Nick Newcomen really likes Ayn Rand. He believes that if "more people would read her books and take her ideas seriously, the country and world would be a better place - freer, more prosperous and we would have a more optimistic view of the future."So what did he do to let the world know?He drove 12,238 miles, across 30 states, using a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to "ink" the message. He began his trip in Marshall, Texas, and he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS...
Long Beach, CA installs Poetry Boxes in hopes to boost business
In a move that the local business improvement association hopes will foster creativity in the community poetry boxes have been installed outside two Long Beach, CA coffee shops. The organizers also hope that the poetry boxes will "bring people to the businesses to boost sales." There are "no word count guidelines and anonymous submissions will be accepted...We want raw poetry," says Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. The boxes will remain in place until "about 100 publish-worthy poems are collected" which will then be published in book form.Flyer for the project Story at KCAL 2Video...
Next Chapter Bookstore: A New Bookstore Worth Celebrating
Photo: Tom Reed/The TimesThese days, the opening of a bookstore anywhere on the planet is cause for a celebration but the opening of The Next Chapter Bookstore in Gainesville, GA is truly a remarkable event.The bookstore is the latest outreach program from Our Neighbor, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of physically handicapped men and women. It is the brainchild of the organization's founder Marty Owens and a volunteer and former bookseller D’ete Sewell. The store is staffed by young adults with disabilities.Photo: Scott Rogers/The Times On how the store came about, Sewell says “We had nowhere for these...
The Library in Disarray: The Paintings of Wendy Heldmann
The something that you're looking for, 2008. Acrylic on canvas.16" x 18"Wendy Heldmann lives and works in Los Angeles, a city where many exist in a constant state of earthquake awareness. She has created two striking series of works, of course and never and barricades + libraries, that take the orderly world of the library and turn it upside down.We just keep taking turns, 2008. Acrylic on canvas. 24" x 20" Heldmann's post-disaster world is void of humanity. The books are rearranged naturally, landing and resting wherever the last tremor or collapse leave them. A striking reminder of the underlying...
The Rise of the Digital Book Cover
Tintin and The Secret of Literature—The Digital Book Cover "I went from assuming the cover might someday disappear completely, to believing that it could take on a whole new life" said Charlie Orr in a post he did back in May on the blog The Hypothetical Library.As he pondered the digital explosion of content delivery that is currently underway in the book world he "couldn't decide what was worse, the poor quality of covers when the e-books included them, or the fact that most e-books on the Kindle and other e-ink based readers didn't bother with them at all."This was enough...