The Mayor's Tongue by Nathaniel Rich. Design by Jonathan Gray Joseph Sullivan of The Book Design Review has posted his favorite book covers of 2008.He offers 27 shining examples of contemporary cover design. You can also, through the end of the year, vote for your favorite. Currently, David Pearson's design of Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is in the lead.The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ReproductionDesign by David PearsonOne not on list that deserves mention is Charlotte Strick's design of Roberto Bolano's 2666. The book, published by Farrar, Strauss and...
Dante on the Xbox
In his recent piece in the New York Times, "Becoming Screen Literate," Kevin Kelly talked about how "when technology shifts, it bends the culture." About 500 years ago, Gutenberg's invention of movable type and the advent of print culture displaced oral culture and "now invention is again overthrowing the dominant media. A new distribution-and-display technology is nudging the book aside and catapulting images, and especially moving images, to the center of the culture. We are becoming people of the screen."One prime example of this tectonic shift is Dante's Inferno, a new "third person action and adventure game based on the...
Library of the Left Behind
The Conde Duque hotel in downtown Madrid has added a new library to its mix of guest services. The library consists exclusively of books left behind by hotel guests.The library currently houses 250 books in a variety of languages.According to the story "one of the titles that attracts the most attention of visitors to this unusual library is a Spanish translation of Book of Mormon"Other books include "a cookbook with traditional Roman recipes, a title about Michael Jackson's dance steps, the memoirs of Spanish bullfighter Jose Ortega Cano and handbooks of natural remedies."There are also plenty of travel related books...
Gertrude, Alice and Basket
Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and their poodle Basket. France, 1944.Photograph by Carl Mydans.Stein and Toklas were serious poodle people. Over the years they had three; Basket, Basket I and Basket II.#4 in Book Patrol's new series Life of Google, featuring images from the vast archives of Life magazine that now appear on Google.
Haven’t Books Always Made Great Gifts?
The book as gift mantra is loud and clear this holiday season.BooksAreGreatGifts.com is a new website put together by the American Association of Publishers to encourage books as the ultimate holiday gift. The site features video spots by tons of best-selling and award-winning authors and celebrities from all the leading publishers.The campaign is "An industry-wide effort... established in response to the economic downturn and changing climate in retail-driven markets as a way of stimulating traffic to retail and online booksellers."Here are some of the reasons to give books as gifts that the site offers:"They have shelf life longer than a...