Stacked Books, Deux

Nina Katchadourian, Shark Journal

I love book art, so I was super excited to find American mixed media artist Nina Katchadourian’s The Sorted Books Project. She goes to collections of both private and public libraries, browses the titles, and pulls a set of books down and arranges them so they can be read in order, top to bottom.

In her own words, Nina writes:

Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library’s focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies.

The project began in 1993, and yes, it runs along similar lines as Jane Mount’s Ideal Bookshelves series. I have no idea when Jane Mount began her project (I think after). Sorted Books focuses primarily on the titles, while the Ideal Bookshelves emphasize the art of the book spine.

Nina Katchadourian, Shark Journal

See: The Sorted Books Project

Covering Up Books

This came to me through my Google Reader, which I find myself relying on more and more each day. Graphics designer and illustrator Icoeye has come up with some brightly colored book jacket and matching bookmark designs as a way to “expand a book’s space.”

His concepts/illustrations are clean and straightforward, and cute in a clever way. Simply put, they’re literal and fun. I love them, especially the Sherlock Holme’s and pipe bookmark set.

On the subject of book jackets, it breaks into two directions for me. I like book jackets, but only passingly because the truth is, they don’t actually register for me. Other than a few notable ones (whoever does the covers for Andrew Clements books, and Roald Dahl’s), they’re not something I dwell on, or remember, unless they’re hideously ugly. By “ugly” I mean, the cover makes me depressed/uncomfortable/induces eye rolling.

(Incidentally, I do not like the Twilight series covers, and it is very unfortunate that many YA novels since have followed the trend of some ambiguous object drifting aimlessly/languishing on a black background.)

(Actually, there is one book illustrator I know of. John Howe did the covers for Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, which I am only aware of because a good friend insisted on that I buy the series with the Howe covers.)

On the other hand, I like the idea of having some uniformity with books; it appeals to the part of me that regularly feels compelled to launch week-long cleaning blitzes. Plus, it would be a way of getting rid of the unattractive book covers.

See: the rest of the collection!
See Also: Faceout Books

You Can Sign This Book

I love getting (okay, and giving) books as gifts, and I always make people sign the inside cover or first page as a sort of card, to kind of commemorate the occasion of me getting a new book. There’s always a reason why someone chose to get that particular book, so the inscribed messages have the double function of telling me who gave it, and why. And the why is what I really love about it. Sometimes it’s an inside joke, other times it’s just the sharing of something that was meaningful to the book-giver – the gift of a new bonding experience.

Top 5 Favorite Dedications/Autographs, in no particular order: