When I first stepped into the main library on the campus at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), I stared upwards and blinked for a long while. You see, there was a giant blue cat hanging upside from the ceiling. Most libraries don’t have one of those. I hadn’t expected to be amazed by the libraries… Continue reading Cats, Card Catalogs, and Not So Little Free Libraries
I’m an art nerd. If you ever want to see me get stupidly excited, start a conversation about Japanese prints or Near Eastern archaeology. Unfortunately for me, finding great books about art can be difficult. Oh, the books exist. Museum gift shops and college libraries are full of them after all. But they also tend… Continue reading 700 Free Art Books from the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art
I could use a little levity, so today we’re looking back to summer of 2012 when a book labyrinth appeared in London. 2012 was a busy time for London. The city was hosting the Summer Olympics and holding numerous cultural events alongside it. One of those events was Southbank Centre’s Festival of the World. As… Continue reading A Book Labyrinth in London
People say that old maxim ‘never judge a book by its cover’ frequently, but of course everyone does judge book covers. Both in ebooks and in physical copies, the cover is one of the first things a reader sees. Readers use the cover to make instant assessments about a book: is this a genre I… Continue reading The Audacity of Judging a Book by Its Cover: 4 Highlights from Recent Publications
I hate advertising, but I love gimmicks. Not all of them of course – I’m not a huge fan of book giveaways (though those may not be gimmicks precisely) – but every once in a while a book marketing campaign will resonate with me. One such promotion just hit that sweet spot. In honor of her upcoming… Continue reading Book Marketing That is Grand, Extraterrestrial, and Bloody
To many, the Parthenon of Ancient Greece represents ideals of democracy and thought. This year an artist is attempting to use 100,000 banned and censored books to create a new Parthenon. Artist Marta Minujín is currently constructing The Parthenon of Books as a symbol of resistance. This isn’t the first time that she has used books in such… Continue reading Art, Freedom, and Seeing 100,000 Banned Books
Every once in a while, creators make something that is a little wonky. I’ve found another one of those oddball items. Comic artist and satirist Robert Sikoryak has illustrated a graphic novel that is filled with the text of the iTunes terms and conditions legal contract that everyone has to agree to before using the service.… Continue reading A Graphic Novel about the iTunes Terms and Conditions. Yes. Really.
In honor of the recent release of Disney’s live action Beauty and the Beast, I want to highlight a few of the children’s books based on that fairy tale. Though dozens of interpretations of the story exist, these are a few of my favorites. They feature amazing artwork and manage to capture the spirit of the… Continue reading 5 Beautiful Versions of ‘Beauty and the Beast’
It is easy to get stuck inside our own reading bubbles, so I was excited to find this map of literature around the world. For the zoomable version of the map, click here. The map was created by redditor Backforward24 and use book covers to highlight a single book from every country. Though some of… Continue reading A Map of Literature around the World
Book cover design is often grand, but sometimes publishers don’t get it quite right. Take for example the case of Nnedi Okorafor. Nnedi Okorafor is an extraordinary science fiction writer, and she has the Nebula Award to prove it. Before she was quite so lauded, however, she had a strange and terrible interaction with her… Continue reading When Book Covers Get Characters Wrong
Kristen Twardowski 