books
Recommended Read
Bartlett, Allison Hoover. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2009. [ISBN-13: 978-0-14-3116824-9]
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is the story of John Charles Gilkey, an inveterate rare-book thief; Ken Sanders, the rare-book dealer and bibliodick determined to catch him; and Allison Hoover Bartlett, the objective journalist who finds herself mesmerized by the dance between these two book lovers.
Who among us can enter a bookstore and leave empty-handed? I know it happens sometimes—it’s even happened to me once or twice—but it takes more than a little willpower to pull it off. What happens, though, if you just don’t have that willpower or the inclination to find it? And what if the shops you enter contain really beautiful rare books, books like the first trade edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit with a price tag of $15,000?
Well, if you’re John Gilkey, you steal them.
“[Ken Sanders] estimates that from the end of 1999 to the beginning of 2003, John Gilkey stole about $100,000 worth of books from dealers around the country. In the past decade, no other thief has been anywhere near that prolific. What was even more unusual, though, was that none of the items Gilkey stole later showed up for sale on the Internet or at any other public venue. It was this […] and the fact that some of the books he stole were not very valuable, that had Sanders convinced that he actually stole for love.” —Bartlett
Still, lots of us love books and manage not to steal $100,000 worth of them, so what makes Gilkey different? Bartlett asks that very question in this fascinating book, and I highly recommend you get your hands on a copy (via legal means) to find out how she solves that mystery.
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Looking for more literary high jinks and mystery? Here are a couple more recommendations for your reading list:
 The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte |
 The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde |
Art for Word Lovers |
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This Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea poster is created using the first 8 chapters of the book. Find posters for other classics of literature at the PosterText website.
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Accessories for Word Lovers |
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This bag is hand made from two volumes of the United States Code Annoted, taking around 7 hours to make! It has a maroon faux leather trim & a black microsuede lining with pocket. Check out other designs at the BookBags website |
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DIY Gifts for Word Lovers |
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Make your own wordy wreathes from the pages of discarded books! Lindsay can show you how at her blog, Living with Lindsay. |
A shelf that floats on air? Learn how to make one at the Instructables website.
Photo by P5ychoP3nguin |
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Games for Word Lovers |
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Take turns adding letters to a teetering tower of words. Go for longer words – upward, downward, or sideways – to score more points. But watch out…the next letter may cause gravity to kick in and a Konexi collapse! |
WordJong features simple engrossing gameplay: Use a set of lettered tiles to create words, clearing the board as you use them. Aim for high-scoring words, earn bonus tiles, and work to clear the board with no leftover letters |
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Books for Word Lovers |
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Ever wanted to be a character in a classic book? Well, here’s you chance with Personalized Classics. |
The Book Lovers’ Borrow Book consists of a bound set of bookmarks with stubs. Slip a bookmark, with your name added, in each book you lend someone, then write their name on the stub. It reminds them to return your book and gives you a record of borrowings. Very clever. |
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Please welcome to the stage the high priestess of romance, the one-of-a-kind Vicki Essex! The news came out this week that one of my good buddies is now a bona fide published romance novelist. I’m super proud of her and exhort you to visit her blog, www.VickiEssex.com, check out her Facebook fan page, and follow her delightful Twitter feed.
You should also be prepared to have your preconceptions about romance novels and nerdiness smashed to bits! I’ve been lucky enough to get a sneak peek at some of her work and can vouch that she’s writing smart romance for smart people, so off you go! Check her out!
Avatar of the eBook by Javier Candeira
Though some bibliophiles are threatened by the advent of the digital book, I can’t help but love books in all their forms. There are times when I’d rather jump on the subway with a paperback, but there are also times I’m grateful not to have to put down a 2-pound copy of The Count of Monte Cristo just because my bedtime arms have gotten too lazy to keep holding it up.
This roundup is an ecclectic mix of how the digital is changing how and what we read, the environmental impact of digital ereaders, the future form of literature and more. Have any thoughts on the future of reading? Let us know in the comments.
The Evolution and Future of Ereaders
Five Books on Electronic Literature
The Environmental Impact of Ereaders
The Future of Paper Books…and E-readers
Can the Internet Save the Book?
My awesome parents, knowing all about my obsession with words, recorded the Empire of the Word documentary series that aired on TVO last month for me. It was developed and narrated by the very impressive Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading, The Library at Night, and The City of Words among other titles.
I watched every episode in a single sitting, and I have a hunch you’ll be as fascinated as I was. So brew some tea, get comfy, and follow the links below to the Empire of the Word.
Episode one is called “The Magic of Reading” and explores the origins of the written word and our irrepressible desire to read.
Episode two is titled “Learning to Read” and considers the intellectual triumph of reading from the neurology of the human mind to the education of new readers.
Episode three is called “Forbidden Reading” and investigates the authorities who have tried to ban the creation and consumption of texts as well as the people who fight for our right to read.
Episode four, “The Future of Reading,” speculates about how technology is changing the way we read and asks what will become of bound libraries in the years to come.
If you’re still craving more programming about the wonders of language, check out the BBC’s Why Do We Talk? over at the Lingua Franca blog. When you’re done you’ll want to stick around and read some of the really fun posts you’ll find there.
Thanks for watching!
Recommended Read
Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. [ISBN-13: 978-0-06-077705-0]
Seeing Francine Prose speak last week galvanized me into finally posting on a book of hers I read last winter. Reading Like a Writer is your chance to sit in Prose’s classroom, where you’ll pull out your magnifying glass to examine just what it is that makes some of the finest books around really tick. This is a course in close reading that everyone can take.
Close reading is one of my favourite ways into the bones and sinews of a good book. You know the kind of book I mean—the book in which every word, detail, and turn of phrase feels as if it is the only one that could fit, as though it were somehow ordained from the beginning? Yeah, I’m remembering some of those books fondly right now…
But to get back to what I was saying, close reading asks you to slow down and ask yourself why the author chose that particular name for the little girl, why you don’t believe the aunt when she says she’s not drinking anymore, why it was Liberace playing on the radio when the taxi crashed. Each of these details reflects the broader story and each one can uncover another of its secrets.
Now, just as every good sleuth studies the case files of the great detectives who came before them, you can read Prose’s chapters on words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, details, and gestures to learn how to unravel the mysteries your favourite books may still be concealing from you.
Prose provides a wealth of literary examples to show you what to look for: how Edith’s tepid and ill-fitting replies reveal that she’s just not that into Albert, how a boiled potato in a spreading pool of blood can make a scene more chilling, how the movements of a housefly can reveal the mind of its tormentor. After reading her examples, drawn from so many excellent books and stories, you’ll be glad to find that Prose has included all her sources in a list of “Books to Be Read Immediately.” And when you’re done this book, if you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to head back to all your favourite reads with an eye for what’s there that you haven’t yet seen.
Recommended Read
Poerksen, Uwe. Jutta Mason and David Cayley, trans. Plastic Words. University Park, PA: Penn State UP, 1995. [ISBN-10: 0-271-01476-8]
Plastic words are words so pliable that their use in almost any context tends to sound authoritative and important. However, these words are inhabited more by what the listener wishes to hear than what the speaker wishes to say. You’d think speakers would want to avoid these fickle words, but these are some of the most popular words in recent usage. They are placebo words, costing R&D little if anything to produce when compared with the efforts that are required to craft effective, clear treatments in plain English.
Plastic words, as classified by Poerksen, often begin as regular words with specific meanings, but are then adopted for use as part of a scientific argot. That adoption in itself doesn’t make the words malleable and plastic—rather, it is on the occasion of their release back into the vernacular that these words’ phenomenal plasticity begins to obscure their meanings.
Consider, for instance, words like information, management, resource, value, energy, development, system, and function. These are just a few of the words Poerksen identifies as plastic. You’ll notice that almost any random sampling of these strings of nouns tends to form vague ideas or concepts—maybe they’re job titles, maybe they’re mission statements, maybe they’re activities—we’re just not sure. And even once the contextualizing influence of verbs, prepositional phrases, and subjects surround them in reports, essays, political platforms, and the like, we’re still not sure. This is what makes these words plastic, and it’s what makes them beloved of writers who aren’t quite sure what they’re trying to say—not to mention writers who don’t want us to know exactly what they’re not saying.
In Plastic Words Poerksen tracks the rise of these words, provides us with criteria for identifying them, and considers what their popularity says about our society. Although published by an academic press and shelved with “cultural theory” in your local bookseller, this book is, nevertheless, highly readable. Read this book, and I guarantee you’ll be looking at these words—and they’re all around you–in a whole new way.
Recommended Read
Chappell, Warren and Robert Bringhurst. A Short History of the Printed Word. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks Publishers Inc., 1999. [ISBN-10: 0-88179-154-7]
A Short History of the Printed Word is an impressively complete history of print and its astonishing cultural ascendency, beginning with the invention of moveable type in eleventh-century China and ending with the rise of digital printing at the end of the twentieth century.
Printing technologies, design and the thingness of the printed page are the focus of this history. It’s a dense but very readable book that’s absolutely packed with details from the histories of paper-making, type-founding, printing, and book-binding. You’ll learn about the history and aesthetics of typeface design, page layout, and illustrations. Everyone from Bí Shēng to Gutenberg to Garamond to Picasso to Alfred A. Knopf is here.
I read this one from the first page to last and was fascinated by this account of how the printed word has transformed the world. That said, this is also a book that is happy to serve as a reference to dip in and out of as needed. If you’re a student or practitioner of book design or typesetting, this really is a must-read. And those of you who love books—not just their contents but the books themselves—will delight in A Short History of the Printed Word, too.
I’ll leave you with a few words from the book’s conclusion to let the authors describe their work:
Why so much emphasis here on the physical quality of books? Durability and beauty, like intelligence, are something more than luxuries. They are tactics for survival.
