The Futility of E-books, or Why Amazon Doesn't Care about You or Your Kindle Account

This story really boiled my blood. A man named Ryan was locked out of his Kindle account in October, an account that he had amassed over $1000 in e-books with and had a reasonable expectation of access to. No one can tell him why he is unable to access his account, and no one can tell him if he will ever get access back. It sickens me to think that this man has pumped so mush money into Amazon only to have some sort of computer glitch ruin his personal library. The final line of his email to Amazon regarding the situation really sums it up.

"If this is what the ebook revolution looks like, I'll buy the written history in paperback."

Source

Bad Ass Bookshelves: Creative Ways to Display Your Books (Part 2)

Today is the continuation of yesterday's post on killer bookshelves. Short or tall, curved or geometric, wood or polyurethane, a bookshelf can be a way to express your creativity and even your philosophies.

Lighter than Air
Ok, so this bookshelf is actually part of a gallery exhibit. The concept is taking what we traditionally think of when we think of a bookshelf (heavy, bulky and immovable), and turning the concept on its end, turning the bookshelf into a delicate, airy chain. Though not technically available for public purchase, I feel like some quality time with metal snips and some heavy gauge hangers could yield something similar.

Bad Ass Bookshelves: Creative ways to display your books (Part 1)

Sure, a book is a beautiful piece of art to bibliophiles like you or me. But what is a Rembrandt or a Picasso without a gorgeous frame around it? Okay, they're still masterpieces, but you never see plain pieces of canvas hanging in museums. Likewise, a cool or interesting bookshelf is a great way to showcase your books and express your artistic side. For the next couple of posts we are going to look at some killer bookshelves.

Books as Art: Extraordinary Papercrafting (Part 2)

Here is some more incredible sculptures made from the pages and structures of books.

A whole world inside a dictionary

 I'm pretty sure I would have lived here as a kid

 They look so  similar to a book that has been bloated in the rain, but beautiful

Sometimes a book can be beautiful even without words.

Books as Art: Extrordinary Paper Crafting (Part 1)

 

 Today we are presenting the first installment of some awesome crafts and sculpture made from books. I wish  could papercraft like this.

Awesome Sea-themed scene

More photos after the jump

Our First Craft! Coasters for Bibliophiles

Okay, so this first craft is pretty self serving: I needed some coasters. However I didn't just want any old silly coasters, I wanted cool ones. So I got the idea to decoupage these nifty ones out of some old books!

PICTURE COMING VERY VERY SOON

Instructions and more pictures after the jump

I've got the Books, Now what about the Tools?

So you've gone through all those old books, carefully weeded through the ones you want to keep and the ones you want to craft. Next step is to get your tools ready. I have compiled a list of all the different tools you will need to get started with most basic crafts.

Books for Crafting and Where to get Them

So you've got your X-acto blades and craft glue ready to start some awesome crafts? Oh wait, no books? That's ok, this post will give you some insight on the best sources for books you intend on using just for crafting purposes.

What Types of Books are Ideal for Crafting?

The most difficult part of book-crafting is deciding what types of books should be salvaged and which books should be turned into crafts. You don't want to cut into a first edition Faulkner, and you don't want to get halfway into a craft before realizing that you have a book with the wrong sort of structure for the craft you are attempting. In this post you will learn what the best types of books are for crafting in general as well as specific types of crafts.

Onward with the Crafting!

Part of the joy of having a physical book is that the book has many lives. Its first life begins the first time it is picked up off of the shelf at a bookstore, where it is opened and read for the first time. It may later have other lives as it passes from hand to hand, garage sale to used bookstore. Each time a book is read it gains more character, from the notes in the margins to the coffee stain in the corner.

Eventually a book, especially a well loved and well read tome, will reach a point where it is no longer in a useful or readable condition. The content may be out of date, or the book itself may be worn and battered beyond the point of practical reading. In this case we are able to let books go out with an artistic bang, by up-cycling them into something beautiful. For the next several days we will be focusing on ways to give old and abused books a new form.

Wow, Real Book Art still Exists! Introducing the St. John's Bible

For the first time in over 500 years, a new version of the Bible has come out written completely by hand. Utilizing the skills of a team of scribes, St. John's University commissioned the work in 1998, and the book was completed in early May of this year.

 The book is to be bound in seven volumes, has 1,150 pages and the calligraphy was done using 130 year old ink applied with goose, turkey, and swan feathers.

Who says the old ways are dead?

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Where has the Beauty of Bookbinding Gone? Exploring Gauffered Edges

In a previous post I talked about finding some beautifully bound books in University of the Pacific's library that had some beautiful designs stamped onto the edges of their pages.

A little bit of digging provided some insight into the rarely seen practice. The technique is called gauffered edges, and was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries before falling out of fashion.

More pictures and history of gauffered edges after the jump.

A Sad Day in Publishing: E-books outselling print books

Okay, so this information is several months old, but I just read an article from The New York Times that declared that E-books are now outselling print books on marketplace website Amazon. If it's news to me, it may be news to you. Here's the article for reference.

Is this an inevitability of a changing industry? Or is it a sign of our very culture being decimated?

With all Borders stores closed down by now, and smaller bookstores disappearing daily, is it only a matter of time before we no longer see print books for sale brand new?

Remember this the next time you download an e-book: Books were once how we measured knowledge; they became a source of revolution. When the government can control the internet, when the corporations are controlled by the government, how long until e-books are spewing out the same "revised" versions of history we see in North Korea?

Okay, done with my conspiracy theory rant for today.

The Library as a Museum: Part Two

Another installment of our library as art series focuses today on the library as an artistic muse.

This view of the stacks at University of the Pacific's library can be the first trip down the rabbit hole for some

More photos after the jump

A quick thought on "Old Book Smell"

I'm one of those people who gives much credence to the smell of a book. I will burrow my nose right in the creases of a book and take a deep whiff. I've never given much thought to it, but browsing around on the internet I came across this gem:

"old book smell. Did you know? 'Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.'"
-Perfumes: The Guide


Now isn't that some food for thought?

The Lost Art of the Bookplate

Older books have certain qualities that endear me to them in a way that can't really be recreated in the modern world of book publishing. Namely the carefully hand-stamped leather covers, covers meant to last. But there is a feature that seems to exist only in older books that I can't understand how it doesn't translate over to the contemporary: bookplates. A bookplate is a stamp or sticker with the name of the owner printed on it, often with decorative detail. If you are going to build a library, better to have a fanciful way to claim your books, though sometimes a simple scawl across the title page sufficed.

Photos and examples after the jump...

The Library as a Museum: Part One

When I was little, my mom used to take us to the public library once a week during the summer. It was my favorite place to be in the world. Especially the Children's Library, where a squeaky voiced lady with a face like a bird mask (think expressive and interesting, not scary) would tell us the most wonderful stories with puppets and let us play with musical instruments. I always got the tambourine.

As I got older, the library maintained its wonder and mystique. I was fascinated by the idea that thousands upon thousands of people could come to one place and check out books that had passed through the hands of more people than they would ever meet in their life. I thought that if I was ever to come back in another life as an inanimate object, I should like for it to be a book so that I could be in a library and meet all kinds of interesting people and go to new places.

At University of the Pacific students and faculty have access to a wonderful source of books. One of my favorite things to do on campus is walk around the stacks and explore some of the older, rarer books. I spent a couple hours this week photographing some of the more interesting tomes in Pacific's collection.

The stacks seem to just go on and on at University of the Pacific Library

In Defense of the Book: A mission statement of sorts

Since I was a child I was fascinated by reading. I remember so distinctly tucking a paperback into the waistband of my jeans before climbing up to my special reading spot: a perfectly formed branch high in a tree in my parent's backyard. I would settle back into the boughs with the latest Judy Bloom and spend hours reading and eating snacks that my very indulgent mom would send up on a bucket tied to a pole. Every so often I would lose my grasp on the book while otherwise focused on unwrapping a Starburst or something and the book would fall to the ground, forcing me to roust myself and begin the arduous climb down to retrieve it.

With the advent of e-reading devices  such as the Kindle, Nook and CyBook, the modern reading experience has changed forever. Hundreds of books, an entire library, can exist in a razor thin tablet weighing only a few ounces. The technology is actually quite impressive; the "e-ink" used allows the text to appear on the screen glare free, and there is no more damaged book spine from efforts to contort a paperback into a more wield-able read.

Back to Basics: How to open a book for the first time

I get it. We the people of the technology age, we know how to download a novel, sync it, link it, upload and download it all over again. So how could anyone possibly screw up something as simple as opening a book?

You'd be surprised.

If a book is well bound, the binding will be tight and rigid at first. Without properly limbering the book up a bit first, you risk damaging the structure of the binding and ultimately, the book itself.

Welcome to the Nook!

Bibliophile: noun
a lover of books especially for qualities of format; also : a book collector.

Welcome to the Bookkeeper's Nook, where you will learn how to take those dusty old books you picked up at flea markets, used bookstores or your neighbor's estate sale and either refurbish them to thier former state of glory, or up-cycle them into a whole new work of art.


With the advent of new technology such as the Kindle or Nook, books have begun to fall by the mainstream wayside. If you miss the feel of a nice hardbound in your hands, or the smell of a first edition classic, stick around and find some new and exciting ways to transform your old damaged books into the works of art they were meant to be.