I had no idea what a big deal this was. I still have no idea. I’m not nearly 30 (well, “nearly” is so relative. Isn’t it? I’m 1.5 times my daughter’s life span away from 30, so for her, that’s a long time).
But now I’m convinced.
Archives For Books
I love libraries and second hand bookshops. Especially old ones with creaky shelves. I love the smell of old books, and am delighted to have a new vocabulary to describe their smell thanks to this nice little video.
Via everywhere else, starting with Neatorama.
This looks like a sensational and world shaking book – How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servant
Its author, David Rees, is involved in a fascinating interview here (with the obligatory language warning), about the book, and its titular issue – the correct sharpening of pencils. He’s a pencil sharpening consultant – charging $15 per pencil.
“David Rees: Well, the whole point of the book was to try to defamiliarize pencil-sharpening as an activity, so that people would just approach it from square one again. One of the things I liked about starting the artisanal pencil sharpening business was that it made me think about pencils in greater depth than I probably ever had in my life. And the more I thought about them the more I appreciated them as really efficient, elegant tools. But sharpening pencils is always a little intimidating, especially with the single-blade pocket sharpener, where you might break the tip or you might not be satisfied with how it turns out. Frankly I think the book is meant to make sharpening pencils simultaneously less and more intimidating.”
TM: I think you did about the right amount of thinking. But the knowledge you’re laying down here is incredibly detailed and thorough. You think you might be in danger of putting yourself out of business?
DR: It’s not a worry. In fact, it’s the goal. I don’t want to do this forever. I wanted to just throw open the doors of my workshop and just share my secrets. Whenever an article gets written about my pencil sharpening business, there’s always someone who’s like “Fifteen dollars? I’ll do it for ten!” And I’m always like: “You know what? It’s a free market economy, knock yourself out. Let’s see what you got.” It’s enough for me to know that I’m first in field, as they say. I invented this industry, and I’m happy to share what I’ve learned, and hopefully empower people to sharpen their own pencils.
This isn’t necessarily indicative of release, it also includes stuff I discovered this year.
Best Music
Best Concert
Boy and Bear, supported by Jinja Safari was pretty amazing. But I can’t go past Gotye playing live at the Powerhouse in Brisbane. Sonic gold. The Whitlams playing with the Queensland Symphony was also pretty special.
Best Album
There were a few cracking releases this year. Gomez. Gotye. Radiohead. Jinja Safari. The Fleet Foxes. Boy and Bear. I’m going to give it to the Fleet Foxes by a whisker – but only because Gotye got best concert.
Best Film and TV
Best TV Series
Community. Hands down. Is probably my second or third favourite comedy series of all time. Up there with Black Books and Arrested Development.
Best Movie
In a year where the Transformers franchise stormed back to form with more alien robot carnage than you can poke a stick at, and when I caught the highly entertaining Scott Pilgrim vs the World, the best movie I saw, hands down, was Four Lions.
Best Books
Biography – Steve Jobs
Funny – The Brick Bible
Fiction – the Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire series.
2011 on St. Eutychus
My highlights:
- We welcomed a daughter
- I took on the ACL (1,2,3).
- I interviewed Guy Mason and Mike O’Connor about doing PR as a church.
- 50 iApps for your iThings
- The A-Z of Coffee
- My guide to Fork Criticism
Your Highlights
The ACL posts linked above did well, they were some of the most popular posts this year. Also ranking well:
Google’s Highlights
My Armchair Guide to Planking
Dance Like Thom Yorke T-Shirt
The Origins of a Fake Martin Luther King Quote
Instagram Web Profiles
Favourite Tags
Tumblrweed
Taxidermy
Stats
63,051 visitors made 87,160 visits and 119,111 page views.
Spineless Classics puts a whole book in a poster, makes a little negative space art, and sells them. I likes them a lot…
Alice in Wonderland
The Wizard of Oz
Genesis…
I love books. Physical books. I like reading on my kindle, and even more on my iPad. But the tactile experience of a book, and the visual thrill of a well-stocked set of shelves will keep me heading to second hand bookshops, the book depository, and whatever physical bookshop is still solvent after this year.
Turning books into lamps is now old hat. Well. I saw these ones a while ago. I meant to post them, but then I forgot. The light comes on when the book is opened.
There’s a how to, including a video, here.
I love these ones for the steampunk bulbs. I can’t imagine they’d be cheap to replace if you kicked a soccer ball, or a shoe, or some sort of miscellaneous projectile into it.
This one, from Suck UK is a lamp/bookmark combo.
And here’s another that has a little more spine… each lamp uses a single book.
But for something a little more classy, you could always have a crack at putting together a book chandelier (or just buy one for 440GBP).
If you want your kitchen to look like a stationery shop. And I mean. Who wouldn’t. Then you could start that ball rolling with this tea towel. I don’t know how you’d finish that ball rolling. But that’s not for me to decide. I’m not here to tell you how to run your life. Or decorate your kitchen.
The site is in German. And can I just say, for the record, that I think Google is doing its best to undo the work God did with the Tower of Babel. That’s actually the opening of a book I once started writing. That one day, if I give up writing on my blog, I might finish. But I doubt it.
Did you know I’ve nearly hit 5,000 posts here. If each post is longer than 150 words, on average, I’ve written more than a novel. That’s amazing. What’s also amazing is that this has nothing to do with note paper teatowels, except that if you printed the pages of my blog on note paper tea towels you’d have to use a lot of tea towels.
In case you were wondering – this is how to open a book. For the first time.
From Nathan W. Bingham. Probably the Christian blogosphere’s best Nathan. Seriously. Check him out.
I can’t take a book seriously if it uses Papyrus (the font – a cover made from papyrus would actually be classy) on its front cover. Sorry.
I’m less likely to take a book seriously if the banner ad on its web page features a guy smoking a cigar hugging what I presume are his daughters. Looking every bit the pimp.
I’ll take it even less seriously if it features the following chapters:
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Give a Flip Factor
Chapter 1. Strong Words for Weak Dads
Chapter 2. Teach Your Daughter How to Fight
Chapter 3. Teach Your Daughter How to Shoot Guns
Chapter 4. Teach Your Daughter How to Sense BS
Chapter 5. Teach Your Daughter How to Rebel
Chapter 6 . Teach Your Daughter How to be Classy
Chapter 7. Teach Your Daughter to be a Visionary
Chapter 8. Teach Your Daughter to Despise Anti-Intellectualism
Chapter 9. Teach Your Daughter How to Party
Chapter 10. Teach Your Daughter How to Hunt
Chapter 11. Teach Your Daughter How to Avoid the Date from Hell
Chapter 12. The Ten Commandments for My Daughter’s Potential Boyfriend
Chapter 13. An Application to Date My Daughter
Chapter 14. About My Dad: From the Author’s Daughters
We picked up a couple of new bookshelves on eBay over the holidays. So now we have space. Lots of space. For new books. Because, you know. New books are where it’s at. Although now I have Logos and the Kindle new books will be squarely in the “2nd hand purchases from garage sales” category, or the “huge donation of books to college” category.
Anyway. That’s neither here nor there. This is how to organise a bookshelf:
Via Kottke, I think. I was actually a little disappointed that this was really cool, and not at all a tutorial on how to organise your bookshelf.
I’m reading a book about fonts at the moment. A fairly long, and well written, entertaining book about fonts. It’s called Just My Type (Amazon)
And then mentioned that most fonts these days can be carefully examined using these two one word options:
Handgloves
or
Hamburgers.
Apparently all the rises, falls, and curves of the significant letters in a typeface can be tested in those two words. So there’s really no need for the fox after all.
Do we really need a section like this in our book shops? Really.
The only redeeming feature is that it segregates “them” from us.
Via Reddit.
The creators of Gumby, and later Jasper Fforde, had it right. Books are the closest we’re going to get to a portal in a long time I reckon. So these bookends seem fitting.
Because we’re currently childless I take great delight in teaching bad habits to other peoples’ children. I think I’ve found the perfect birthday present for such children. Lets face it, no sane parent is going to buy their child this book:
If a less appropriate book has ever been written, I’ve not seen it. Backwards Masking Unmasked included.
