***a reader’s enclave
“A book’s power lies in its ability to erase us, to expand or contract without limit, to circle inside itself without beginning or end, to defy our imaginary timetables and lay us bare to a more basic ticking. The pages we read are a nowhen, unfolding far outside the public arena. As long as we remain in them, now reveals itself to be the baldest of inventions.” Richard Powers (link from
wood s lot)
***early book art
Holly Robertson, a student in Preservation and Conservation Studies at the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin, has produced a fine online portfolio of
Spanish archival bindings.
***analog and digital
This stunning portrait of the two book formats of late Antiquity reminds us that drastic transitions of reading behaviors have occured elsewhere in history. Jesus and the Abbot Mena team up to show us the analog scroll and digital codex in this painting from the
Coptic room at the Louvre. (More on the
scroll to codex transition.)