A loupe is something every bookseller should have in their toolbox. I most frequently use mine to help identify prints in books (etching? engraving? woodcut? mezzotint? aquatint?). They are also useful for making out faded, erased, or otherwise-difficult-to-read writing, differentiating between printed and authentically signed autographs, and the like.Yesterday, I decided to turn my loupe on the Kindleto see what the type looked like under closer examination. I was rather shocked at what I saw. The letters, even under high magnification, look remarkably like type on a physical page. I expected to see at least some evidence of pixelation, and...
Author Homes
It's been a rough few months for the former homes of great authors. In January, Robert Frost's home was vandalized by partying teenagers. More recently, both the Mark Twain and Edith Wharton museums face severe budget shortfalls and likely closure or sale. Reading Ahead's Harold Augenbraum wonders what these possible losses could mean:Perhaps in these cases we are not only talking about the past as a predictor, but as a movement through horizontal space that re-senses our perceptions of the author and his or her literary work. When we visit these homes and imagine Wharton or Twain lolling on the...
1) Children's Books.2) Art and Photography.3) Cookbooks.4) Graphic novels, comics, Manga5) Poetry.6) Craft, Hobby, How-To, and Instructional books7) Any book in which its design is inherent to the experience of reading it.
Unusual Shelving Methods
Picking up (somewhat) where Michael's last post left off, Idlewild Books, a new travel bookstore in NYC, has devised an innovative shelving technique for its shop:“I was in a chain bookstore and realized I would have to go to five different sections to get what I needed—a travel guide, a map, a language book, a novel,” he noted. “At Idlewild, everything will be shelved by country, and in the case of the United States, by state—that way people will be able to browse according to the place of their interest.”Del Vecchio emphasized that he believes literature about a country—be it...
KINDLE: Initial Impressions
Last week I confessed to having bought a Kindle, Amazon's new e-book reader. I've had it for almost a week now and thought I'd report on my initial impressions...1) Many commentators and Amazon reviewers have talked about how the design of the Kindle makes it too easy for you to accidentally hit one of the side buttons and turn a page when unwanted. There is some truth to this, but I found it no more annoying than pressing the wrong key on the tiny keypad of a Blackberry, hitting the wrong link on the tiny iPhone screen, or for that...