Pick N Mix

Here are a few of my favourite internet trawl results from the last two months. Enjoy.

8 Lovely Bookshops I never get tired looking at bookshops. I prefer to be in them with money and time to spend, but for now pictures will have to do.

13 Bookends  I wonder if people use bookends anymore? I love the idea but my bookshelves are rarely empty enough for books to require the support of a bookend.

Library Cats  I sorry if you hate cats... for me books and cats are part of my DNA 

Paintings with Books  OK this guy is an artist but obviously has way too much time on his hands!

Many Writers, One Story

If you haven't seen it yet there is a fantastic project taking place on Twitter for the Brisbane Writer's Festival . Individual writers contribute 160 characters at a time to build on the story once a day.

http://www.bwf.org.au/default.asp?PageID=99&n=Gallery

 Check out the tag #BWF50

Book Recycling

What happens to all those millions of books worldwide which people don't want to read anymore?
Like most booklovers I regard the mistreatment of the book as an affront to civilisation but there is no doubt that many books aren't worth the shelf space. Pulping, burning (dictators' favourite choice), and dumping in landfill, are effective, if unimaginative options for the destruction of the more humble book. I've become a collector of book repurposing options.

Chris Scott

 One of my favourites and easily the most beautiful examples, involves an unknown artist in Edinburgh who used books to create a series of sculptures with literary themes. They were left anonymously with attached thankyou notes explaining the artist's work.
Enjoy :)
Updated 16/08 : this is the article Mysterious Paper Sculptures which originally informed this post. I couldn't find it earlier!

The Rise of the Book Trailer

OK at the risk of sounding totally out of touch with 21^st century book culture, I hereby announce I have never read an ebook and I don’t own an ereader. Yes, yes I know, where have I been?

I appreciate all the advantages ebooks give the modern reader, ease of storage and transport of thousands of titles; cheaper access to new books the ability to increase font size for the visually impaired etc…. I just don’t want those advantages enough to give up the physical reality and tactile pleasure of print on paper.

However one aspect of the ebook revolution does inspire me and this is the book trailer. Publishers and authors have been creating small videos to promote new books since the early noughties and they bring the visual pleasure of the traditional book cover into the digital age.  With the seeming decline in physical bookshops the opportunity for publishers to reach readers and market their wares is disappearing.  Book trailers have started to fill that space. They vary in quality and the content ranges from the author statically reading sections of the book to elaborate multimedia presentations complete with animations and music score. In an article from The Guardian, Lindsay Irvine asks whether book trailers are useful and suggests how they may change the very nature of the book as we know it.

Google ‘book trailers’ and you’ll find any number of sites specialising in providing a space for authors to post promotional ‘vids’ many of which give some stunning teasers to the content.  BookTrailers for Readers is a wiki created by teacher-librarian, Michelle Harclerode which contains many professional and student produced book trailers of children’s and YA fiction. Book trailers are being used to promote adult fiction and non-fiction as well but the obvious attraction of the book trailer is to encourage people to read more.

Author A.J Walkley gives some insight into the benefits of book trailers to authors in her blog on Huffington Post.

I’d be interested to hear comments from those who use ereaders and their experience with book trailers. Do you use them to select your next read?

Bookish Events and Lists

I thought I’d share some bookish stuff which is happening this month.

3/08  Percy Shelley’s Birthday is today 1792-1822)- Happy 220^th Percy!

9/08  Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas released today.

14/08 The Forsaken by Lisa Stasse released

15/08 Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was born today in Edinburgh- he wrote Ivanhoe and Rob Roy but that’s not all!

18-19/08 Mudgee Readers Festival- definitely on my list to do one day and if anyone goes please let me know what it’s like. Looks like an excellent line up of speakers and there's a secondhand book fair!

25/08 The Reading Hour at 6pm  a bit like Earth Hour but hopefully with more light.

www.thereadinghour.org.au

26/08 Hannah & Emil by Belinda Castle, new release today.

27/08 National Literacy and Numeracy Week starts.

30/08 Mary Shelley’s birthday (1797-1851) is today. She wrote and published Frankenstein at the age of 21 and was married to Percy Shelley.

Finally RIP to these authors:
Maeve Binchy died 30/07/2012 age 72 and
Gore Vidal died 31/07/2012 age 86