ssmith's blog

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Big black book
Each of the 6,000 pages in Mishka Henner's new 12-volume, p.o.d. series entitled Astronomical represents one-million kilometers of our solar system. On page one, you’ll find a photo of the Sun. On Page 6000, Pluto. Get it? Needless to say, there's a lot of black ink in between. Want to check it out? Watch perhaps the most boring book trailer ever produced.

YASIV

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Bad sex!
It's that time of year again...the Literary Review has announced their shortlist for the Bad Sex (in fiction) Award, and The Guardian has the extracts.

Your vampires suck!
Says Anne Rice on Facebook of Stephanie Meyer (or words to that effect) reports The Hollywood Reporter. And she can't write worth a darn, adds Stephen King.

75 Books for Writers

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Mo Willems
ET has a fun interview with one of my favourite kids authors, Mo Willems, and a pre-view of his new Pigeon app.

Light reading
When an e-reader is loaded with thousands of books, does it gain any weight? Yes (but not much).

Reading by the lb.
Good thing Kindle doesn't "...sell books by the pound — $3.99/lb"

Tintin lessons

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Punctuation
whats the future of punctuation in the face of the internet

Data visualization
Who needs writers to tell stories?

Jonzeing for books
What do the books do after the shop closes?

Poet baker

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Occupy Libraries
Growing tired of drum circles? Try a book.

Model Sex
Ever wonder who the models were in the original Joy Of Sex? I always thought they looked like a couple of dirty hippies, but whatever floats your boat. The BBC looks back.

Wharton Writin'

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Book-o-lanterns
In honour of Hallowe'en, a gallery of literary Jack-O'-Lanterns, c/o Flavorwire.

Book bugs
Free pets with books withdrawn from Vancouver public libraries!

Tolkien drawings
100 rare Tolkien drawings were recently discovered at the Bodliean. More samples here.

Chip's Murakami

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Bookcase Porn
50 cool bookcases...well, 48 actually. Numbers 34 and 43 are just normal bookcases from what I can tell.

Fun Type
Facebook creative director Ji Lee's new book does kooky things with typography. (I still can't figure out what #6 is.)

Amazon Lockers
In Seattle, Amazon is experimenting with drop lockers for product shipments.

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Disappearing books.
Books have been vanishing since long, long before the advent of e-books. Here are the top-ten vanished books, according to Smithsonian.com.

Maus Art
Art Spiegleman has written called Meta Maus, about making Maus, his famous graphic novel about the Holocaust, and to promote the new book he has made a video about the making of the book about the making of Maus. (c/o LA Times)

Book burners

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Missfire

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF INTERNET CURIOSITIES FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Bookselling today
So you want to work in a bookstore, eh? Think it might be stimulating, fun and easy? Well, too bad, there are no more bookstores, so you will have to go work in this circle of Hell instead.

Ebert
The intriguing Roger Ebert has a memoir out, and The Atlantic excerpts some of his thoughts on writing, with slides!

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