To Be a Bookmark or Not to Be a Bookmark? That is the Question.

Technology can do some pretty crazy things. It can allow you to see a friend who lives halfway across the world. It can transform your spoken words to written text. It can help you park your car. It can even print an entire book onto a single bookmark.

The aptly named Hamlet Bookmark is  According to Tim Maly over at WIRED.com, this brainchild of cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and illustrator Katie Sekelsky (inspired by a t-shirt, no less!) uses new technology to remake an old practice:

The Hamlet Bookmark

Isn’t technology wonderful? There was a time when printing text meant painstakingly assembling words letter by letter. Type foundries were so named because they literally forged fonts in steel, and for print shops, offering a new font meant incurring a major capital expense.

Thanks to advances in printing technology, artists and designers have the flexibility to create printed works of exceptional variety and detail, enabling an explosion in craft and quality that opens up new horizons of printed expression. Like making a bookmark that is also a book.

Conceived by cartoonist Zach Weinersmith in collaboration with designer Katie Sekelsky, the Hamlet Bookmark is the physical instantiation of a joke. “We had a shirt/joke that went ‘I’m so bookish, my bookmarks are smaller books,’” says Weinersmith, “These are sort of a realization of that idea.”

In deciding to actually make a bookmark that is also a book, Weinersmith and Sekelsky turned a joke into a design brief. They needed “something that was (a) a classic, (b) short enough to fit on a bookmark, and (c) contained a succinct memorable quote,” says Weinersmith. “Hamlet fit the bill nicely.”

“It came together pretty easily,” says Sekelsky, “It was more just a matter of finding a font that is at least recognizable as text when printed so small.” Sekelsky says the biggest problem was hardware-related. She created the bookmarks on an older computer, with inadequate RAM. “The ‘hardest’ part (i.e., ‘the boring part’) was just waiting for all of the text to re-render every time I made an adjustment to the type.”

At the risk of over-thinking the project entirely, there’s something very cool about seeing the collision of two kinds of book technology. The first books were scrolls (a tradition carried on today in sacred texts like the Torah); in time, the codex supplanted the scroll to the point that most people think of books as being synonymous with bound pages. With the Hamlet Bookmark, a scroll is relegated to being asked to mark your place in the codex.

Ironically, the same digital tech that made the Hamlet Bookmark possible is changing our conception of books again, as we watch texts become transmogrified into variably formatted e-books and scrolling webpages.

For you font junkies, the duo used 1.29pt Hoefler Text. At 1.29pt, Weinersmith says, you can make out names like Bernardo and Hamlet with the naked eye and read the whole thing with a 10x magnifying glass.

“Our assumption is that people are doing this for the charm of having the whole thing right there, rather than for convenience.”

Read the original post HERE

Pretty cool, if you ask me. Though I'm not entirely convinced that the entire text of Hamlet is on there--seems impossible! 

But I guess that's the thing about technology...

A Little Personal News on This Wednesday Afternoon

Hi, all. So, I made an announcement today over at the Book Country blog that I wanted to share with you. I've been keeping it under wraps for a while for a variety of reasons but on April 6th I'll be stepping down as Book Country's editorial coordinator and moving into a new position on the 9th as the QA Specialist for Penguin's tech team.

It's a big change for me (and we all know how well I deal with that haha) but I think it will be a good one. Give me more structure, shift my life a bit so I can spend more energy on my own writing and freelance work, etc. And it's always fun to learn something new and be a part of exciting new projects. I won't lie though--it is very hard for me to step away from the community I so love and believe in. There are such wonderful people and promising writers that make up Book Country. I plan to stay a part of it as much as I can though, participating on my own as a writer and editor as well as continuing as an official moderator.

Anyway, take a look at the post and you will also meet the new Book Country assistant, Nevena Georgieva, who is totally amazing and will be a great member of the team!

GO HERE NOW

NY Public Libraries Head Toward the Future

A disturbing number of people view libraries as a thing of the past. But in New York City, there is certainly nothing archaic about their libraries' new book sorting technique.

Unveiled about two months ago, a robotic librarian of sorts found its way into the library system, according to The New York Times:

A couple of years ago Salvatore Magaddino, who oversees the distribution of materials for the New York Public Library, complained at a meeting that he was having trouble recruiting book sorters, the people responsible for sorting the millions of books sent each year from one branch library to another.

“It was a mundane, boring job,” Mr. Magaddino said the other day, standing next to a result of that complaint, a gigantic new automated book sorter housed in a renovated warehouse in Long Island City, Queens. This machine — believed to be the largest of its kind — has eliminated much of the drudgery since it was turned on two months ago. Now, when a library visitor anywhere in the system requests a book located at another branch, the automated sorter does the work of routing it.

Here is how it works: On one side of the machine, which is two-thirds the length of a football field and encircled by a conveyor belt, staff members place each book face-down on a separate panel of the belt. The book passes under a laser scanner, which reads the bar code on the back cover, and the sorter communicates with the library’s central computer system to determine where the book should be headed. Then, as the conveyor belt moves along, it drops the book into one of 132 bins, each associated with a branch library. It’s sort of like a baggage carousel that knows which bag is yours and deposits it at your feet.

Read the entire article HERE

and

watch it in action HERE

While I don't like to see machines taking the place of humans (and stealing our jobs!), I can understand why this particular technique was conceived. I've volunteered in a library and worked in a video store for six years--sorting can be tedious and boooooring. Plus, I'm sure the machine increases production speed by the boatload, which is never a good thing unless it affects accuracy.

Still, I must admit, this conveyor belt spin-off makes me sad. Somehow a machine of this magnitude takes the charm out of it all. Libraries remind me of friendlier, more interactive times, and this is just one more thing that takes us further and further from that state of mind.

Guest Blogger, LG: Trend Alert--A New Way Cover It Up

Have you ever found yourself caught in the middle of an argument where one person adamantly claims that publishing is a dying industry, waving a Kindle or e-Reader in the air, while the other screams in horror and clutches his or her physical book tightly?

Oh, you haven’t? Lucky you.

But those of us who love our books--and can’t live without our technology--don’t have to be caught in the middle anymore!

BookBook has created the ultimate technology- and book-lover’s computer cover. It’s a practical and quirkily-stylish way to protect your beloved MacBook in the style of a rare leather-bound hard back book. It would also look pretty good on your shelves next to your other books—especially if you’re at risk for being burglarized. (I kid, I kid.) They’re pricey at $79.99, but they’re also hand-made and the website claims, “No two are alike.” Pretty dang cool.

Now if only they’d make these for e-Readers!

The BookBook is made for 13- and 15-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro. Keep your eyes on this small start-up company. They’re sure to be coming up with some great ideas in the near future.

Check out the BookBook HERE

About the blogger: LG is a 20-something writer and blogger from Alaska currently living in New York City. She works in publishing and television production to pay the bills, but continues to write, read, and study pop culture and technology trends to her heart's content in her free time. Visit her blog, "Big Girl, Bigger City" to read about her daily misadventures.

Thanks for joining us at Reading Between the Lines, LG!

If you or anyone you know would like to guest blog for RBtL, please inquire via e-mail.

E-paper? Huh? I'm confused.

With healthy debate continuting in regards to books versus e-books, I thought we had enough to discuss. Then the Vook appeared. And now, it seems there's another contender joining the fight: e-paper.

TG Daily announced today that AU Optronics is using something called "flexible e-paper" to create a new (and apparently, larger) surface on which to read.

AU Optronics (AUO) has announced a 20-inch e-paper module - the world's largest,
it says - and has launched its six-inch and nine-inch flexible e-paper displays.

The 20-inch EPD (Electrophoretic Display) module is aimed at public information display applications because of its ability to eliminate backlight. It features power consumption of less than 2W as well as 16 gray level capabilities.

The company has also launched six-inch & nine-inch touch function built-in e-book displays. With in-cell touch functions and embedded single chip solution, the nine-inch e-book display provides a 1024 x 768 screen. AUO is also launching two-piece six-inch e-book with a foldable design to make it a bit more like a real book.

Read more about "e-paper" HERE

Exectuives at AUO seem to think e-paper is the next big thing. The senior VP and GM of AUO's Consumer Product Display Business Group, Dr. CT Liu says that "mass production of the flexible e-paper will drive the next wave of the reading revolution."

I just don't see this working. People who are part of the e-book movement don't care, and people who are more old-school (like moi) still don't want an e-book, even if they can bend the screen. It seems like a colassel waste of time, energy, and resources to me.

I guess we'll see just how long e-paper lasts, if it even ever takes off.

Let the games begin...

Them: "Save a tree, Read (and watch) a Vook!", Me: Umm, NO

Simon and Schuster announced this morning that, together with Atria Books, they've created a "new and innovative way to read"--the Vook.

A file that combines text and video to create a single story, vooks are meant to be played either on your computer or handheld device, such as an iPhone or iPod Touch. The S&S press release tells us more:

NEW YORK, NY and EMERYVILLE, CA, October 1, 2009 — Beginning today, people can enjoy an entirely new and innovative way to read. The vook blends text and video into a single, integrated and uninterrupted reading and viewing experience, enabling readers to seamlessly read, watch, and enjoy both text and video at the same location on their screen. A state-of-the-art advancement in digital book technology, a vook uses high-quality, professionally produced video to add depth to the practical information offered by nonfiction in a way that static pictures or illustrations could not previously accomplish. For fiction, vooks use text and video interdependently to advance the plot and enhance the sense of place.

Four vooks are being published today by Atria Books as part of a partnership between Simon & Schuster, Inc., and Vook, who jointly announced today’s news. The inaugural vook titles are available in two formats: standalone mobile applications for the iPhone and iPod touch (at the Apple App Store), or as Web browser based editions (www.simonandschuster.com/aboutvook, and http://www.vook.com/).

Vooks, hmmm. I thought about this for a little bit before starting this post. I even watched the "What is a vook" video on the S&S website. And I've come to a conclusion: they aren't doing anything for me. Not only because of the love you all know I have for the book as a physical object, but because this idea is not nearly as innovative as S&S seems to think. Sure, it's never been done when it comes to books and it is a new way to "experience" a book, but all I think when I see this is A) instructional video, B) film with subtitles.

People don't want to watch books; they want to read books. If a visual experience is what someone wants, they'll rent a movie or watch TV or even a film adaptation if it's the story they're interested in. Or hell, if you want pictures, get a picture book! But novels being "read" by watching them like subtitles on a television screen? No, thanks.

It makes me so sad to think that everyone is trying so hard to move books into "the future," when books are just fine just the way they are. Sure, e-books are handy for some people, and that's fine. I've made my peace with that. But books in all their tangibility don't need to be improved.

Some say the first book ever written goes all the way back to the Sumerians with their cunieform writing in 2095 B.C. Others say it was Herodotus's "History" in 5th century B.C. The list goes on, all including that little "B.C." While, yes, we have created new technologies in terms of type of material, binding and paper treatments, covers and trim sizes, since those recordings, the core concept of the book has remained the same. Words somehow enscripted on a physical object to be read by others. It's a solid concept, a perennial concept. I understand the need, of course, for electronic archiving techniques, as physical objects do eventually wear away. But why muddy the classic, timeless nature of the book, and the experience of reading, by throwing every new technology into the mix to make a vook?

I don't get it. I don't want to get it. I want my books back please.