I have just swapped how I tracked the books I read from AllConsuming to GoodReads.
Why?
GoodReads is cleaner, neater, outputs an rss, has a facebook application, allows for reviews, ratings, sharing, the search works better, is still possible to dump in the sidebar of the blog, has the option to add books to your ‘to read’ list and output in various view formats. Plus there’s endless book trivia if you’re really bored and have worn out all your usual facebook tricks.
I did a publication design class this semester. Probably not quite as much info on being exuberant within the book space as I would’ve liked – they talked far more about magazines. I’m interested in book design and I’d love to be more experimental rather than conventional but I am hesitant probably because I value the integrity of the text… which is why I don’t like David Carson (Typographer). You see these marvelous book designs but the book becomes a work of art (or a mess) and no longer a book and I kind of don’t see the point… So, the assignment option was either a book or a magazine. My 10,000 words was a selection of Hans Christian Anderson stories. I also chose to generate my own images – you didn’t have to. Thought I’d have some fun with photography – some of which you have seen previously. Anyway, below are a few of the book spreads.
I had an awful experience with printing in that they made a bit of a mess in trimming my book so some of the white edge is now… erm, closer to a bleed and was rough. But the bookbinder I tracked down was lovely and next time I would get any trimming done only through him (you live and learn) – he at least fixed the rough edge, was VERY reasonably priced and even gave me some gold leaf on the cover for free – very tasteful I might add! So the printing wasn’t overly beautiful (along with the cover sleeve) but digital printing is a little limited in many regards especially if you go through someone cheap and quick. All the imagery is my own.
I just finished this book: Written lives thanks to Javier Marias. It is a collection of essays – short stories on 25+ (I didn’t count) key writers. I confess I haven’t read even close to all of them but it did feature surprising insights into those like Rilke and Oscar Wilde. The rest I am now inclined to pay a literary visit to.
I have concluded since reading, that to be of the highest calibre of writer you must a) have a tragic life b) know multiple other writers who also have tragic lives and c) hate at least one of them.
So tragically I will never be an author of this kind.
Highly amusing read, worth much more than the measly $5 I paid for it.
April 30th (in America) is: Poem in Your Pocket day.
I love words goodly writ. But I don’t really have a favourite poem. My husband says the word poem: P-ome and I say it Poe-em. Regardless of how you say it, po-ems – and well written prose are the stuff of enlightenment – in a truly literary sense. Please share any quality author/book/poet/poem recommendations. I’m quite in love with Rainer Marie Rilke, but need some more variety to supplement the many fine novels still on my shelf.
As I do not have a poem to share, I will share a short story by Hans Christian Anderson (of whom I’m am using to make a book for my Publication Design class). I have chosen mostly lesser known work:
The Sunbeam and the Captive
It is autumn. We stand on the ramparts, and look out over the sea. We look at the numerous ships, and at the Swedish coast on the opposite side of the sound, rising far above the surface of the waters which mirror the glow of the evening sky. Behind us the wood is sharply defined; mighty trees surround us, and the yellow leaves flutter down from the branches. Below, at the foot of the wall, stands a gloomy looking building enclosed in palisades. The space between is dark and narrow, but still more dismal must it be behind the iron gratings in the wall which cover the narrow loopholes or windows, for in these dungeons the most depraved of the criminals are confined. A ray of the setting sun shoots into the bare cells of one of the captives, for God’s sun shines upon the evil and the good. The hardened criminal casts an impatient look at the bright ray. Then a little bird flies towards the grating, for birds twitter to the just as well as to the unjust. He only cries, “Tweet, tweet,â€Â and then perches himself near the grating, flutters his wings, pecks a feather from one of them, puffs himself out, and sets his feathers on end round his breast and throat. The bad, chained man looks at him, and a more gentle expression comes into his hard face. In his breast there rises a thought which he himself cannot rightly analyze, but the thought has some connection with the sunbeam, with the bird, and with the scent of violets, which grow bluxuriantly in spring at the foot of the wall. Then there comes the sound of the hunter’s horn, merry and full. The little bird starts, and flies away, the sunbeam gradually vanishes, and again there is darkness in the room and in the heart of that bad man. Still the sun has shone into that heart, and the twittering of the bird has touched it. Sound on, ye glorious strains of the hunter’s horn; continue your stirring tones, for the evening is mild, and the surface of the sea, heaving slowly and calmly, is smooth as a mirror.
For a recent assignment I went on a little bit of a magazine spree. I never used to believe in magazines, didn’t like spending money on things that you read once and have read-once value. I’m slowly being convinced. These are some of the marvels I got my hands on. Australian magazines the lot of them.
The clear winning favourite of most of my friends. It’s full of fun, cute interesting things, it’s a bit sassy, makes it’s statement and each issue comes with a rather splendid poster. Good photography, good writing, great feel. My 50ish year old male tutor at uni thinks it’s one of the best positioned magazines out there – it targets it’s audience so well. I couldn’t agree more. I love it. I buy most issues (except when I’m feeling like I’m being sucked in and do the whole ‘don’t buy to rebel’ thing), the truth is I really am sucked in and I really love that they use an ‘unknown’ on each cover.
A little A5 production, in it’s early years so it seems. It’s based on a blog – which is cool. Cute stuff, lots of DIY. I bought it because it was small, fairly inexpensive and looked cute. I might buy it again but it’ll probably be dependent upon content. Love the good DIY project. Mixtape is down to earth, friendly and not pretentious at all. It did carry the feel of a blog in being a little haphazard in what it wanted to be – but as the cover says it’s about the small things in life that make you happy – and in that they’ve done quite well.
It’s eco fashion. I bought it because I was interested (and the uni thing). I haven’t read it cover to cover and am a little disappointed it isn’t more practical, but that’s probably more the fault of me living in the outer east of Melbourne more than anything. It’s got a nice feel and it’s really positive to see a magazine targetting this kind of thing, again I’m not a huge fashion person but there are plenty out there to whom fashion presses big buttons. Great article on fair trade and a decent one on green graphic design.
Brand spanking new, in it’s second issue. Harvest looks at ‘fresh Australian writing’ and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. It is quite different from the others and is more a mook (I think that’s what you call it!), the most inspiring personallly – it appears I really am a wordy person. I’m still digesting it, for $15 the volume of content is phenomenal. Writing like this makes me happy. It’s not devoid of nice imagery either but the imagery is there to support and not to demand attention. Lovely variety. Lovely, lovely words. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Mixtape
Peppermint
Harvest