The Adventures of a Village begins like many stories do—by setting the scene. In this case, a small cluster of snow-covered buildings are intersected by winding train tracks. That’s it. What happens next is a clever play on the old Choose Your Own Adventure books—but, instead of turning pages to read ahead, their corners are folded over like narrative origami to reveal visual plot points featuring everything from UFOs to hot air balloons.
     |
Digging through the archives of old libraries is a blast. Depending on the library, you’ll find everything from dated architectural drawings to snippets of old children’s books. You can just imagine the treasures to be found in the British Library’s ancient archive. And, now, you don’t even have to get your fingers dusty!
| |
At the end of each year, EFF puts together a list of some of the interesting and noteworthy books that have been published in the past 12 months or so. We don’t endorse all of their arguments, but we find they’ve added some valuable insight to the conversation around the areas and issues on which we work.
| |
2013 was another good year for books, those dry old lumps of paper and ink, so we’ve rounded up the year’s best in tech, science, design, architecture, urbanism, food, and more. We’ve also tapped our friends at Paleofuture and Edible Geography for their own lists, which appear below—and we hope to hear from all of you, as well.
| |
How neat is this? The folks at Faber & Faber, an independent publishing house in London since 1929, recently found a forgotten hand press in their archives. As it turns out, the half-century-old machine was used by the firm’s most famous designer, Berthold Wolpe: they’ve since refurbished the relic, which is going to be back in action producing limited edition broadsides and paper goodness for a brand new imprint.
| |
In the US, when Google began its plan to digitize a huge number of books with its massive scanning program, authors in the US filed suit and mired the program in legal proceedings for a long time. While book digitizing in the US in uncertain at this point, the country of Norway is set to […]
You remember that fateful Thanksgiving many years ago, don’t you? The whole family was over and your cousin was playing with your beloved Game Boy—until you heard the crash. Despite being in another room, you instantly recognized the sound. It was your Game Boy falling to its death. Technically, it still worked, but there were all those lines missing on the screen, and as far as you were concerned, your childhood friend was no more. You’ve never been able to express those feelings of loss, either. But now you can finally put them down on paper inside this lovely Game Boy-inspired notebook.
| |
If you’re filthy rich and happen to have a huge expansive library in your very own home, then you might have some use for this reading net. Otherwise, all you can do is stare at it longingly like the rest of us. Because while the net itself probably isn’t expensive, what’s the use if you don’t have a library to hang it in and complete the concept?
As you can see, the reading net is exactly what its name implies it is: it’s a net where kids can lie on while they do some reading. What makes it extra special is the fact that it’s meant to be hung over the first floor of the library.
[The Reading Net is] a meshed fabric suspended from the architecture of a family library, that acts as a second-level reading range. the hanging web is tautly attached to the railings of a lofted path, and — as both children and adults climb onto the woven expanse — they can both lounge and learn on the buoyant surface.
The reading net was designed by Playoffice.
[via Boing Boing via designboom via Geekologie]
Later today, you’ll be full of turkey and bored with talking to your family. Fact. So why not settle down with a nice story? In fact, how about these three unpublished works by JD Salinger, that have just been leaked online?
| |
Braille was invented by a nineteenth century man named Louis Braille, who was completely blind.
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
