyone else's.

Now I Know My ABCs...

This really should be subtitled "ode to the ABC book".

I'm probably not the ONLY person in the world who has a fascination with ABC books, judging by the number of them a) available, and b) recently published, but I'm finding that the ones I find absolutely, stunningly, drop-dead, a full 10, gorgeous (!), are not ones that fly off my shelves. So, I keep ordering them in and sending them back out, and sighing over them, and spending too much money adding them to my collection, and now, I'm going to bombard you with them too. Enjoy!

The book that inspired today's blog post:

Bembo's Zoo by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich
(who I think also wins the coolest name award)
The illustrations are comprised of the letters it takes to spell that animal. For instance: MONKEY.

To see them all, go here.

To continue on the "type is amazingly cool" theme, check out Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types by Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss. In this one, the animals are formed by the first letter of their name in different type fonts. Swoon.













Now, not to be too confusing, but after Alphabeasties comes Alphabeasts by Wallace Edwards, featuring intricately drawn illustrations of an animal whose name begins with whatever letter s/he's posing for, which is not to be confused with Graeme Base's tongue-twister Animalia, the illustrations of which are possibly even more intricate than Edwards's, but with the caveat that there's more than one 'letter' thing in each illustration.

For something really different, look for really retro design by Charley Harper. In both a chunky and a skinny ABC book version.

And last, but not least,
the most recently released
(so sorry that rhymed):

Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman
(which, incidentally, also comes in a really vibrant floor puzzle version that I would have loved as a kid)

P.S. I get props for not mentioning a single B is for Baseball type of book in here. Cause you know I wanted to. But I'm in baseball mourning at the moment. I'm sure you understand. Next year in the holy land.

Bibliophiles R Us

No, this is not my arm.

But, funny enough, a friend sent me this picture, so there are clearly at least 3 of us out there who think this is a cool idea.