The new sleep-aid for students and bibliophiles.Available here in 3 colors at 12,000 yen.Can't wait for the e-book version.Thanks to Neatorama for the lead
Technology is slow to reach the world of books?
"The web revolution that is turning whole industries from music to television upside down has been slow to reach the cosy world of books - apart, that is, from the pioneering bookseller Amazon."This is how Victor Keegan begins his article for the Guardian "A New Chapter for Books on the Web"Really? Slow to reach the world of books? I am not sure where Mr. Keegan has been or what forces are behind the publication of this article but I think he has it all backwards.The book industry has been at the bleeding edge of the cataclysmic changes of technology and...
The Evolution of a Beautiful Space
El Ateneo: The Largest Bookstore in Latin AmericaIn 1919 a young man named Max Glucksman decided to construct a theater that would be both grand and splendid. Originally a performance space it was converted to a cinema in the late 20's and was the first place in the region to show movies with sound. For a time it was also home to Radio Splendid and a recording studio, Odeon Records, that recorded some of the early Tango greats.Now housed in the perfectly restored building is the bookstore El Ateneo.All the original features have been preserved. The stage is now a...
Publish Quietly: The Turkish Way
"When has any publisher ever tried to avoid publicity for his book?"That is the tagline of Robert Fisk's article that recently appeared in the Independent.It seems that the Turkish publisher for his book "The Great War for Civilization" has decided to "undertake the publication quietly, which means there will be no press campaign for Mr Fisk's book. Thus, our request from [for] Mr Fisk is to show his support to us if any trial [is] ... held against his book. We hope that Mr Fisk and HarperCollins can understand our reservations."Why?The book includes a chapter entitled "The First Holocaust", dealing...
Communist Party Archive Goes To NYU
NYT reports that the papers of the American Communist Party have landed at NYU.Michael Nash, the director of New York University’s Tamiment Library, will announce the donation on Friday.The collection consists of 20,000 items and contains decades of party history including founding documents, secret code words, letters, smuggled directives from Moscow, photographs and as you can imagine a lots of Soviet memorabilia.Though its heyday was the 1930's the party began in 1919 as a mostly underground organization and lasted until the beginning of the cold war.Labor unions and the rights of the working class. Two elements the success of this...