MetaFilter posts tagged with book

2008 Weird-Ass Picture Book Awards

Fizz — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:14:55 -0800

The Weird-Ass Picture Book Awards, WAPB, are given to the books that make you go “Huhhh?” Awards are given for story, illustration, and cover art. The highest award goes to the picture book achieving outstanding weirdness in both illustration and text. The 2007 WAPBA went to The Fuchsia Is Now, by J. Otto Seibold, for its strange story and artwork. The interesting use of condoms as hats was clearly a deciding factor in this book’s selection. Dear Fish, by Chris Gall, won for both illustration and cover art. For storyline, My Father the Dog, by Elizabeth Bluemle, took the prize.

..and when Pickman suddenly unveiled a huge canvas on the side away from the light I could not for my life keep back a loud scream

Artw — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:35:37 -0800

Tentacles and Cosmic SF - Ann and Jeff VanderMeer on the art of Lovecraft. - More of the book - No, I don't know what's become of Pickman, and I don't like to guess.

The Big Sort

wittgenstein — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:21:22 -0800

"Bishop contends that as Americans have moved over the past three decades, they have clustered in communities of sameness, among people with similar ways of life, beliefs, and in the end, politics. There are endless variations of this clustering—what Bishop dubs the Big Sort—as like-minded Americans self-segregate in states, cities—even neighborhoods. Consequences of the Big Sort are dire: balkanized communities whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incomprehensible; a growing intolerance for political differences that has made national consensus impossible; and politics so polarized that Congress is stymied and elections are no longer just contests over policies, but bitter choices between ways of life. " Article about the book from the Economist. Book's Website. A review.

Everyone is an Expert on Something

misha — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:39:53 -0800

H.A.R.O., or "Help A Reporter Out," is the brainchild of Peter Shankman (aka skydiver on Twitter). Embracing the philosophy that "Everyone is an expert on something," HARO matches reporters and authors up with sources through the simple process of a sign-up form. Seems like a good match for all the experts here on MeFi. In Shankman's words: "On March 20th, 2008, I sent out the first HARO via email, after moving it off FaceBook. It was a query from the Chicago Tribune, and it went to 491 people. This afternoon, I'm sending out the HARO email to over 10,100 members. It has over 15 queries, from more than one country, and goes to members in over 45 countries."

"Afterward, the locust with its execrable teeth"

Kattullus — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:00:06 -0800

The Speculum theologiae is a beautiful medieval manuscript. Its diagrams demonstrate visually various aspects of the medieval worldview. The diagrams are explained and translated and most of them are expounded upon in a short essay. My favorite diagrams are The Cherub with Six Wings, The 10 Commandments, Plagues of Egypt and Abuses of the Impious and The Tree of Virtue and The Tree of Vices.

The Standard Oil of Books

Toekneesan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:59:11 -0800

Amazon.com dropped a bombshell on the publishing industry with the announcement on Friday that they will no longer allow print on demand books printed by vendors other than Amazon, to be sold directly by Amazon. In other words, use our print services or lose your listing on our site. This decision effects over half a million books listed on their site and could be a defining moment for both publishing and the future of online retailing. The company with the most at stake is Lightning Source, the largest print on demand company in the world. If Amazon makes good on its threat, Lightning Source's 4,300 client publishers and their almost half a million titles on Amazon's site will go from "ships in 24 hours" to unavailable unless those publishers switch to using Amazon's company, BookSurge, as their printer. Hubris or exceptionally bold gamble? There is nothing on Amazon's site about the move. Meanwhile, On Demand, the company developing the Espresso Book Machine (previously), announced today that they have finalized an agreement with Lightning Source that would allow publishers currently using Lightning Source to license that content to On Demand so those books could be printed at Espresso sites. If the EBM catches on and Amazon's catalog is compromised, could brick and mortar bookstores and libraries find themselves with an unexpected windfall?

organizing without organizations

gen — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:38:12 -0800

Clay Shirky, professor at ITP - NYU, often linked to at MeFi, presents at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society on the ideas in his new book on organizing without organizations. Shirky blogs about his book and the coverage that it's getting.

Things Vital to the Honor of Human Life

blahblahblah — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:18:15 -0800

The editor of the New York Times Book Review asks "do others have favorite signature passages in books they love — a sentence or two that seem to convey the essence of a complex, beautiful work?" after giving his own example from To The Finland Station. Hundreds respond, often with some wonderful passages (as well as some not so wonderful ones). Any examples from the hive mind?

Hot off the presses, books printed, while you wait.

Toekneesan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:16:17 -0800

Would you like a latte while I print that up for you? The Espresso Book Machine (previously) that was in the New York Public Library has just moved to the Northshire Bookstore in Vermont. The beta versions of this portable book-making machine are pumping out paperbacks around a book a minute at the Open Content Alliance, The Library of Alexandria, The New Orleans Public Library, and the University of Alberta. The mass produced commercial version of the machine is scheduled to roll off the assembly line within the year and will be priced between $50,000 and $20,000. Combined with one of these, publishing as we know it may never be the same. NPR's On the Media about the machine The Sunday Times on the EBM One of Time's Inventions of the Year

Swimming upstream.

allkindsoftime — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:47:40 -0800

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is a book released last month by Tim Keller. Its faired reasonably well (NYT, login req'd), which is interesting, considering the wide success of books preaching the opposite message, as of late (Dawkins, et. al.). A little more from Newsweek. Coming soon to a uni near you.