While the primary use of books is to store and disburse the knowledge and stories within them, the advent of e-books has led many (myself included) to wax lyrical on the charm and power of books as objects; objects to be enjoyed tactilely, visually, and perhaps most often, olfactorily.
Whether related to the advent of the digital age or not, many artists have also begun exploring books as objects by utilising them as a medium in their work. Below are just a few examples of these talented and inspiring book artists. Click through the artists’ names or images to explore their work further.
In honour of the 2,100+ VUW students who have graduated this week, here are a few of our favourite commencement addresses by famous writers. Congratulations graduates!
With Baz Luhrmann’s new take on The Great Gatsby soon to hit screens, the internet has exploded with all things Gatsby. Here’s a few of my favourites (Some Spoilers Included):
Growing up in the US, we all read Gatsby in high school, a task which certainly wasn’t a chore, but which I suspect meant missing out on finer points of the novel which I would hope to pick up on had I read it at a less tender age. While I have every confidence in teenagers’ abilities to read complex novels closely and intelligently, my faded memory of Gatsby, as compared with other novels I read at that age, suggests that, at least where Gatsby was concerned, I was not one of these teens.
With the New Zealand Listener Book Club (as well as Oprah’s Book Club, BBC World Book Club and cOlbert’s Book Club) reading Gatsby before the film’s release, I feel a strong compulsion to pick the book back up and discover what my fifteen-year-old self may have missed. Or perhaps, with Luhrmann’s film on the horizon, I’m simply looking to re-familiarize myself in order to take advantage of my favourite, oft-times true, book nerd stock phrase:
Either way, Fitzgerald and I have a date with a cup of tea.
If, like me, you also feel caught up in the Gatsby whirlwind, you’re sure to enjoy theNew Zealand Listener Book Club’s Gatsby Content as well as Young Adult author John Green’s excellent 2011 Gatsby Book Club video blog (see below for the episode covering Chapter One). Happy Reading.
