forgetgutenberg

It has a certain old-school charm.

With some color.

For some reason, when I ordered, I didn’t really expect blue raspberry. Oh, that lime green – it’s like spring in a glass, with a whole lot of extra sugar.

1. I’m thrilled that the one-sheet folded book is finally hitting the big time. Or at least tor.com – the Idiots’Books one-page-wonders – which, ok, I haven’t actually printed out. But the concept is sound, and honestly just awesome. I’m not sure it matters how good the execution is right now.

eta: Now that I’ve had a chance to print them out and look at them… they’re ridiculously clever. Nigh virtuosic, even. I’m not completely sold on them, but … nah, they’re rad. Ok, my problem is that they might be just a little too clever – too much attention paid to the fact that they’re readable in basically any direction, and not quite enough to the cohesion of the whole thing. Then again, there’s basically nothing to lose with something like this, and they definitely have enough going for them to be worth the printing.

2. I am, as a result, just a little crabby with myself, since that was … kind of the best idea I had out of book arts. And it would be nice to have access to a press and do a series of nifty letterpress one-sheet books. I mean, I ought to just get over myself and do something with the tools I have. (For one thing, I’ve got so much stuff I could make books out of it’s a wonder I can find anything else…)

3. The idea of book vending machines – specifically the Espresso Book Machine – is really cool. It makes me nervous for two reasons: design and copyright. I think it will encourage shitty design, and I loathe badly designed books (you know, as someone who has been known to judge books by their covers professionally). Typography is fucking important. Can we please not lose sight of that? The copyright thing is a lot thornier, but my gut feeling is that the EBM has too much potential to encourage the trend towards abusive copyright (both anti-creator and anti-remixer).

Now, there are good reasons for it – it is certainly greener than our current practice. Cutting down on transportation, and practically speaking eliminating pulping, makes a great deal of sense. Making the backlist available on demand (um, hey, Warner Brothers? That archive thing? Awesome.) just warms the cockles of my heart …

But. It’s books as trash again. It encourages the disposability thing I may have already mentioned. At that point (if it’s a disposable thing), why not just make it digital? That way it’s not taking up any space at all, and throwing it away doesn’t have the same kind of environmental impact?

Well, then, let’s step away from the “green” arguments. I think they’re questionable anyway.

What’s left?

The possibility of everything remaining in print. Neat.

The possibility of low-risk publishing, such that even books with a small market might get their moment. Pretty cool. (There are problems with that statement.)

Broader selection at bookstores (assuming we can get this into individual businesses and not only large, well-endowed libraries), without taking up more space. Potentially fantastic.

So let’s talk about how to make the design problem not a problem. Well, first off, have actual people go through and do the pdfs (or whatever). Preferably actual people who know design, and who will do it in a way that scales well. Where that’s possible, anyway. That helps. Keep the cover printing simple. I’m going to think about this more. It might not be as much of a problem, as long as someone remembers to think about it, as I originally thought.

The trash problem? Well, make sure they’re using recycled paper and usefully degradable inks. Is it possible to make a glued book fully recyclable? If it is, provide a way to easily recycle discarded books.

And then, possibly, look in an entirely different direction for books that stand as objects. Get interested artists/artisans together to make precious books – and I think there are a lot of ways to make this work.

Of course, I think there are still a lot of ways to make the disposable book more precious – and in some ways, that one sheet book format way up there at the top might be one of my favorites …

4. I would like to come up with a project that would work through this – get writers and artists together to do a series of single-sheet books. In fancy materials, or free to download … one of a kind, or in huge editions…

I know nothing about it.

Which actually is shockingly difficult to capture with this camera.

There are crocuses, and some of them are even in my neighborhood. Also, the combination of purple and yellow is just … fantastic. (So this morning, I dyed my hands yellow accidentally. With fiber. I should have a little conversation about mordants with the person responsible. It’s all right, though – I’m going to have yellow and purple yarn. Once I get motivated to fix this one bit of string, so my wheel functions again.)

Either way, it’s a sure sign of spring when the pigeons and the little brown jobs mob you for quiche crumbs. (It was a little too cold to eat outside today, but sometimes you’ve got to ignore those little details.)