A mouse, a jackass, and a monkey walk into a bookstore....Well not really, but Lane Smith's latest book, It's a Book, features these three characters grappling with the ever-changing world of books and technology.The publisher calls it "a delightful manifesto on behalf of print in the digital age" and it is a welcome addition to the p vs. e debate.To celebrate the release of the book, Macmillan has created the first annual Unplug Day and is urging everyone on August 31st to "unplug. unwind. recharge. read a book!"click to enlarge I'm in.Facebook group for Unplug Day
Church Plans on Burning the Qur’an on 9/11
Here they go again.This time it is the Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida who have declared 9/11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, "International Burn a Koran Day." Outside of the guaranteed publicity, The Dove World Outreach Center supplies these ten reasons on why burning the Qur'an is a righteous act. The Church also offers "free shelter and food for women who want to escape from Islam."Their request for a permit to hold the book-burning has been denied by local fire officials but the church still plans on proceeding. In an email to...
The Library of America Goes Wordless: The Novels of Lynd Ward
In what just might be one of the publishing surprises and hi-spots of 2010, The Library of America will release a 2 volume boxed set featuring the six woodcut novels of Lynd Ward.God's Man, Ward's first book published on the eve of the stock market collapse of 1929, was the first wordless book-length novel to be published in the United States. By the end of 1937 Ward would publish five more novels in woodcuts: Madman's Drum (1930) Wild Pilgrimage (1932) Prelude to a Million Years (1933) Song Without Words (1936)Vertigo (1937)If one is looking for the origins of the graphic novel in the United...
GPS Meets Ayn Rand
Nick Newcomen really likes Ayn Rand. He believes that if "more people would read her books and take her ideas seriously, the country and world would be a better place - freer, more prosperous and we would have a more optimistic view of the future."So what did he do to let the world know?He drove 12,238 miles, across 30 states, using a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to "ink" the message. He began his trip in Marshall, Texas, and he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS...
Long Beach, CA installs Poetry Boxes in hopes to boost business
In a move that the local business improvement association hopes will foster creativity in the community poetry boxes have been installed outside two Long Beach, CA coffee shops. The organizers also hope that the poetry boxes will "bring people to the businesses to boost sales." There are "no word count guidelines and anonymous submissions will be accepted...We want raw poetry," says Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. The boxes will remain in place until "about 100 publish-worthy poems are collected" which will then be published in book form.Flyer for the project Story at KCAL 2Video...