21 May 2013

LITERATURE BUT NOT AS WE USUALLY SEE IT.

I don't know how I missed this.

A Guardian article in January of this year starred a blog with the glorious title of LOUSY BOOK TITLES:"Just because you CAN design your own book cover doesn't mean you SHOULD" which, as the title suggests, features some pretty awful book covers, one of my 'favourites being .....


Be sure to click on the above link to view more.


Oh my goodness, how amazing is this .......



Turning The Page, a free exhibition (running until the 25th of May 2013 at the British Academy) shows the work of paper sculptor Justin Rowe who delicately carves books, folding them to form landscapes and characters that literally pop up from the page. MORE

Interesting ...... Recent research has shown one in 10 women feels more intensely for a make-believe male such as James Bond than for their own partner. (Hmm, I wonder which make-believe male YOU favour. PW)



From Margaret Atwood to Jeanette Winterson - authors add hand-written notes to first editions to raise money for ENGLISH PEN.

Take for example how JK Rowling annotated this first edition copy of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone .....


Title page [beneath title] 'changed my life forever.'


Title page 'No shield here - crest. I mean all that came in the later editions. This one's a bit wonky but you get the idea. Perhaps Hufflepuff house would have the respect it deserves from the fans if I'd stayed with my original idea of a bear to represent it?'



p.18 [beneath drawing] 'Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking.'



p.133 [beneath 'Quidditch'] '-was invented in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then boyfriend. I had been pondering the things that hold a society together, cause it to congregate and signify its particular character and knew I needed a sport. It infuriates men, in my experience (why is the Snitch so valuable etc.), which is quite satisfying given my state of mind when I invented it.' MORE



Well done to my blogger buddy Lyndsay over at THE LITTLE READER LIBRARY who, along with Daisy (that's her bottom right) and some of her fellow villagers, has created a library/book exchange in their old village telephone box- Face Book



Tired of/worried about the sexist images gracing many of our sci-fi/fantasy books?


Then you may very well find THIS ARTICLE an interesting read. 

Featuring Jim Hines who, believing many sci-fi book covers objectify women, is 'aiming to zap gender stereotypes'. The article whilst making a very serious point shows the fantasy fiction author (above) straddling the remnants of a defeated alien species (a table), clasping a pistol (a toy gun) as he triumphantly raises a cyborg's head (a toaster) as well as in many other similar poses.

The thing I found most interesting though was THE HAWKEYE INITIATIVE which started in December 2012 swaps male and female characters in an attempt to challenge the portrayal of women in comics. The aim being that if   'Hawkeye' can replace the female character without "looking silly or stupid, then it's acceptable and probably non-sexist.




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17 comments:

Sandy M. said...

All so interesting Tracy, thank you! I particularly love the book sculpture, and the phone box library :)

Alyce said...

I love the idea of swapping genders to reveal the ridiculous sexism/objectification. I'm off to visit that one and see more.

Heather said...

A Picture paints a thousand words< but some authors should pay the professional for their cover and not the kid next door. Thanks for sharing these stories.

Karen said...

I loved Jim Hines post about sexism and book covers. Did you see the cover flips on Huffington Post a few weeks ago? Switching an authors sex to male and see what the cover would like instead. Fascinating.

That paper sculpting is amazing! I thought it was just a computer photo at first.

carol said...

I love the phone box library!

brandileigh2003 said...

Such a neat picture where it looks like the story is coming out of the book

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Oh more good stories. The phone booth/book area reminds me of The Little Free Library that is popping up. I do want to do one some year... :)

Kelly said...

Oh my! We have phonebox libraries here, too! In fact, I've already got them featured in a post I have coming up soon. (along with another cute little "library" I think you'll like)

I LOVE the paper sculptures!

Cherie Reich said...

Such cool information! And I've seen one of the Turning The Page works where a ship is being dragged down by a giant octopus (or squid). It's awesome!

Suko said...

Wonderful book bits here! Justin Rowe's book "carvings" or sculptures are incredible! I still need to "check out" The Hawkeye Initiative....

I hope you will stop by my blog as I ask a "geeky" question.

The Bookworm said...

The article on those sci-fi covers made me lol over the pics, but it's surely an interesting topic.
Great post!

Shooting Stars Mag said...

How fun! I'd love to see that exhibition- wow, such skill!

Love the phone booth turned into a bookcase for the town. I'd love that!!

And I think the idea of marking up books is amazing--I used to have auctions where authors marked up their books or other "famous" people marked up a fave book for charity. That's amazing it's being done on a huge level. I'd love the HP book if I was rich enough. haha

Blond Duck said...

I have a thing for rebellious country singers. :)

Kimberly @ Midnight Book Girl said...

I love the idea of having a book exchange in an old telephone booth. Cute and functional! The book art was pretty awesome too, though it pains me a bit to see the pages cut like that lol.

Lindsay said...

Thanks for the mention of the little library! Lindsay :)

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Tracy,

I checked out the bad book cover post and came up with one so bad, that I had a job to make out the author's name ...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uprising-Winged-ebook/dp/B00CPDVQXU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369241595&sr=8-1&keywords=uprising+l+m
Mind you, if you check out L.M. Pruitt, you will see that she obviously favours the anonymous approach and her favourite colour is definitely grey!!

I saw the piece about the book sculptures, aren't they just amazing? I really wish that I had enough skill and patience for such an intricate hobby, as it is I just seem to rush from one thing to another, without doing any of them particularly well!

We have loads of the telephone libraries in the surrounding villages, here in Somerset and just about every pub you go into has a bookshelf raising money for one charity or another. They say that people are moving away from physical copy, but all of these books have to start out somewhere!!

Great post,

Yvonne

Brian Joseph said...

Hi Petty - Thanks for stopping by my blog. I have been looking at yours. It is so very entertaining and lively but also really smart!

I really laughed when looking at the Lousy Book cover site. That Cimmy cover transcends badness so effectively it artistic.

I had never seen Rowe's work before. It is indeed amazing, so much so I suppose that we can forgive him for defacing a few books.