Tag Archives: books

Book Reviews, Book Talk

“Screen People” by Megan Garber

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I finished this Megan Garber’s Screen People last night and wanted to type up a quick review.

Screen People cover

If you know the names Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman then you can probably skip this one. If you don’t recognize those names then the first couple of chapters of Garber’s “Screen People” will feel like fresh air to you (and then skip to the last few).

The chapters of the book are named after parts of a tv show or movie and the metaphor doesn’t really carry through, the middle, very well. While I 100% agree with what the book asserts (tech issues, Trump, toxicity, media diets, etc.) it just lacked some clarity and AN INDEX, PLEASE! That was my biggest gripe – for all this effort and event citations and science paper quoting – we needed an index and bibliography. I did lots of underlining and I’m already on board with where Garber is writing from. I just want to be able to look up these bills, hearings, books, news events, and science papers to do more digging.

Screen People TOC

All the usual suspected are here with the politics, miopic tech leaders, QANON, etc. and Garber does a good job early on showing how our current networks and technology enable and help all those bad actors.

“Social media is a mini narcissism engine.”
“Americans often talk about ‘the algorithms’ in the same rough ways that ancient people used to describe their gods…”

Screen People mentions lots of bad things right alongside the word “platforms”, but never connects the dots & doesn’t offer much in the way of solutions either. I am bumping it up to a 3/5 because I absolutely agree with the subtitle How We Entertained Ourselves into a State of Emergency. That is indeed spot on. 

Book Art, library

Moving Book Art

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Check out this super-short promo video for a new book art installation over in England:

Isn’t that cool? I’m always impressed with what artists make of books. But the way this book art (which they’re calling Book Hive) interacts with the viewer is pretty impressive.  The way the books flap open and closed reminds me of all the flying and flapping books in William Joyce’s The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Which is a good thing.

Morris Lessmore as book art

The book art installation was put in place to bring attention to the 400 years of service that the Bristol libraries have been open over in England. Amazing. Both the Book Hive wall and the centuries of librarians doing their thing.

Book Talk, Events

Book Events: Jan. 5th – Jan. 12th

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Who knows what the new year holds for the Birmingham-area and book events. Lots of author signings and book launches popping up on calendars on into Spring. But what is there to do this upcoming week for all the Birmingham’s bookish folk?

Here are three events that you may be interested in:

January 9th 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. – the Bessemer library will host author Julie Williams as she leads a discussion on her book Wings of Opportunity: the Wright Brothers in Montgomery, AL, about the Wright brothers opening the first civilian flight school in Alabama.

January 9th at 6:30 p.m. – the Church & Oak book club will have its first meeting of 2014. They meet in the upstairs room at Church Street Books & Coffee. They are reading The People of Forever Are Not Afraid.

 January 12th at 2:30 p.m. – the Avondale library kicks off its Adaptations group with a screening party for The Hobbit followed by a discussion comparing the J.R.R. Tolkien’s books with the movie.

Book Column, Bookshelf, Gifts for Book Lovers

Falling Books Bookend

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If you are going to fall for a novel bookend at least make it humorous. And this one certainly floats to the top of all the choices on the interwebs and would be a great gift for book lovers.

Falling Book Bookend

It’s aptly called “The End” and features a little bookworm about to get squashed by the tilting titles.  It’s just under 4.5″ tall so don’t expect to hold too many books with this (or even one big book). But it will certainly be a great talking piece as friends peruse you shelves.

The price is all over the place, but averages around $15 as it’s listed here on the Mental Floss site.

Do chime in if you have found any clever bookends that top this one!