Book Art

I came across the work of artist Nicholas Jones while trolling around online. I was looking into library sculptures when I discovered his book art through this article. Isn't it beautiful? I can't even imagine the time it must have taken to make such a delicate looking cut in such a substantial piece of material. He cuts, folds, tears, and sews their pages and takes that which was previously discarded and delivers it, reborn, into the world. Some may not find the beauty in this work is worth the dissection of the books. The artist addresses that idea on his website: "Although sometimes iconised for their content or historical importance, more often than not, books are discarded as cultural detritus. These transformed books aim to highlight the poetic nature of the book as form."

He speaks very passionately about books and I feel his work evokes the beauty contained within them. Each page becomes a work of art. Every sentence offered a chance to shine. The pages working together again, telling a different story.

What do you think? Is it art or a travesty against written works?

Literature Map

Anyone else heard of this? A friend that I worked with sent me this link a couple of years ago. Sometimes I forget about it and sometimes I'm addicted to it for days on end.

It's a Literature Map. You go on the site, type in the name of an author, click continue. The map that pops up lists authors that have similar writing to that of whom you typed in. From the site: 'The closer two writers are, the more likely someone will like both of them.' Then you can click on the other authors to see what their map looks like.

I can't speak to it's accuracy, but it sure is fun to play with! What do you think?

(click the image for the site I found it on: Exocubic Studio. This was the designer's sketch for a book mobile he made for a library in Little Rock, AR. Beautiful, isn't it?)

My Debut YA Novel Cover

Well this was fun and worth trying out!

I found the rules at 100 Scope Notes via One Librarian's Book Reviews. And while they both wound up with super images, I got a fuzzy, low res pic of some random chick with a big old bottle of booze and an 'Australia' t-shirt. Awesome. So, as you can see, I had to crop the heck out of it and I have ended up with a tiny, little bitty YA book cover. :-D But, it is fun and you should definitely try it! There are some options other than the YA version, but this is where I started!

CREATE YOUR DEBUT YA COVER

1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/

The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml

The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text

Joey Lawrence would say, 'Whoah.'

So, while I'm busy shipping books to reviewers, organizing, and otherwise managing my lists of info, I wanted to pass along something I stumbled across while digging around online:



Isn't it the most incredible thing you've ever seen?! The keyboard is made from typewriter keys. The link to the picture shows how it was done. The link to the website where they have other amazing creations: http://steampunkworkshop.com.

This computer is gorgeous and unique and so darn awesome! Wonder if it comes in a Mac...