Thanks to everybody who came out to last night’s discussion of Melanie Benjamin’s Alice I Have Been. While not a crowd-pleaser, the novel generated some interesting discussion about the roles and responsibilities of authors and readers of historical fiction.
For many of us, our curiosity about Charles Dodgson, Alice Liddell, and the Victorian era was piqued. For some suggestions for further fiction and nonfiction reading, Read more
The internet’s atwitter–Britannica is stopping the presses after 244 years of bound volumes. Moving to an online only format, a Britannica spokesperson said, is less a response to Wikipedia and more a reflection of Britannica’s emphasis on their own digital resources.
Printed, general encyclopedias, according to a number of experts quoted in the NY Times, no longer have a place on most bookshelves, which places them firmly on the outmoded technology shelf. Will printed encyclopedias have the vintage cache of vinyl, or will they wither away next to neighbors like the Rolodex, 8-track tapes, and Betamax?
Does the decision leave you nostalgic for your school days…waiting for your classmate to relinquish volume 9? that time you said you were going to start at Aardvark and work your way to the index and got as far as Aerial before you got distracted?
Let’s observe a moment of silence for the demise of Britannica, and then share your reactions and memories in the comments.
AIGA’s annual selections for book and book cover design are currently on display at the AIGA National Design Center in New York. Visiting the exhibit between now and the end of April might be tricky, but you view the jury’s selections and participate in the interactive elements of the exhibit online.
View the best covers from 2010 online at the AIGA Design Archives, where you can also find other stellar examples of design from past years and other industries.
At http://www.whatthebook.org/ you can add your opinions to the virtual shelf and share your definition of the book.