Love these two galleries of vintage scholastic book covers. Anybody wanna hit the bookmobile after recess?[Via.]
A Coin of Beauty : The New Commemorative Dutch 5 Euro
click to enlargeHere is Stani Michiels amazing design for the new commemorative Dutch five euro. It was the winning design in a competition organized by the Dutch Ministry of Finance. The theme of the competition was the 'Netherlands and Architecture'.The front is a typographical marvel featuring a portrait of the queen which "is constructed with names of important Dutch architects. On the outside the names are clearly readable, while they slowly get smaller to the center. Under a magnifying glass all names are readable, but not with only the human eye. It is fascinating to see how an old medium...
Of Bibliophilia and Biblioclasm
Theodore Dalyrmple has a wonderful appreciation of books and bookstores in the current New English Review:Orwell says that the tops of books in such bookshops are the place ‘where every bluebottle prefers to die,’ and this preference, being biological in origin, has not changed in the meantime. The dust of old books, and ‘the sweet smell of decaying paper’, still have a peculiarly choking quality that catch one in the back of the throat. And second-hand bookshops are still one of the few indoor public places where a person may loiter for hours without being suspected of any serious ulterior...
The Beauty of Ebru
Ebru is the Turkish term for the art of paper marbling.The Turkish website World Bulletin has a nice feature on this ancient art that some date back to the 8th century."For the ebru artist, sitting down at the ebru basin is a ritual. For a loving discourse ensues between basin and artist. Many things go into the art of ebru: the angle at which the droplets strike the water, their size, large or small, the points at which they fall, the harmony and distribution of the colors, and the relationship between the different dyes. And who knows if it is...
The Chains are Breaking : A Look at Bookselling in a Post-Chain World
The numbers are brutal. Hardly anyone bought anything in the month of October. According to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index, retailers had their weakest October performance since the index's inception in 1969! If this trend keeps up through the holiday season it is safe to say that January will become National Bankruptcy Month.How the economic meltdown will ultimately play out in the book world remains to be seen, but early indicators are pointing to a significant shakeout.In a memo to his employees last week Barnes and Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio said "Never in all of the years I've been in business...