futureofthebook.com

reading book action

Few readers ever pause to consider the action of the book in hand. Perhaps this disregard can be overcome. Perhaps the reader can enjoy a bookís different meaning. Here is a brief guide to qualities of mechanical mobility of types of book bindings. (more)

book port

Wanted Books provides a very systematic links page. They have kindly linked to FotB in its appropriate subgroup.

imposed impression into the future

The
Amalgamated Printers Association meeting in St. Louis was a wild wayzgoose. FotB observed the antics of real letterpresspeople who actually can identify bizzare and ordinary type faces by name. They can also do beautiful letterpress composition and printing at the speed of light.

This group is the remnant of the huge society of workers who once produced all our books and newspapers and printed matter. All of it. Now they are a little enclave of quirky and funny and smart folks inventing one of the strangest futures from the past.

simple meaning of media

timeline of information,
tips on the meaning of life, the
source of the originals,
wisdom of the ages

timeless timber

The preserved forests are
cut again. The pages of old books would also qualify in this mixed concept of saved and used.

story

“I’m really old and innocent. I just ramble on, try to find my way. People tell me, for example, what message I have. I”m afraid I haven’t any. Well, here’s fable, what’s the moral? I’m afraid I don’t know. I”m merely a dreamer, and then a writer, and my happiest moments are when I’m a reader.”
Jorge Luis Borges

Then visit the
library of babel and note the curious deterioration of the volumes on the left.

scrapbook blogging

Scrapbooking draws the line between reading modes as indicated in this blog
commentary.

“Blog posts are ephemeral, quick flashes, fireworks, left brain stuff. Scrapbook pages are memories, permanent vehicles to recall, richly, again and again, treasured memories. “

Islamic cross stitch patterns

In the west all the world is a stage, but in Islamic culture, all the world is a Book. Here are some appropriate cover
decorations. Then go to an Islamic
book store.

type founding, type casting, type setting

Amagamated Printers may be just the right sub-culture for you! Even their unprinting is exceptional as in the world’s most saturated single page
letterpress data website by David Rose.

Washi lasts one thousand years

Tatiana Ginsberg is doing wonderful field work among traditional papermakers and dyers of Japan. Enjoy her
report.

Hanji lasts one thousand years

Korean hand made paper is now imported for use in conservation. The Hanji from Fides International is distinguished in many ways. Only the white bark of the Cham Dak is used and only natural Hwang Chok Kyu sizing is used. The We Bal sheet forming motion is on two axis producing a cross grain. Finally the sheets are pounded to compact and smooth the sheet. (website under construction)

A report on Hanji qualities for use in conservation is co authored by Minah Song and Jesse Munn of the Library of Congress.

***“let the artifact tell its own story”

FotB subscribes to the above dictum of Nancy Kraft, Preservation Librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries. With this single guidepost one can navigate the controversies and disputations of the presenters on cleaning of works of art at the AIC meeting in Portland.

Sometimes cleaning is needed to reveal meaning and sometimes prevention of cleaning is needed to reveal meaning. But be careful, meaning shifts continually, the artifact changes continually and the conservation specification itself, in a culture context at a specific moment in time, is transient.

bookways of Iowa

The University of Iowa Center for the Book is a churning interdisciplinary array of specialists, each with a bookway in mind. See the swirl and join the fun at the UICB website.

There is also another center for the book in Iowa called the
Iowa Center for the Book.

wild rhubarb crunch pie with homemade cottage cheese

The Paper and Book Intensive program is
invited to Iowa for the 2005 season. This event will situate the wily PBI community in a historical commune of Inspirationists.