FYI, design, words
So this thing just came in hot off the wire. The second I saw that it had an MSRP of $489.00 I was pretty livid and was all ready to write some tirade about how Amazon is totally out of touch with the modern reader and that this product could, in no way, be the future of books and how I got my hands on an original Kindle a couple years ago and was not that impressed and found it to be a middle piece of technology on the road to something better (iPhone reader? When is this going to happen? Hello?) and how it should be reserved for late 40’s techies who want to get in early on some hot new piece of gear but feel too old to Twitter. Some angry bullshit like that.
But then I looked at the specs.
This thing is 1/3″ thick and has a 9.7″ screen that can show a shitload more detail than the first Kindle. It holds 3500 books and Amazon is now in league with a handful of major colleges to provide this new gadget to students for all their textbook uses. Dare I say it: this thing is kind of cool.
This doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and buy one. $500 for an ebook reader is fucking stupid, I don’t care how much money you have. But if you’re a student getting one for free and you don’t have to pay an ungodly amount for heavy textbooks that you will use once and store on your bookshelf for the rest of your life in hopes that it will serve you at some later date, well, then you’re stoked.
The concept of an ebook is a ways off from being revolutionary. Nothing will replace a real, perfect bound, paperback book. Nothing will replace the ability to dog ear, make notes in the margin, underline. Not to mention a paperback is never subject to battery failure, blunt trauma and if you spill a beer on it all you do is stick it out in the sun for a while. Sure it’s gonna be all puffy and stinky when it dries out, but it will technically still function.
This whole Kindle experiment whiffs of desperation to me: An ailing company trying way too hard to maintain relevancy in an advance technological age. Something tells me Jeff Bezos thinks so too.
The book is not broken, Amazon. Johannes Gutenburg got it right the first time. Quit trying to fix it.
Thanks Gallycat.
FYI, Jason Gregory, design
Dear friend Jason Gregory just launched a new version of the MAKR site. Jason makes insanely high qulaity leather goods. If you’re into fashion and hand crafted things that carry other things then you should check him out.
design, words
Ha. So looks like ABSPB might have to be a bi-weekly thing seeing that I still haven’t finished any one of the 3 books I first showcased. Looks like I’m not as quick a reader as I thought I was! Heh Heh! Looks like I’m not as smart either! Looks like I bit off more than I can chew! Ha Ha! Looks like I’m a complete failure at everything I do and I fail to finish the things that I start! HA HA HA! Haha, hah, whoo (whiping tear from eye), heh heh, ha… (sigh).
Anyway here’s the cover for Mark Twain’s “Who is Mark Twain?” A collection of unpublished journals, letters and lectures. A beautiful and playful little cover. Though I’m not sure what all that top hat business is about. I don’t remember him being known for that. A head of billowy white hair maybe, but top hat? Maybe Harper Collins saw how much Slash’s memoir was selling so they threw Samual Clemmins on the top hat bandwagon. Or maybe the answer to the titular question is right here.
FYI, design
While trolling the webs for a good (or really shitty) book cover for this week’s BBCDW I came across The Book Design Review which seems to be an extension of the NY Times Book Review. They stole my idea to review book covers about 4 years before I came up with it and compiled the best designs into an annual list. Check them out here.
design, words
While the question of “why?” in regards to the Columbine tragedy may seem like kind of a duh question to you and I, author Dave Cullen and anyone else over 40 during the time of the incident were left scratching their heads to the skull and blaming the playstations and the Marlyn Mansons and trenchcoat mafias and other trivial distractions.
Kelbold and Harris weren’t exacting revenge on a society that scorned them. They were fucking crazy. End of discussion. It would seem in the light of even the most preliminary of evidence that this is a logical conclusion. Not so, says Cullen, who spends 432 pages explaining that the Columbine killers did it because they were (gasp) “psychotic”. No fucking doye, dude. What other breathtaking revelation are you gonna lay on us next? Michael Jackson has had plastic surgery? Bruce Willis’ character at the end of Sixth Sense was actually a ghost?
Anyway. This books seems, at best, a waste of time and money and, at worst, an exploitation. In spite of all that, the cover is still pretty cool.
I’d go so far as to say boarderline groundbreaking. Most big publishing house releases, when they try to go for stark and profound end up fucking it all up by putting a big ugly blurb on there or placing the authors name and credits in a conspicuous place. Not so for this one. Helvetica font floating like a ghost above a photo of the infamous school on an overcast day. A perfect execution of understatement, proving that not much is needed to solemnly remind the average American of the chilling and horrific act that took place that day.
FYI, animals, design
I’m a bit of a late-comer to Chris Onstad’s Achewood-verse. I got turned on about six months ago with The Great Outdoor Fight and have been hooked to the weekly strip ever since. So the announcement of a new Achewood book made my mind boner perk up. (Clarification: few weeks back we decided that boners didn’t have to just be used to describe sexual arousal i.e. “The smell of that bar-b-que sandwich is giving me a stomach boner,” or “That new Macbook is giving me a technology boner”).
In a grand execution of the old adage, “Keep it simple, stupid” Onstad (a graphic designer himself) reveals nothing to the casual passerby and relies only on the devoted fans to get hyped on it. Well done, Chris.
design, words
Even though this little gem was a steady competitor for this week’s BBCDW, I decided not to go with something that took me five minutes to mock-up in InDesign.
This collection came out almost a year ago but it’s just popping up on my radar. The cover for the Justin Taylor-edited collection concerning the end of days has a look like it’s survived a 50 year stint in an underground fallout shelter. No surprise why this is viscerally appealing. Writers and lit types love old shit. Preferably mid century old shit. It reminds them of a time when novels and stories held greater sway with the average American psyche. Days before the Facebooks, days before every new product name was preceded by a lower case “i”. Don’t worry writers. Those days will be over soon. In fact, all the days will be over soon. Excellent work on facilitating the end of the world, Justin Taylor.
design, words
Actually, this one probably falls under “Almost Good Book Cover Design of the Week.” The cover for Sana Krasikov’s debut of stories falls just short of sublime due to publishing house pressures to put a big ugly blurb from a wildly bestselling author conspicuously on the front. Also, that stock Adobe cursive font used for her name isn’t helping things either.
Regardless, this looks to be a good writer to keep an eye on. Check out one of her stories here. And have you seen a picture of her yet? Yowza! I gotta move to New York.
design
Steve Harvey can best be described as “whatever” boarding on “unfunny and annoying” and I don’t really know what kind of self-help bullshit he’s peddling with this book, but I chose this cover to bring up the issue of people putting themselves on their own book covers. Generally you’ll find this concept is usually practiced in nonfiction. I’m not sure if a fiction author has ever done it, but I’d love to meet the guy or gal who has the balls or ovaries to do it. I don’t know why but I easily see one of those grocery store/airport authors like Grisham or Stephen King to be the ones to do it.
Anyway, this is a practice mostly held by TV or Movie personalities to help sell books. But there’s a thread of commonality that I’ve noticed in it: Douchebags put themselves on the covers of their own books. Lots of conservative pundits serve as examples:
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art, design, drawing, words
This week’s entry is a little bit biased. I’ve known some of the Featherproof guys and gals for a little bit and Mr. Zach Plague had a novel excerpt in issue #3 (which is on sale btw).
Amelia Gray’s first book, AM/PM, is a semi-connected collection of flash pieces, one per page, each of them packing a huge punch in each paragraph. My favorite so far is an entry that tells of a PDF file that is a symbol for love. Keep an eye on this book and this author. Both are poised for blow-up status.
The aforementioned Mr. Plague is responsible for the pen-and-paper cover drawing. Simple, effective, charming, interesting, and accessible. Well done Zach.
