Glenn Malkin has been awarded a coveted prize in the 2009 Designer Bookbinders competition.His binding of the competition's set book, Le Grand Meaulnes, is a full lacunose design in mixed goatskin leather with onlays and blind tooling. Inside, there are full leather doublures and suede endpapers. Headbands are hand sewn in silk and the book block is decorated at the edges in acrylics. The book is presented in a custom-made drop-back box with suede lining.The competition is held annually by the Designer Bookbinders society, which noted in its citation, "This book design represents the physical and emotional journey made by...
Charles Dickens’ Deluxe Dental Tool Is Top Pick at Bonham’s
Charles Dickens' Deluxe Dental Hygiene Solution Charles Dickens' toothpick sold at Bonham's-NY yesterday for $9,150, including the buyer's premium. The pre-sale estimate for the pick of the litterateur was $3000-$5000.Exhibited at Chapin Library, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, in the Spring of 1970, the toothpick was sent to auction by its owners, the family collection of Barnes & Noble.Bonham's catalog description noted: "Dickens' toothpick, manufactured by Sampson Mordan & Co. of London, ivory and gold with retracting mechanism, 60 mm long when closed, engraved with Dickens' initials, manufacturer's and inventor's names, together with...
Gourmet’s Famine Is Library’s Feast
The Premiere Issue Of Gourmet Magazine, January 1941. When publisher Conde Nast sliced Gourmet Magazine from its line-up in October 2009, foodies nationwide mourned the passing of a culinary standby. The cooking bible had been published for nearly 70 years, providing inspiration to professional chefs, amateur cooks, and readers who didn't know Escoffier from Le Creuset, but took a pornographic delight in superbly styled, sensual shots of sinfully rich repasts. But at least one librarian saw the magazine's starvation as a chance to pluck a prize plum.A Selection Of Sinful Sweets Gourmet Style.Marvin J. Taylor, director of New York University's...
48 Dante Variations. Caroline Bergvall Reads The Inferno
As of May, 2000 the British Library housed 48 different translations of Dante's Inferno into English.Poet and sound artist Caroline Bergvall gathers the opening lines of each translation in her sound piece VIA (48 Dante Variations).Bergvall reads the opening of each translation then names the translator and the date of the publication. The result is powerful. The overarching monotony sprinkled with the subtlety of each translation and the hypnotic drone of Bergvall's voice leaves the listener transfixed as they await the next rendering of Dante's lines. The piece conveys the inherent complexity of the art of translation and illuminates the...
Five Simple Ways To Increase Your Reading Speed
With so many professional and personal reading responsibilities and desires it’s a wonder that any of us ever get through the pile of reading material we have to or wish to read.Evelyn Woods Speed Reading techniques don’t work for me; I’m not much for scanning text with a finger or any other body part. But I still have to read an enormous amount of material each week.What to do?1. Listen to appropriately tempo’d music while reading. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is, and how effective it can be. I once read War and Peace likity-split while Flight of...