Blog
Dead Bird
by Dan
November 08, 2006
There was a small mention for the cover design of Patrick McCabe's new novel Winterwood at Book Covers From the NY Times Review last Sunday, which is more than enough excuse to plug this wonderful blog again.
I would also like to go on record as saying that the red birds in question are actually shiny on the finished book (including the dead one).
Does anyone know of any other blogs that look specifically at book design?
Judging a book by it’s colour
by Siobhan
November 08, 2006
Last week, one of the publicists here at Raincoast was approached by a magazine stylist who was looking for books to use as props for a photo shoot. She needed 100 books--they could be books in any genre, but the catch was that they all had to have beige spines, presumably to match the furniture or clothing being photographed. After couple of us scoured the warehouse for beige-spined books, we got to thinking what it would be like if you could only buy books with certain colour covers. It would certainly limit what you read!
Today, the Guardian newspaper's book blog asks readers how they arrange their bookshelves. Do you sort by genre, alphabetically, by size--or even by colour? What do you do? Do you have any tips on how to tame a wild bookshelf?
By Hand
by Siobhan
November 08, 2006
One of the hidden gems Princeton Architectural Press this season is receiving some glowing reviews from the craft community online. By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art features artists around the world who are embracing traditional craft techniques such as embroidery, sewing, knitting and hand lettering to create outstanding works of art. Here's a snippet of what Whip Up has to say about the book:
There are many more artists in the book whose work is original, thought provoking, quirky and funny and serious. These artists make use of many different materials and methods of working and are well worth further exploriation. This is a book that I can read over and over and over again, I will use it as a reference and as inspiration. A really great book, congratulations to the publishers for seeing the worth in this idea and to the editors for seeing the worth in this form of artwork.
Style Bytes also recommended the book:
This book works as an excellent coffee table book, it contains useful and interesting information along with beautiful photos, and last but not least, it's a great source of inspiration for all of us crafters.
By Hand covers over 30 artists. Some of my personal favourites include Margarita Cabrera, who has used vinyl and thread to create soft versions of blenders, coffee makers and even a life-sized Volkswagen Beetle; and Robyn Love, who has knitted cozies for objects such as statues, parking meters and tombstones.
Raincoast Books Launches ‘What’s Your Worst-Case Scenario?’ Cellphone Video Contest
by monique t
Contests + News / November 08, 2006
Press Release:
Partners Raincoast Books and Pocket Cine Inc. present the “What's Your Worst-Case Scenario?” Video Contest. Submit a short video of a Worst-Case Scenario survival tip for a chance to win a $500 shopping spree in a participating bookstore. Contest starts November 13 and ends January 31. Video submissions are viewable in the contest gallery and are downloadable to video-capable mobile devices such as cellphones and iPods.
Get Ready for the Worst-Case Scenario Video Contest
by monique t
News / November 08, 2006
Calling all fans of the best-selling Worst-Case Scenario series, plus the daredevils and the accident prone, professional and amateur videographers and animators:
What's Your Worst-Case Scenario?
Submit a short video of your Worst-Case Scenario survival tip for a chance to win a $500 shopping spree in one of 90 participating bookstore from across Canada.
There are weekly book and gift prizes too.
Contest runs: November 13 to January 31.
Watch our promo video on YouTube.com.
See all the books in the series.
Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks are not just about surviving a shark attack or an avalanche, they're also about surviving everyday crises, like:
- how to get gum out of your hair
- how to prevent your cat from clawing the furniture
- how to get a thorn out of your puppy's paw, and
- how to win a hockey fight.
Do you have a Worst-Case Scenario? Better yet, do you have a Survival Tip?
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY--starting November 13.
Unlucky 13 might be your lucky day.
See Raincoast.com for more details.
Drina Bridge
by Dan
November 07, 2006
Drina Bridge, the courageous debut novel by Toronto author Jim Bartley, is a story of loss and forgiveness set in the former-Yugoslavia. Described by The Globe and Mail as ‘compelling', Drina Bridge receives further praise from Philppa Scowcroft over at Lucid Forge:
What I especially admire about Jim Bartley's writing is his dedication to, and respect for, historical fact (insomuch as we can call it that, at least). Bartley prefaces Drina Bridge with “A Note on History and Fiction”, reminding his readers that while he has incorporated real events, names, places, etc., his book is ultimately a work of fiction. In the very least, this story might leave you contemplating your own place in the world--who you'd be 5000 miles away, who you would have been 50 years ago.
Read the full review at Lucid Forge.
Jim will be reading at This Ain't The Rosedale Library bookshop in Toronto with Anthony Bidulka, author of Stain of The Berry (Insomniac Press, 2006), at 7:30pm on Tuesday November 28th, 2006. For further information please call This Ain't The Rosedale Library 416-929-9912.
The End of Mr Y Online
by Dan
November 06, 2006
The End of Mr Y, by Scarlett Thomas, is getting some wonderful reviews online. Check out:
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
AND If you would like something a little more mainstream, the Time Out New York also has a great review.
Bloggable You
by monique t
News / November 03, 2006
In the online world where all things are bloggable, books are storming the scene (at least they are getting a lot of media attention this week).
I'd like to continue that trend and point out Waterloo's favourite independent bookstore Words Worth Books, who started blogging in September.
How to Furnish a Room is proclaimed as “a pet blog for the employees of Words Worth Books, a perfectly appropriate use of company time wordsworthbooks.com”.
Book blogging is definitley an appropriate use of company time.
Any one else have a great book blog either personal or professional? Post a link in the comments.
Here are a few others we regularly read:
BookNinja.com
IFOA blog
The Tyee
The Joke’s Over
by Dan
November 03, 2006
‘DON'T WRITE, RALPH. YOU'LL BRING SHAME ON YOUR FAMILY'
Hunter S. Thompson
Artist, illustrator, and author Ralph Steadman was in Toronto last week for the International Festival of Authors and to promote his new book The Joke's Over - Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me. The book is a massive collection of anecdotes and illustrations, and is a must-read for Hunter S. Thompson devotees. For fans of Steadman, it is an intimate take on the creative collaboration that inspired some of his most famous ilustrations and the personal effect of Thompson's “strangely planned” suicide. The book ends with a personal letter to Hunter:
Send word.
If you weren't fortunate to be at festival to see the slideshow or the on-stage interview with Ben McNally (from the Nicholas Hoare bookshop in Toronto), then there are plenty of interviews to read:
Guy Dixon interviewed Ralph for the Globe and Mail on Saturday October 28:
Almost two years after Thompson killed himself with a shotgun in February, 2005, Steadman continues to reflect on the whole gonzo experience. Chronicling his artistic partnership with Thompson, The Joke's Over opens with their first assignment together in 1970, in which Steadman drew and Thompson wrote their now legendary, free-form article, The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved, for the little-known, short-lived magazine Scanlan's Monthly. Today, Steadman's own writing continues in the same tradition, snubbing objective journalism as being a lie and viewing the good, the bad and the ugly old U.S. of A. as if through the eyes of Weimar Expressionists.
John Burns profiled Ralph Steadman for the Georgia Straight:
Hunter S. Thompson--gonzo writer, sperm donor for the New Journalism (Tom Wolfe was just the midwife), great admirer of drugs, drink, and guns--killed himself last year. His frequent collaborator Ralph Steadman, whose wonderfully ink-sprayed drawings accompanied many of Thompson's books and articles, has clearly been mulling over their friendship and has now published a most peculiar reminiscence. The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories of Gonzo: Hunter S. Thompson and Me (Harcourt, $32.95) is a memorial to Dr. Gonzo but maybe more, too: a way to get over the “rabid, downright wretched, cheating, low-down sonofabitch”.
Edward Keenan in Eye Magazine also interviewed the author:
According to his new memoir, The Joke's Over (Harcourt, 416 pages, $32.75), Ralph Steadman got a call at his home in England at 3am on February 20, 2005. Joe Petro, on the other end of the line on the other side of the Atlantic, said, “Take your phone off the hook, Hunter just shot himself.”
To the news that Hunter S. Thompson--his long-time friend and collaborator, with whom he invented gonzo journalism and alongside whom he'll always be remembered--had committed suicide, Steadman's immediate response was to say, “About bloody time.”
Adam Jusko at BlogCritics Magazine has reviewed the book:
The Joke's Over is a must-read for any Hunter S. Thompson fan, and for the many Ralph Steadman fans as well. Built on anecdotes from both their famous collaborations and from good ideas that collapsed under the weight of their drug-addled revelry, the book offers almost 400 pages worth of stories that only someone in the midst of the gonzo action could tell you.
The End of Mr Y Review in the New York Times
by Dan
November 01, 2006
Scarlett Thomas' “smart, stylish and dizzing new novel” The End of Mr Y was reviewed in the New York Times at the weekend (October 29, 2006):
“the good news is that for all its posturing - and there's plenty of Derrida here, along with Darwin, Heidegger and particle physics - the book doesn't take itself too seriously. Thomas understands that a spoonful of escapism helps the phenomenology go down, and she obliges with a breakneck thriller of a plot that includes collapsing buildings, renegade C.I.A. agents and debauched sex. In a way, she's flipped the “Matrix” formula on its head: the movie leaned on philosophy to make its generic story seem more cerebral, while Thomas uses genre to jazz up what's essentially a novel of ideas ... she spins Derrida and subatomic theory into a wholly enchanting alternate universe that should appeal to a wide popular audience, and that's something no deconstructionist or physicist has managed to do. Consider ‘The End of Mr. Y' an accomplished, impressive thought experiment for the 21st Century.”
Read the full review here.
AND if you're not convinced by the New York Times, Bookslut has also reviewed The End of Mr Y:
Welcome to the delirious world of Mr. Y. I read this book quickly, obsessively, pulling late-night, hours-long reading sessions the likes of which I haven't seen since I read all of Lloyd Alexander's books in my youth. Or Philip Pullman's wonderful trilogy, more recently. I used the excuse that I wanted to finish this review before my semester starts in September to keep my nose in the book. But honestly, I just loved reading this book more than doing just about anything else.
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