A loupe is something every bookseller should have in their toolbox. I most frequently use mine to help identify prints in books (etching? engraving? woodcut? mezzotint? aquatint?). They are also useful for making out faded, erased, or otherwise-difficult-to-read writing, differentiating between printed and authentically signed autographs, and the like.Yesterday, I decided to turn my loupe on the Kindleto see what the type looked like under closer examination. I was rather shocked at what I saw. The letters, even under high magnification, look remarkably like type on a physical page. I expected to see at least some evidence of pixelation, and...
Type Measure
Do you know your P's and Q's?Do you have trouble remembering how many cups equal a pint?How many pints equal a quart?How many quarts equal a gallon?Well worry no more - through the power of typography your measuring skills can now be perfected.I think I'm going to print this one out and put it on the fridge.Thanks to swissmiss for the lead
Author Homes
It's been a rough few months for the former homes of great authors. In January, Robert Frost's home was vandalized by partying teenagers. More recently, both the Mark Twain and Edith Wharton museums face severe budget shortfalls and likely closure or sale. Reading Ahead's Harold Augenbraum wonders what these possible losses could mean:Perhaps in these cases we are not only talking about the past as a predictor, but as a movement through horizontal space that re-senses our perceptions of the author and his or her literary work. When we visit these homes and imagine Wharton or Twain lolling on the...
The Role of the Book in the Ascent of Barack Obama
If you're going to run for President, or any office for that matter, there are two things that will need to be addressed pretty early on; how am I going to raise money and how am I going to get my name out there.Barack Obama has excelled at both. Building on Howard Dean's online success in 2004 Obama has taken to the internet to reinvent campaign financing and to build his name recognition he turned to the book and the book tour to raise Obama awareness and to spread his message.In his piece in the Times of London on the...
1) Children's Books.2) Art and Photography.3) Cookbooks.4) Graphic novels, comics, Manga5) Poetry.6) Craft, Hobby, How-To, and Instructional books7) Any book in which its design is inherent to the experience of reading it.