My friend Deshan once said if books are on the way out, they may as well go out like dinosaurs. Awesome, magnificent carcasses for rats. Maybe so. Above is a die-cut image from a new book by Jonathan Foer. Tree Of Codes is a cut-up book, meaning he’s sampled words from an old story to make a new one. In this case, however, the book is actually cut-up. It’s a story about a last day of life, doing one of the few things a three dimensional book can do that a Kindle can’t. Look like a sculpture. Then, below, is a video of how ink is made. Almost all printed matter is made with a color wheel not of Red, Green and Blue but Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK). The K is black for some reason, kalu?
It’s an interesting process, but the quality of filmmaking here is what makes it amazing. I recommend watching it in the full available 1080 High Definition resolution, an option you can select at the right of the YouTube bar. It’s beautiful coverage of a beautiful process that screens make irrelevant.
A few years ago we started a paint factory in China (which went bust ) but I loved the manufacturing process, which was not much different from above, in a smaller scale.
I still buy books! even if I have them on my iPad.
Books are anything but on their way out. They may, however, be on their way out in the form we know them best (on paper). Kindle and iBooks sales are through the roof, as I’m sure are many other e-book services. Not to mention those who use stuff like the Gutenburg (sp?) project.
You can take a three dimentional book to bed and fall asleep reading it, or the garden, or a couch, or a tub or a train, or anywhere …… and not worry about batteries and stuff. You can wrap it up and gift it. You can come across them somewhere and just seeing the cover be reminded of nice things or sad things or funny things, or whatever. You can arrange them artistically on a shelf or a ledge or a coffeetable or anywhere, or line up the nicely bound ones so the colouful spines look grand. You can pencil in things on the margins for others reading them later to find. I like them in their present form.
regular books are great, but the kindle format works better for me. the battery lasts a month, i can get new books instantly (difficult in sl) and if i move i have no heavy boxes of content
I have an ipad knock off which i use to read stuff in pdf format. the cheapest and most effective way to go
This set up has cost me less that 15000 rupees. Although I don’t get the one month battery life.
Technogeeks, bah!
Having nearly new hardly used grey matter that requires minimal stimulation, I can be perfectly happy reading labels off bottles in the absence of anything new, but admit books require space and dusting.