booktwo.org

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries is the website and nom de guerre of artists Young-Hae Chang and Marc Voge, based in Seoul, South Korea. Their art takes the form of text, usually parodying the manifesto or thesis form and accompanied by jazz soundtracks, delivered either as film, or, on the web, flash movies. You can watch the films on their website (the above is from Cunnilingus in North Korea, their most recent work is Morning of the Mongoloids, for Lisboa20).

The artists’ state their intentions with these web-based movies thus: “We try to break as…

Read the rest of this post →

A recent literary event provided a chance for an extended chat with various people about the possibilities for new types of readings. I’ve always thought they’re a bad way to appreciate lit, but they’re valuable in promoting new work, and bringing together like-minded people. What can we do about this?

3:AM Magazine, of which I am a co-editor as well as designer and site developer, today launched a new, Portuguese-language edition dedicated to writing, music and culture from Brazil: 3:AM Brasil.

I meant to write about 3:AM when we launched the redesigned site back in January, but didn’t get round to it. It’s a great example of a new kind of literary magazine, fully distributed (editors are based in the UK, France, the Czech Republic, the US, Canada and elsewhere), constantly updated and updatable, a Myspace sensation (with 3:AM Brasil hot on its heels), publishing new…

Read the rest of this post →

If things have been less busy around here for the last couple of weeks, there’s a reason: I’m moving on from my day job with the lovely Snowbooks, and pursuing other opportunities, with the consequent upheavals. Booktwo isn’t going anywhere though, and neither is Slow Fire – thanks to all who have signed up, and expect to see something in the next few weeks (I’m off to MiniCamp tonight, to see how they do things).

Apologies for the self-promotion, but one of the things I’ll be doing is this: STML Studio,� a design and marketing consultancy…

Read the rest of this post →

With new technology comes the need to rethink certain conventions. The above is clipped from a Macmillan ebook (link), and while I don’t wish to do anyone in particular down, and the technology is young, I think it speaks to a disparity in the understanding of ebooks: they are not simply paper books, scanned page by page and uploaded – or at least, they have the potential to be so much more.

Book piracy is no laughing matter, particularly in India, where it is estimated that US$36.5 million a year are lost by publishers (Source). With the advent of YouTube-like services such as Scribd, the problem is only going to grow.

However, I fear that these ads from an Indian bookseller are unlikely to have much effect, even with their very Indian appeal to respect the authors involved.

Ta, Mike.

The subject of reading from electronic screens is a matter of ongoing debate. Many claim people will simply never read off screens in the way that they read off paper now. Excepting e-ink-based paper, which promises to revolutionise our understanding of “the screen”, are there simple ways to improve our reading experience on the web?

Cycling to work today, I saw this advertised on the side of a bus: Bob Books. Bob Books allows you to create and order books using your own text and digital photos – the examples on the website heavily emphasise personal photo albums of the baby/wedding/holiday variety.

It’s a beautiful site and the downloadable software to create your own book looks and feels much the same – really intuitive and easy to use, even for novices.

It’s a fairly basic service actually, and it’s certainly no threat to traditional publishers or printers, or even to new POD services like…

Read the rest of this post →

I just received some rather wonderful news. As a direct result of my recent talk at the British Council, one of the international publishers who was present, Anuradha Roy of Permanent Black in India, has set up a blog to talk to the world about their books.

http://permanent-black.blogspot.com/

Publishers of the finest work on South Asia’s history, politics, culture, and ecology. Run by Rukun Advani and Anuradha Roy. Located in Delhi and Ranikhet, India. View our full catalogue at www.orientlongman.com. You’ll find lots more.

According to the Internet & Mobile Association of India (whose physical address is…

Read the rest of this post →

Something Twitterered, something new… Lots of interesting things come my way via other peoples’ Twitter streams, and this afternoon, via Tom Coates, I heard about Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger�s new book about “Digital Disorder” and “how we�re pulling ourselves together now that we�ve blown ourselves to bits.” Looks fascinating, and I’ll try and get my hands on a copy.

From the EIM blog, I imagine there will be some book-related stuff in there, not least that based on conversations about libraries and education and media literacy.

From a publisher’s point of view, the…

Read the rest of this post →