For the fifth straight year, I will be aggregating every online “best of 2012” book lists I find in this post. As the lists appear online, I will add them to this master list, updating daily.
“The Biblio-Mat is a random book dispenser built by Craig Small for The Monkey’s Paw, an idiosyncratic antiquarian bookshop in Toronto. Biblio-Mat books, which vary widely in size and subject matter, cost two dollars.
The machine was conceived as an artful alternative to the ubiquitous and often ignored discount sidewalk bin. When a customer puts coins into it, the Biblio-Mat dramatically whirrs and vibrates as the machine is set in motion.
The ring of an old telephone bell enhances the thrill when the customer’s mystery book is delivered with a satisfying clunk into the receptacle below.”
Conceived by cartoonist Zach Weinersmith in collaboration with designer Katie Sekelsky, the Hamlet Bookmark is the physical instantiation of a joke. “We had a shirt/joke that went ‘I’m so bookish, my bookmarks are smaller books,’” says Weinersmith, “These are sort of a realization of that idea.”
In deciding to actually make a bookmark that is also a book, Weinersmith and Sekelsky turned a joke into a design brief. They needed “something that was (a) a classic, (b) short enough to fit on a bookmark, and (c) contained a succinct memorable quote,” says Weinersmith. “Hamlet fit the bill nicely.”
(via Book Within a Book: Stick Hamlet Between Your Pages | Wired Design | Wired.com)
This is a fun idea, and makes me wish we’d printed our stories on bookmarks when were doing the original Significant Objects auctions. Maybe there is a way to steal this idea in the future!
Ishac Bertran saw this linguistic beauty in code and sought to treat creative coding text as what he believes it is: poetry. Earlier this year, he put out a call to creative coders to contribute code poetry, compiled the best work, and has now completed his anthology, code {poems}. In it, you’ll find works that may or may not serve a functional purpose, but are aesthetically and linguistically beautiful.
I’m not sure if this has any relation to Evocative Objects by Sherry Turkle, but Significant Objects is worth checking out for its exploring how stories add value to objects.
There is no relation to Turkle’s book. But her work is great! And it’s true that S.O. is worth checking out, but you knew that already.
The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books catalogs the top ten favorite books of over 140 major authors and growing, including Louis D. Rubin, Jim Harrison, David Foster Wallace, David Leavitt, Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, and many more.
Hey New York!, Cabinet Magazine has too many books on their shelves. Help them trim the fat; they’re selling books for $1-$3 all week.
A sample entry:
Stolen: First Edition of ‘The Adventures of Superman’
July 5th, 2012
The following item was reported stolen:
(SHUSTER, Joe) (SIEGEL, Jerry). LOWTHER, George. The Adventures of Superman. New York: Random House, (1942). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket.
First edition of the first Superman novel, illustrated by the character’s co-creator Joe Shuster, with four vibrant color plates and numerous black-and-white illustrations, in scarce dust jacket. With frontispiece, illustrated title page, nine full-page illustrations (four in color), and numerous in-text illustrations. Book fine. Light soiling and wear to extremities of bright, unrestored dust jacket with a small chip to spine tail. Near-fine condition.
If you have any information regarding this item, please contact Bauman Rare Books at 212-751-0011 or brb@baumanrarebooks.com.
![Julie Chen … has redesigned books by combining text and images into shapes of board games, puzzles, and candy boxes.
These creative shapes … challenge users to read the ‘book’ differently than what they may be used to. Chen founded the Flying Fish Press in 1987 and since then, has been creating these impressive books. Each work is hand-bounded and letterpress-printed, with limited-edition publications.
Click through the thumbnails below to see more images.
(via Books Redesigned To Look Like Board Games & Candy Boxes [Pics] - PSFK)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m68pu5kcin1rvpw4yo1_250.png)
Julie Chen … has redesigned books by combining text and images into shapes of board games, puzzles, and candy boxes.
These creative shapes … challenge users to read the ‘book’ differently than what they may be used to. Chen founded the Flying Fish Press in 1987 and since then, has been creating these impressive books. Each work is hand-bounded and letterpress-printed, with limited-edition publications.
Click through the thumbnails below to see more images.
(via Books Redesigned To Look Like Board Games & Candy Boxes [Pics] - PSFK)
