I saw this A-Z pop-up online recently and loved it. I’ve watched it several times and am deeply impressed with the cleverness of the construction and the way it plays with letters. I’ve now bought two copies – both gifts – because clever beauty should be shared.
I’m pleased to have found this amusing summary of the history of English, re-tweeted by The Book Bench, on twitter. It is 11:20 long, so get a cup of tea and settle in for a bit of an educational session from the OU.
(And if you want a much longer version, in book form, there’s alway Melvyn Bragg’s The Adventure of English.)
Another book-related animation to gladden the heart. It is a perfect excuse for posting something and also announcing my resolution to buy most of my books from physical – maybe even local! – book shops this year. (Sorry Amazon, but they need my support.) Enjoy the dancing books.
The film was made by the owners of a bookshop in Toronto. I saw it on Twitter earlier today, where a Colossal post featuring it did the rounds. Can you imagine the amount of work it took to record it? All those books, organised, photographed and re-organised.
‘Tis the season to read and, I hope, to write. While I’m off doing those two things, not much will happen here (except the weekly updates for Fiction Friday). To share some joy, here’s a film made, so the rumour says, by the same person who made and left a series of wonderful book sculptures around Edinburgh this year.
(See pictures of the book sculptures and read more about them.)
A Book For Xmas from a book for xmas on Vimeo.
As part of their books season 2011, The Guardian and Observer are running a competition where you can win a Kindle and the six novels in their animated film. The film gives first lines and you guess (or know) the book. It’s a very nice little film with some clever little clues (some more subtle than others) in the way the titles are presented. I’m sharing it not because it’s a fabulous competition but because I really like the film.
I really like this little film about what it takes to write and get published. The writer character feels frighteningly real.
My favourite bit comes at around 2:58. “How many editors do you think Random House will assign to my book? Because it will need a lot of editing. I’m not the best speller.” Watching it is 4:38 minutes well spent.