Most Difficult Books

Flavorwire, the worst kind of electrician snack ever, has a list of the fifty toughest books ever to read.   Dante's Inferno is one I've actually read, completed, and I don't think it's all that hard, if you acclimate yourself to the time and theme of the book; Naked Lunch, on the other hand, I attempted in my twenties and didn't get more than a dozen pages into it.  There wasn't even anything to appreciate about the book; I had to stop.   Much of the list, thought, are books I've considered reading, which means if I can successfully read a book labeled "tough" by a flavored wire, I'll be doing pretty good.

Tiny Books

The University of Iowa in Iowa City has a collection of the tiniest books ever made.  They apparently have a set of appropriately-tiny shelves that the books live on, and the smallest is the size of a ladybug.

More Christmas-Tree Books

This Christmas tree made from books takes a bit more effort, compared to the one from a few days ago, and a little taste for book destruction. Juniper Books found themselves with a surplus of green fabric-bound books, whose contents had been digitized and thus the paper was headed for the dumpster anyhow, and decided to make a Christmas tree. The edges of some books went into the bandsaw to make the traditional arrow-point branches, while the rest make up the body of the tree. Via Juxtapoz.

Flavorful Old Books

From NatalieDee — Failed Jellybelly Flavors:


Old books are a failed flavor? They were checking with the wrong test group. I've got my fingers crossed for Jones Soda's Librarian 6-Pack of "Old Books", "1980s Xerox Copier", "Vinegaring Film", "Rubber Stamp Ink", and, of course "Hot Librarian".

Babes With Books

I wouldn't have linked if it was NSFW, but it seems clean enough -- Babes With Books:

The Mad Men Bookshelf

Mad Men has its style and mysogyny, but it's also got books; back in the day, it wasn't an egghead-thing to read, it was part of being a rennaisance men, appreciating literature, whisky, and whatever woman was at your side -- here, courtesy of New York magazine, are a number of the books that appear in the plot of Mad Men.

Book Inscriptions

I've got lots of inscribed books (some by the author, even) -- this website collects a bunch:

Information Overload, Rennaisance Style

“one of the diseases of this age is the multiplicity of books; they doth so overcharge the world that it is not able to digest the abundance of idle matter that is every day hatched and brought forth into the world“

Barnaby Rich, 1613. (via)

Wall-Mounted Book-Light

It's not exactly the "clip to the dustjacket' booklight, but I'm sure it can still be used for reading. As I always do, I wince at the idea of dismembering a book, but I soften when I see how ingenious and pretty the results can be. The creator was being very responsible by recommending only a small-wattage bulb (paper plus high heat equal bad news), but the current crop of fluorescent bulbs would probably do quite well. I suspect you don't want to go too bright or it may lose some of the ambiance; this book-lamp is akin to a wall sconce -- designed to throw light in a beautiful way rather an a functional form. Imagine a library with these on all 4 sides of the columns holding up the vaulted ceiling, or one of those 11x14 Atlases of the World. Very nice.

Decomposition Of Books

Detroit Public Schools once had a book depository. It's still there, but hasn't been maintained in years, and its once-educational contents have been ravaged by fire and weather, resulting in this blog post and this set of Flickr photos. It is haunting, and sad, but reminiscent of the "World Without Us" book or the Life After People show. On a small scale, without human intervention nature has started reclaiming this building from the inside out. (see also) Books, it seems, are both good for growing both smarts and nature. (via)

Lots Said In A Simple Cover

The book at the right is a bunch of things:

• A fine example of irony;
• A vote of 'no confidence' regarding its contents;
• Proof that a good cover is worth the money;
• A reason you don't want libraries rebinding your book.

Click here to see the whole cover, and then you'll see what I'm talking about.

(via)

Learn To Read, From Natalie Dee

More book-fun from Natalie Dee -- I don't think she thought her cunning plan through:


nataliedee.com

Corky Normart's Book

Julie's mom bought this book at a Fresno Flea-market, and now she's got it -- it once belonged to Corky Normart, a young lad whose family once owned a fur company. How's Julie know all this? because of Corky's artwork inside the cover, of course (click on the cover in her post to see).

...Before It's Too Late!

marriedtothesea.com

Roundup: Best Books of 2007

As usual, I read very little new literature this year, opting for Vonnegut and Bester and other classics. If I do want to back up and see what I missed, plenty of places have their recommendations:

• AV Club: The Best Books We Read In 2007
• Publisher's Weekly: Best Books of the Year
• New York Times: 100 Notable Books of the Year and 10 best books
• Library Journal: Best Books 2007
• Boston.com: Best Fiction and Nonfiction
• School Library Journal: Best Books of 2007
• Hudson Booksellers: Best Books of 2007
• On Point Radio: Best Books of 2007 (audio)
  
• Salon Book Awards 2007
• Newsweek: 2007's Best Books
• Village Voice: 20 Books of the year
• American Library Association: Teen's Top Ten
• Amazon.com: Best Books of 2007
• Kirkus Reviews: Best Books of 2007 (pdf)
• Miami Herald: Best Kids Books of 2007
• Slate: Best Books of 2007
• Financial Times: The Best Books of 2007
• Topeka/Shawnee Public Library: Best Books of 2007
• New Statesman: Books of the year
• The Globalist: Best Books of 2007
• Entertainment Weekly: The Best Books of 2007
• Independent Online: Best Books of 2007
• New York Mahazine: Best in Books
• Seattle Times: Book reviewers favorites
• FEARS magazine: best scifi/fantasy/horror (scroll down)
• Leicester (UK) Libraries: best books picked by children
• The Independent Mail: Best Books of 2007
• Christian Science Monitor: Books we liked best
• Scholastic: Best books of 2007, parents & children
  
• January Magazine: Best books of 2007
• Teen Reads: Best books of 2007
• Cryptomundo: Top Cryptozoology books
• Miss Erin's Top Favorite Books of 2007
• Planetizen: Top 10 Books list

And, this list from Bostonist did the footwork of what I was planning on doing: compiling a meta-list of best books, based on those books' appearance in other lists.

Books As Display

We were Christmas shopping this week, and stopped in at Zandbroz, a funky out-of-the-ordinary shoppe here in Fargo (and in Sioux Falls). I believe Zandbroz is the last independent bookstore in Fargo, so between the good books, cool toys, and handmade jewelry, we know we can find good stuff there.
In a jewelry display case, we observed the display on the right -- showing off necklaces are books! It looks like it took quite a bit of work to do all the books; I believe there were five or six. Each page was folded back on itself, so the outer edge touched the inner spine. Then, when the book was laid flat, the pages fan out as seen there, with some nice detail of the text on the page showing on the folded edge. All of the books were old, leatherbound books, which makes me cringe a little to see such fine books bent and creased like this, but visually it's a great use of found objects and art in one.

The Interstitial Library

The Interstitial Library is a haughty concept, but one rooted in semantics: As the strict cataloging system used by libraries is essentially infinite, there are a lot of books that have slipped through the cracks, either by not entering a standard library, or by simply not having been created yet. On the surface it's a rather silly concept , but on the other hand, it gropes at understanding the scale of actual literature hinted at by monkeys with typewriters: Infinite monkeys have a chance at hitting a Shakespeare, but, as probability goes when you reach infinity, could just as easily produce today's gradeschool lunch menu, A Million Little Pieces, or -- gah! -- this particular blog post. That's a lot of both existing and potential literature, and without the help of some library to catalog and track such infinite readings, you're stuck with the finite and self-contained library down the street. Granted, you're more likely to find what you're looking for at the public library, but the thing you're not looking for is much more interesting.

Huge Books Take Over Kansas City

Sometimes, a book makes such an impression, that they're hard to overlook:


This is the parking ramp for the downtown Kansas City MO library. It is, of course, a facade, to pretty up what's traditionally an ugly type of structure, and really makes an impression as to what the building is all about. I'm impressed that they accepted and enlarged a few traditionally 'banned books' -- Catch-22 and Fahrenheit 451, but that's what library's are supposed to do, right? The giant-book project was done in 2005, and it seems to still be around. (more photos, including construction)

Babalicious Libraries

The Wyoming State Library, in the interest of bringing attention to the libraries in their state, has produced an award-winning ad campaign. My favorite: The sexy-girl-mudflap image (see ex.), adapted to have the busty lady reading a book. That's my kind of gal! That particular image is designed to advertise the Library's free access to the online Chilton library -- an excellent bonus, compared to a lot of other areas. Car repair and chromed babes go hand-in-hand, and books are sexy, you've got to admit it. For the state with the smallest population and a reputation for a cowboy lifestyle, Wyoming's library system does a good job of making themselves useful, resulting in over 8 items checked out per year per capita (ref). I'm sure this is due to the statewide library-card, allowing cardholders to check out books, anywhere -- including colleges -- with their one card. When a state makes their libraries both sexy and accessible, it's no wonder people use them.

Bookseller Tickets

Back in the day, independent booksellers would put little gummed labels inside the cover to identify their shoppe as the origin. Hang Fire Books has graciously included examples in their blog, along with instructions on how to remove them (and other gummed accoutrements added to books after publishing). While I haven't seen a lot of these, myself, I've seen similar labels on old 78rpm record albums -- I'll bet the two practices are related.