Month: June 2008

The linguist as Sybil

Sybil was the pseudonym of a woman whose story was told in a popular book and movie of the 1970s. She supposedly had sixteen distinct personalities. Now, studies…

Publishing payola

Want to bribe the New York Times Book Review into reviewing your book? If so, you’ll have to come up with something better than these examples of book…

Mid 20th century printing

Here’s a great video about how “men and girls” made books sixty or seventy years ago. About ten minutes in length. Highly recommended. Printing a Book, Old School…

2002 honest fonts

Why pay for fonts when you can get them free, right? This site features fonts that really stand out in a crowd. Honest! But sometimes honesty can be…

The key to being a writer

Zachart Kanin in the New Yorker .

Will Amazon take the place of traditional publishers?

That’s what Sramana Mitra, writing at Forbes magazine (last month), thinks. Mitra believes that publishers must be treating their authors very badly, because most authors make little money…

Merry Bloomsday

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How have new technologies affected book design and typography?

Caduceus asks that question at MetaFilter, and IndiaInk has started a thread in reply. There have, of course, been many effects. some good, others not so good. Caduceus…

Editorial cartoon of the week

By Nate Beeler

Found type: San Francisco Galvanizing

I like this Deco-ish typeface on a building at Harrison near 8th in San Francisco. Check out the low cross-bars, the tiny spur on the G, the bulbous…

OED goes electronic

According to the NYT Magazine (via Classical Bookworm), the next edition of the OED, planned for completion after 2018, will likely only be published electronically and not in…

This can’t be real

Can it? World’s dumbest website, via Wonkette. .

How does one become a book designer?

Several answers are offered in comments to a post on this topic at the Book Design Review. Many people suggest the “traditional” route of design school. The Book…

Seen at BEA

A few sightings from this year’s book publishing trade convention: Dan Halpern of Ecco Press among a group of people hoping to win Sex and the City tickets….

A loss for words

Literacy is addictive. Once you start reading you don’t go back. But what happens when you’re not allowed to read? I went to see an ophthalmologist about some…