Last week word came that the Seattle independent drug store chain Bartell will introduce the Espresso Book Machine at one of its locations. It will be the first appearance of the print on demand contraption at a drug store. "Consumers can now print high quality, personalized self-published books or purchase books from On Demand Books' catalog of more than 7 million titles in just minutes" says the press release. When was the last time you heard an independent bookshop refer to one of their customers as consumers. Just two different animals. And I can see it now - once they outfit all 61...
At Home with Andrea Musso
Here is a nice set of book illustration from Italian illustrator Andrea Musso. It's clear. the more you read the more the world opens up. Some more book photos here and while we are talking about people named Andrea Musso don't miss Music on My Moleskin series portraits of Jazz musicians. Correction: in the original post I got my Andrea Musso's mixed up! Apologizes to both.
Twitter & Verse
Welcome to Twitter & Verse our weekly roundup of our most popular tweets and a poem : Twitter Must see - These Rolling Bookmobiles Are Cooler Than Your Local Libraries | @io9 http://ow.ly/qwjbc Is the future of ebooks about to be decided by a judge in East Texas? | @melvillehouse http://ow.ly/qtHZe The first 24-hour library vending machine in the United States has arrived, it cost $200k and it lives in Oklahoma http://ow.ly/qwaDM Mapping a Literary City - The folks at @Dorothy_______ create a map using the titiles of 600+ books of English Lit http://ow.ly/qpbaI Building a book wall - Nova Scotia...
The Art of Steven “Jesse ” Bernstein
Steven "Jesse " Bernstein just might be the most the important Seattle poet and performance artist that you never heard of. He opened shows for Nirvana and Soundgarden and was pals with Willliam Burroughs. He even rode on Ken Kesey's Magic Bus! Bernstein also spent years in a mental institution during his adolescence and became a heroin addict soon after. In 1991 he pulled a Johnny Cash and went to the Monroe, Washington State Penitentiary Special Offenders unit to record a live performance for Sub Pop Records. Months later he committed suicide by stabbing himself in the neck repeatedly. During a period of sobriety...
The Book Fool: “Depicting love, folly, use and abuse of books in a grotesque manner”
In 1934 the folks at The American Book Collector saw these images in an issue of the German magazine for book lovers, "Zeitschrift for Bucherfreunde." They quickly wrote to the German publisher and received permission to reprint the images which they did as a supplement to The American Book Collector titled The Book Fool: Bibliophily in Caricature. "Depicting love, folly, use and abuse of books in a grotesque manner" the supplement merely scratches the surface of book imagery from just after 1500 to the middle of the nineteenth century. Enjoy the slideshow.