Beam it down for reading

Today I opened "The Curious Case of Benjiman Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald for the first time on my iphone. I had downloaded this from BeamItDown via the app store incase I was ever stuck without a book.

Instantly, I became an ereading convert. I had never thought I would like to read books this way. The text on this app is clear and you can scroll by hand or have it move teleprompter style. It made me realise how often I normally lose my place on a page. Apparently, you can change the font and page colour too, but it seemed perfect to me.

Is this the future of books? I love that if I read them this way they could cost less. However, I imagined them costing a small fraction of the price, so I could buy ten for the price of one and this is not the case with books still under copywrite. And, I often turn to a book when my iphone needs charging. I'll finish this short story and keep you updated when I try reading a larger one.

Covers featuring covers

These are book covers that feature bookcovers. An interesting concept and collection of covers that I was amused by on The Book Design Review last month.

The covers shown here are Proust and the Squid, The Book of Dead Philosophers, The Book on the Bookshelf and The End of the Jews Chip Kidd: Book One.

I haven't read any of these, but judging the books buy their covers, I wouldn't mind trying them all. (I did read the book information on them all too, and my option remained).

Books for devouring

What made me google "edible books" I am unsure, but in doing so I discovered this year's edible book festival is about to commence. This global celebration involves the creating and eating of book-inspired edibles and occurs around the first of April, the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), who also authored a witty book on food. Books2eat has all the details.

Images from flickr.

Coco love

I saw this local exhibition of photographs titled "Three Weeks with Coco Chanel" this week. The photos are by Douglas Kirkland, who also authored a book published last year based on the photos and his experience in 1962.

If you are a Coco fan, the photographs a well worth a look at, although there aren't nearly enough. They appear to be a selection of those currently on display at the Westwood Gallery in SoHo.

I also discovered their is a limited edition version of the book for ardent Chanel enthusiasts, priced at £330.

Favourite books from my childhood

Image from flickr

A recent post at Secret Society of List Addicts listed favourite childhood books. These are the ones I couldn't stop reading as child, or in today's terminology, a tween. Surprisingly, they are all represent a series.

1. Milly-Molly-Mandy - I loved the map in the front.
2. Baby Sitters Club - I still find it hard not to buy them.
3. Anne of Green Gables - My friend's house had green gables and I was very jealous.
4. Little House on the Prairie - I wanted to travel in a covered wagon so much that I sometimes feel like I have.
5. Secret Seven and Famous Five - Possibly everything else by Enid Blyton too.

What's on your list?

Beauty in books

More art by Liz Hamman. I love the way the books are manipulated to look so beautiful. Older books today can often be ignored, as they lack the colourful designs always associated with today's covers, even though the words inside may tell a much more beautiful story.

Images from flickr.

Paper jewellery

Gorgeous jewellery made from books by artist Liz Hamman.

Images from flickr.

New Terraria

Reading the Craftster blog over the weekend I found a review on The New Terrarium, featuring these beautiful images.

Coincidentally, I had just made a terrarium this with some glassware I brought home from work in a recent cleanup and some plants Jeremy and I found on a walk.

My Ladybird collection

Ladybird books I found at a book fair at my local community centre on the weekend. First editions too, although "Things to Make" didn't have its dustcover. Here is a look inside it:

What have you always meant to read?

I think the poster refers to classics, so I will nominate Austin and Scott.

One of my reading goals is to read all the books by Jane Austen. I have only read Pride and Prejudice, and that was relatively recently. I have started, and was enjoying, Mansfield Park. However, I usually only have time to read on public transport and the stretches weren't long enough to enjoy the clever dialogue so I stopped in frustration.

I have The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald on my iphone to start next time I am stuck somewhere "without" a book.

And you?

A cheap giggle

...for a not so cheap product.

Library dominos

If you have wondered what people do in the sections of a library that contain journals, now that they are available online, here is a clue.

The annotation is just as amusing as the clip itself:
"I did this fairly spontaneously at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's ACES Library. As a conceptual art project, it pokes fun at and criticizes the monotony and strictness of institutions and libraries.

It's all real - no tricks here! It was set up in one dominoe line, but filmed in four takes. After I finished the last take, 4 hours into the project, the librarian finally came up to investigate the ruckus. She waved her finger and kicked me out and wouldn't let me help pick up the books. Lucky for her I had kept all the books in their shelved order - easy cleanup!"

Take a seat

When visiting the library, I always want to take a seat instead of crouching in front of the relevant Dewy section, scanning titles and flicking pages. The seats are always hidden, left in some remote area of the vast academic libraries I have frequented.

Here is the solution:


They could use them in Borders too.