books

The First Book with Page Numbers

                                              © Copyright 2010 Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf  The book is called  Sermo in festo praesentationis beatissimae Mariae virginis and it has the distinction of being the earliest known book to have page numbers. It was printed by Arnold Ther Hoernen in Cologne in 1470. More: The First Printed Page Numbers - I Love Typography Life Before (and After) Page Numbers - The Atlantic

Continue Reading →

Books on Wheels: A Global Jaunt

Antonio La Cava's Ilbibliomotorcarro - Italy  Recently we posted a photo on Tumblr of Antonio LaCava roaming around Italy in his three-wheel creation. It has turned out to be a very popular post so we thought we would expand it a bit to feature some wheeled libraries from around the world. From India's first bookmobile to Raul-Lemesoff's book tank the power of the written word remains strong and our hats are off to these dedicated people of the book. Raul-Lemesoff's Weapon of Mass Instruction, Argentina Image (cc) by Carlos Adampol on Flickr  Mr Doi. And his bike, Japan Eastern Europe? Bicicloteca, Brazil Kordestan, Iran,...

Continue Reading →

A Kickstarter Tragedy: ‘sad pictures for children’ goes up in flames

It started innocently enough. In May, 2012 Comic artist John Campbell took to the crowdsourcing platform Kickstarter to fund a book based on his internet comic. It was to be called sad pictures of children. His goal: $8000 Amount he raised: $51,615 Campbell published 2000 copies of the book and all seemed well. Another Kickstarter victory for the book set. Then on Feburary 27th, 2014 in an update to backers titled "It's Over" Campbell goes on an epic rant that culminates in the burning of multiple copies of the book. Campbell even shares a video of the destruction. Campbell says:...

Continue Reading →

Raymond Carver by the Drink

It's hard to believe it has been 38 years since the publication of Raymond Carver's monumental first short story collection, Will You Please Be Quiet Please? To celebrate the  anniversary the folks at Black Balloon Publishing  have come up with a clever idea; to track the drinks within Raymond Carver's stories. Here's how they did it: Each mention of drink in each story got a tally. If it said three drinks were poured, they made three tally marks. If another round was had, They marked a drink for each character. If people were drinking and someone came in drunk with an empty...

Continue Reading →

Really Waiting for Godot

Another day at Beckett International Airport… Waiting for Godot Feb 2014 © Dan Piraro at Bizzaro Comics and if you're still waiting for a copy of the First Edition this might help: First English Language Edition of Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett New York: Grove Press, 1954. $3750. First published in French in 1952; this is the First Edition of Beckett’s own English translation, preceding the British edition by about two years. and if you still need more, here are a few other Beckett items   

Continue Reading →