On Reading Ahead, the blog of the National Book Foundation, Executive Director Harold Augenbraun offers us this nugget regarding the state of reading in this country.If literary reading is on the decline, one way to stem that decline is to create a holistic approach along a spectrum of age-appropriate activities and to allow flexibility, which the balkanized literary culture will most likely not be able to do because of varied cultural, political, and social ideologies that have very little to do with inculcating a love of reading. If we leave the creation of readers to ideologues—and I use that word...
What Barack is Reading
Barack Obama hits the tarmac in Bozeman, Montana with book in hand.The marketing folks at W.W. Norton where all over this one. I am not sure the New Times slideshow was finished before they blasted the blogwaves alerting us to this biblio treat.The book? Fareed Zakaria's new book The Post-American World published by W.W. Norton.The book begins in pure Barackian fashion -"This is a book not about the decline of America but rather the rise of everyone else."Zakaria is editor of Newsweek International and writes a regular column on foreign affairs for Newsweek. He will also be the host of...
‘The Writing’s On The Wall’ : Art Meets Language
SHIRIN NESHAT -Rebellious Silence (1994)Black and white RC print and ink, 27.9 x 35.6 cm. Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York.The current issue of ArtAsiaPacific features an in depth look at artists who employ text in their work.Articles include:-A great piece on contemporary calligraphy in China, "Square Words, Round Paradigms" by Eric Wear.-A look at Yoko Ono's embrace of online communities (Ono averages 200 new 'friends' on MySpace a day) by HG Masters.-Gregory Galligan's looks at Islamic text-based art in his piece, "Architecture in Script: From Without Boundaries to Archive Fever," and includes Shirin Neshat whose iconic work appears above.Also in...
The Book Divide
A colleague of mine recently received this feedback from an Amazon customer:2 out of 5 stars: "Three layers of wrapping for a book! This is expensiveand wasteful. Just stick it in an envelope and send it." Another illuminating example of the wide range of relationships that people have with books. There are those who cherish the book as an object and those that cherish the content and unfortunately, rarely the twain have met.
Gutenberg, Gutenberg, Gutenberg
Amazingly, the Morgan Library owns 3 copies of the Gutenberg Bible, two on paper and one on vellum, and they all are unique in some respect. Beginning tomorrow all 3 will be displayed together for the first time in 10 years.The Gutenberg bible was the first substantial book printed in the Western world using movable type. It is believed that Gutenberg and his successors printed between 120 and 135 copies of the Bible on paper and between 40 and 45 copies on vellum. Only 50 survive and some are pretty beat up.The exhibit runs through September 28th.Morgan Library Press Release...