George

There's an excerpt from Andrew Piper's "Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times" on Slate that trumpets the tactile advantages of p-books, positing that "E-reading isn't reading." 

Quoth Piper: "For Augustine, the book’s closedness—that it could be grasped as a totality—was integral to its success in generating transformative reading experiences. Its closedness was the condition of the reader’s conversion. Digital texts, by contrast, are radically open in their networked form. They are marked by a very weak sense of closure."

Aristotle, Braille, Delacroix and our favorite, El Lissitzky, also pop in.

—Brian Howard

Science fiction in literature and movies has a long history and dates way back. The great Polish writer Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) wrote the 1961 sci-fi novel ”Solaris” that was later turned into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and again in 2002 in a new Hollywood remake by Steven Soderbergh, starring George [...]

Viacom Inc. rang in the New Year with the announcement that it officially completed its division into two publicly traded entities—CBS Corp. and “New” Viacom Inc.—plans for which the company had announced in June 2005. Simon & Schuster, the company’s publishing arm and an international publisher of books and multimedia products that publishes some 2,000 titles annually, is now a property of CBS Corp., along with CBS Television Network, UPN, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, Viacom Television Stations Group, Paramount Television, King World, Showtime and Paramount Parks. New Viacom will own MTV Networks (which includes Nickelodeon, VH1, Country Music Television and TV Land, among others),

There's a reason one of the world's most popular maxims is, "never judge a book by its cover." That's because everybody judges a book by its cover. Traditional or fancy, plain or electric, simple or three-dimensional, a cover says a lot about the text inside, and the imprint (and printers) behind it. Last issue's cover story on how publishers are using eye-catching covers to boost sales and improve positioning on retailer's shelves was an instant hit with readers, because publishers know that great covers sell great books. That's why they design them to stand out and be judged. The high level of enthusiasm for

The numbers tell the story. There are 145,000 book titles vying for attention on bookseller's shelves. That's up a mere 3% over last year, according to market researcher R. R. Bowker, with little prospect for growth in this stalled economy. Book publishers have limited options to capture the attention of buyers. One tactic is increasingly popular: a striking cover. Vivid colors, metallic foil and inks, ultraviolet-cured compounds, 3D holograms, lenticular motion graphics—all are techniques finding favor with book designers and marketers. Intended to grab the eye or titillate the touch, these design techniques stand out, attracting readers to the detriment of lesser-styled competing

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