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Shop at Amazon though these links and this site gets a kickback.
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Some interesting sights on this flickr page dedicated to old and new Penguin covers. (via)
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In advance of the 2008 olympics, China is trying to get rid of the bad Chinese-to-English translations found throughout Beijing. The Sun has graphics of the worst offenders.
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An "index typewriter," one of the many interesting variants on typewriters that can be found in this philosophical essay on the instrument.
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Innovative design or brand destruction?
The books, released as Tales to Take Your Breath Away at the start of the cigarette ban in pubs and restaurants last July, were well received by the design press and have made popular Christmas presents. But now the publishers are having to inhale deeply themselves as British American Tobacco (BAT) claims that one of the packs, containing Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Undefeated, resembles its own Lucky Strike pack. Claiming that such an association could seriously . . . continue reading, and add your comments
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Thanks to Three Percent for pointing out this Wiki documenting "the most unusual books of the world." Some eye-popping photos here.
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The book art of Thomas Allen.
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One of the winning entries from 2006’s 50 Books/50 Covers compeition, seeking to highlight the best covers published every year. For info on the 2007 competition, see here.
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This has nothing to do with books, but is pretty damn interesting. A rundown of some of the alternative automobiles that you can actually buy.
Aptera I’ve made little effort to disguise my fondness for Aptera. The fact that I’ve long had mine reserved (#120 is mine!) is something of a clue. Aptera set out to design a vehicle that was as light and slippery as it could be, and still haul people down the highway safely. Their three-wheeled designed ended up looking . . . continue reading, and add your comments
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iPod art?
This is an iPod set in acrylic. Full story here.
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Recommended Books DeLillo's major work before White Noise is probably his most underrated novel. Its all right here--the politics of paranoia, terrorism, the unnamable--set in an evocative, timeless Greece.
The most bizarre Abe novel I've yet read, which is indeed saying something. About a subclass of Japanese men who go around wearing boxes from the waist up (and then use them as domiciles in the evening), the book is also an experiment in perspective shifts, a highly unstable, metafictional first-person narrative, and an exploration of voyeurism, consumerism, and aberrant sexuality.
Charting the path to three gunshots--the one that killed filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the one that disabled his Islamic extremist assassin, Mohammed Bouyeri, and the one that led to Vincent Van Gogh’s one hundred years earlier--Olsen tells three separate stories that resonate with one another on numerous levels: the logic of extremism, the role of the dissident in Dutch society, the limits of tolerance, the purpose of the artist, the feeling of the most important five minutes of your life. Read my interview with the author.
Creatively structured, well-executed epic novel of rural South Africa from 1950 - 2000. Takes on a lot and lives up to it magnificently. Highly recommended.
A book that's an interview about the book you're supposedly holding in your hands. Creative, potent, and full of life. Just what metafiction should be. Read my post on it. |
A Note on Links
More Essays by Milan
Speaking of Distraction
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
Another Review of The Novel: An Alternative History
The Orange Eats Creeps
The Unconsoled and the Annihilation of Plot
The Names by Don DeLillo (1982)
The Box Man by Kobo Abe (1973, English 1974)
Head in Flames by Lance Olsen (2009)
Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk (2006, English 2010)
The Weather Fifteen Years Ago by Wolf Haas (2006, English 2009)
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