http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7417810.stm
The Cabinet National Library
In 2004 on a desolate desert tract on the outskirts of Deming, New Mexico Matthew Passmore, and other members of the San Francisco arts collective Rebar, built a library."The Cabinet National Library takes the form of a circle with a radius of twelve feet—viewed from the south, the cabinet is situated at the top, or "12 o'clock" position on the circle. At each of the positions representing three, six and nine o'clock, we have set a solar-powered lantern into the earth to help guide you around the library grounds should you find yourself there after sundown. Each lantern is also...
10 Wacky How-To Books
The folks at Listanity have put together a list of the "The 10 Craziest How-To Books You Never Knew Existed." All are still in print and available.The list:How To Shit in the WoodsHow To Have Sex in the WoodsHow To Be PopeHow To Start your Own CountryHow to Be Happy Though MarriedHow to Rent a NegroHow To Lose Friends and Alienate PeopleHow To Become A SchizophrenicHow To Read a Book How to Speak with the DeadThere really is no limit to what you can learn though books.Thanks to Neatorama for the lead
Screen vs. Book
Gary Frost, at his blog FotB (Future of the Book), offers up "ten popular fallacies of screen reading advocates" with his take on each one. 1. There is an analog/digital divide in the technologies of information transmission. (If there is any divide it is between paper and screen based reading.)2. There is something distinctive about being "born digital". (All information is born digital. How it grows up provides the distinction.)3. We are experiencing a one-way transition from paper to screen. (Its actually a two-way, not a one-way transition.)4. Screen based books can be equivalent to print books. (This assumption overlooks...
The Future of Archives
I was recently asked to comment on the future of literary archives in an increasingly digital age. To which I noncommittally replied:I have trouble imagining an entirely electronic archive. I suspect that authors will continue to interact with the physical draft for some time. This will, however, increasingly and obviously be in conjunction with more and more electronic media (word processors, email, etc.), and this poses several problems. [...] My guess is that writers, dealers, and libraries will begin to work more closely with each other and at earlier points in authors’ careers to address these issues and ensure that...