Ko-Sin Printing of Tokyo has created a process for authors to "add a more personal touch to their printed works by using ink that includes their DNA"They hope the "process will appeal to autobiographers who want to add value to their work by including their DNA, or to people who wish to insert the DNA of beloved pets into printed materials".They have successfully printed some "self-published autobiographies whose title pages are printed with ink that includes the author’s DNA". Talk about a new high in vanity publishing.The DNA can also be extracted from the printed page. Try that with an...
The Library Asylum
Chip Ward just retired after 29 years at the Salt Lake City Public Library. He left as the assistant director and might be the highest ranking library administrator to let the "dirty little secret" out.What's the secret?"Public libraries have become de facto daytime shelters for the nation's street people while librarians are increasingly our unofficial social workers for the homeless and mentally disturbed."Of course this is not news to anyone who frequents the downtown library in any city. We all have our homeless stories.Some of Chip's homeless highlights:Overheard:-"Don't mind me, I'm dead. It's okay. I've been dead for some time...
The Best Under 100
Tyler Cowen over at Marginal Revolution has a nice thread going on the best books under 100 pages.What's yours?
The Typewriter Lives
"The typewriter was invented at least fifty-two times, as one tinkerer after another groped toward a usable design. One early writing mechanism looks like a birthday cake, another like a pinball machine."From Joan Acocella's entertaining review of Darren Wershler-Henry's new book “The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting” in the New Yorker. The review is titled "The Typing Life: How Writer's Used to Write" It is worth the click over.Some nuggets:-Mark Twain was the first important writer to deliver a typewritten manuscript.-Jack Kerouac could type a hundred words a minute.-There was a silent typewriter that hit the market in...
Another University Bookstore Goes to the Chains
First it was Sonoma State University now it is the University of Kentucky.The family owned and independent Kennedy Book Store has had the contract for the UK Book Store for the last 6 years. Kennedy Book Store has been a "campus mainstay since its was founded in 1950" by... Joe Kennedy, who remains the company president."What the University wants for the right to run the bookstore:a 10-year lease and $3 million to $4 million toward renovation of the 16,250-square-foot store.Kennedy offered $2 million and wisely "could not go beyond that given uncertainties that could arise during a 10-year lease"They are...