Category Archives: Book Talk

The Most Beautiful Book in the World

This upcoming Friday, Irma Boom will accept the award for “The Most Beautiful Book in the World” at the Lepzig Book Fair. It’s for Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor, that Boom designed last year.

Here is a fantastic article that ran this weekend about Boom and her work. I want to call Boom up and find out exactly, word for word, what she says to convince publishers to go these “unorthodox” routes. Because I fail miserably every time I try.

Maybe forwarding that article to every publisher I have ever worked for would be a goo dfirst step… What publisher wouldn’t want to be known for having “The Most Beautiful Book in the World”?

The Blookers

Lulu.com has announced this year’s shortlist. Fifteen books total. Six fiction, six nonfiction and three comics titles. I didn’t know that web-comic sites were eligible. I’m going to have to pick up a copy of a Lulu book someday to see if they really are just as good as books vetted by publishing pros. Though the panel of judges this year seem to know a lot about content and power blogging.

I guess I’ve just been brainwashed, but I really do like knowing that someone has edited and thoughtfully published the book I’m considering buying and not just formatted a bunch of ramblings. But then I haven’t read one, so I could be way off base. We’ll just have to see who wins this year.

War and New Piece

Every year, Tolstoy’s War and Peace makes it as one of the top-ten best novels every written. So what does publisher Harper Collins want to do to honor this distinction? Put the 1500 page classic on a diet and change the ending, of course!

That’s right, the new edition coming out this year will be half as long and characters who were previously killed will live and others that lived will die. Why?

Harper Collins says…

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