November is National Novel Writing Month; or NaNoWriMo, for those in the know. Now in its 14th year, NoNoWriMo originated to encourage creative writing "from anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel" according to their website. The goal is to complete 50,000 words or less in 30 days. Rob Bowker of the entertaining Typewriter Heaven blog in the UK, recently checked in from the Typosphere to send me his own surrogate version inspired by this annual event. He created his first NaNo typewritten book (NaNoTyBo?), The Micro-Book Typed, and completed it by the 4th of November.
Typing on a 1950s Olivetti Lexikon at 12 characters per inch leaves little room for a wordy text, so Bowker wisely chose to just write a DIY textbook of sorts, on how to type a 16-page book using only a single sheet of paper. Written in concise language, he answers the questions of Why and How to go about typing a small book on a typewriter. Bowker, who frequently types blog posts on one of his many typewriters, also provides helpful hints on formatting monospaced text and creating illustrations using characters, pattern and texture. The Micro-Book Typed is currently available from Issuuas a free downloadable PDF ready to print, fold, stitch and trim. Bowker suggests more of his typewritten chapbooks, possibly with spreads and even illustrations, may be in the pipeline soon.
In more recent posts, Bowker offers a number of other downloadable PDFs of some fun DIY typewriter "Graphikubes" from his personal collection. As an added bonus, he also suggests a beer-of-the-day in many of his frequent posts—though not certain if he advocates drinking while typing however.
This gif was made by Ryan (Magic Margin) Adney within an hour after Bowker originally posted his first typewritten micro-book.
I'm rather intrigued by the ice book projects of Basia Irland who is an environmental artist concerned with river and watershed restoration. She works with research biologists, botanists, stream ecologists and community groups on various conservation projects to promote healthy watersheds. As part of her river restoration projects, she works with participants to hand carve ice books of frozen river water and embeds each with local native seeds which become sort of an "ecological language or riparian text" as she calls it. As the frozen books are launched downstream, the ice melts in the river's current and the seeds are released. Theoretically the seeds will grow into plants and trees which help to stabilize the river banks and provide shelter for fish and wildlife. I imagine this could happen, but it seems rather overly simplistic to me. I do appreciate the concept however and think her ephemeral books are beautiful. They promote an awareness of watershed preservation and restoration, and oh yeah, it must be really fun to watch ice books float downstream. You can watch a video of Irland's ice book project Receding/Reseedinghere.
This ice book weighed 200 pounds and included seeds of the mountain maple, columbine, and spruce. It was released in Boulder Creek, Colorado in 2007.
A young ice book reader wonders why there are no pictures.
Irland makes other materials in the construction of her environmental books. The one above is Barnacle Book II on the shores of Puget Sound in Washington state. Below is a text of sand dollars in what else, but sand.
The Book of Drought is made from parched field notes and dehydrated paragraphs. The pages are dry from being sun-baked.
In the future, reading a book may not be such a linear experience and there is no doubt, there is an evolution going on. Or maybe it is a revolution as the debate between books and eBooks continues. The verb to read is taking on a new context as well. The dictionary now defines reading as comprehending the meaning of printed material and interpreting the characters and symbols of which it is composed. It is what you are doing now. Doh! However it can also be a conversation or debate–as IDEO explores their notions of books with us here–and it can be a series of hyperlinks that whisk us away on an entirely new adventure. It should be called readertainment as it makes reading fun, much like a video game or movie. And it certainly invites non-readers to the party too. But these frequent hyperlinks can also be really annoying and inhibit our imagination as it disrupts the reading process. As a reader, what are your thoughts? The last word has not been said on this topic, nor will it ever be. I personally believe there is room for both linear and non-linear reading–analog books and the digital–and the common goal is to make it a pleasant and rewarding experience. Just practice good typographic hygiene and mind your Ps & Qs.
Your first assignment is to order these two required textbooks: The first is Book Typography, A Designer's Manual by Mitchell & Wightman, Libanus Press, 2005. It can be ordered from Amazon or Oak Knoll Books for $69.95. This book is a practical guide to typography and explains the principles of good design, why they exist and when to put them into practice. It is an essential text for any print designer who wishes to create professional grade page layouts.
This second book, InDesign Type, by Nigel French, and published by Adobe Press in 2006, focuses on InDesign's sophisticated typographic controls and formatting features. It does a great job on explaining many of the time-honored typographic conventions of magazine and book publishing. Although it is written specifically for CS2, the majority of the techniques are applicable to later CS versions. This book holds up very well over time.
