Jason LaMotte was very fond of his neighborhood library in Houston, Texas. As LaMotte tells the Guardian: I have strong recollections of my neighborhood library in Houston, Texas in the US. I can recall the layout, where certain sections of books were, the smells, and the sounds. And it still carries a magical feeling for me, this special kind of sanctuary full of knowledge, full of stories, all covered in a sense of quiet respect and revery. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, LaMotte went to work and the result is beautiful homage to the power of the library. Here's a...
Tea Time! New Kickstarter campaign blends classic lit with quality tea
Under the moniker NovelTea Tins John Pujol and Matt Kraemer have launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce a line of organic teas emanating from classic literature. NovelTea Tins has partnered with world class tea aficionados to pair the classics with award winning, organic teas. They also have enlisted the services of Iuliia Glushchuk and Dietrich Kleffel to illustrate the tins. They have two tins ready for production, The Picture of Earl Grey and Don Quixotea, with Tolstoy's War and Peach in the bullpen almost ready to go. Here's how they work: First, we pick major themes from a novel. Next we lay out the...
An interactive map of Ireland’s literary landscape
The digital marketing folks at the Killarney Hotels Group in Ireland have put together this visual. It's an interactive StoryMap called ‘A Literary Landscape of Ireland’ and features Ireland’s most prolific writers and poets and the places that featured prominently in their lives. I didn't know that JRR Tolkien spent time in Ireland while writing Lord of the Rings and that the origin of the character Gollum might very well have come from the name of a cave in Burren, Co. Claire. Pretty cool.
Jack London was an oyster pirate: Weird jobs authors held before they were famous (infographic)
Infographic courtesy of Unplag
Digital Treat: Thanks to Cambridge University we can now see inside the world’s first multicolored printed book
The book is called Shi zhu zhai shu hua pu, ‘Manual of Calligraphy and Painting’ and was first published in 1633 in Nanjing. The book is comprised of eight categories - birds, plums, orchids, bamboos, fruit, stones, ink drawings (round fans) and miscellany - and is illustrated by 50 different artists and calligraphers. It is the earliest known example of multicolor printing in the world: printed by the technique of polychrome xylography known asdouban invented and perfected by Hu Zhengyan 胡正言 (1584-1674). The method involves the use of multiple printing blocks which successively apply different coloured inks to the paper to reproduce...