Jason Kottke has a nice appreciation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, noting in particular its modern design:To contemporary eyes, the HP looks almost modern. The text is very readable. The typography, layout, and the way the text flows around the illustration; none of it looks out of the ordinary. When compared to other books of the time [...] its modernity is downright eerie. The most obvious difference is the absence of the blackletter typeface. Blackletter was a popular choice because it resembled closely the handwritten script that preceded the printing press, and I imagine its use smoothed the transition to books...
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.
The Visual Library of Last Resort –
"a tremendous amount of printed material disappears from the public sphere of information when it exits the library.""The Reanimation Library is a small, independent library based in Brooklyn. It is a collection of books that have fallen out of mainstream circulation. Outdated and discarded, they have been culled from thrift stores, stoop sales, and throw-away piles across the country and given new life as resource material for artists, writers, and other cultural archeologists."reanimation library"The Reanimation Library acts as a laboratory for investigating how the representation of analog information can be integrated into a digital environment. We understand that to a...
Why won’t phone books die?
Paul Collins recently asked this question for Slate.com:Ask anyone under 30 about phone books, though, and you might as well inquire about Victrola needles. The Yellow Pages Association claims that even young households use them when the occasion—a wedding, for instance—demands reliable listings. But printed phone books are a maturing industry, with only about six in 10 businesses and individuals still regularly relying on them. Yet even as directories hemorrhage content to the Web and to unlisted cell numbers, enough oldsters—those, say, who still recall physically dialing numbers in a rotary motion—continue using them enough to keep profits rolling in....
Gonzo
Great trailer for the upcoming documentary on Hunter S. Thompson:From Oscar-wining director Alex Gibney and producer Graydon Carter comes a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. A fast moving, wildly entertaining documentary with an iconic soundtrack, the film addresses the major touchstones in Thompson’s life-his intense and ill fated relationship with the Hell’s Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, and...