One place the phrase 'Don't judge a book by its cover' doesn't work is in the publishing and bookselling world. One of the most important factors that determine whether someone browsing for a book buys one is how the book looks. Cover designs that important.Patrick Ness has a nice commentary on book design in the Guardian today Arthur Hawkins, Rockwell Kent, Lustig, E. McKnight Kauffer, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand and Chip Kidd are just a few of the names of artists and designers known for the their dust jacket cover art.Along these lines if you are going to be in...
10 Best and Worst Lists
10 Best and Worst Lists The New York Times released its list of the top 10 books for 2006. The list will appear in the December 10th print issue of the Book Review. And in case you missed this one: Here is another list that I thought might be worth a revisit. It is called the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Century and it was published by the national conservative weekly Human Events, or as it has been called 'a Bible for the right', last May. 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders voted to determine...
The Library as Shelter
Yesterdays paper had an article about the strides the library has made in dealing with its large amount of homeless visitors. Yes, added security and a larger space have made a difference. The library is larger so it could hold the homeless more discreetly and the added security does help, although I think it is there more as an essential element in maintaining the library as a tourist attraction. So did the issue that plagued the old central library really improve? Social service issues can never be solved through architecture, they might be improved but never solved. Why couldn't a...
"Mediocre Writers Borrow; Great Writers Steal" – T.S. Eliot
Google Book Search: The New Literary Lie Detector The plagiarism police have found a new weapon: Google Book Search First there is the story of Winston Churchill borrowing a few lines from H.G. Wells, though not directly attributed to the Google Book Search technology one would assume there was a good chance the writer employed it during his research.War of the Worlds - World Wars - Talk about the boundaries of truth and fiction.I can't wait to find out who President Bush is getting his lines from. Then the story of Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan "copying phrases and sentences...
Google Book Search: The New Literary Lie Detector
"Mediocre Writers Borrow; Great Writers Steal" - T.S. EliotThe plagiarism police have found a new weapon: Google Book SearchFirst there is the story of Winston Churchill borrowing a few lines from H.G. Wells, though not directly attributed t0 the Google Book Search technology one would assume there was a good chance the writer employed it during his research.War of the Worlds - World Wars - Talk about the boundaries of truth and fiction.I can't wait to find out who President Bush is getting his lines from.Then the story of Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan "copying phrases and sentences for his...