The super-cool architecture blog BLDGBLOG will be publishing a book! (The bad news is, not until spring 2009.) Congratulations to Geoff, and everyone else should use the time to wander over and check out his archives — by the time the book appears, you’ll know you need it.
Some favourites of mine: 1, 2, 3, 4, and [...]
Between one paper and the next I’m popping my head up for a brief gloat:
In the alleyway stalls beside the Oudemanhuispoort I found Een Cent Per Emmer (One Cent Per Bucket), a richly illustrated history of the drinking water of Amsterdam. This is local history at its absolute best, with a side order of typography [...]
Ok, so I can’t resist posting this week’s haul. Because Book Traffic on Leliegracht is going out of business, and has a 75%-off sale. Yes, 75% off. So I spent a truly delightful hour or so browsing, and found:
Multatuli’s Max Havelaar, a novel written in the 1860’s protesting Dutch colonial policy. I’ve been looking for [...]
Oops. “I’ll just pop in and see if they have any Lucius Shepard” doesn’t work at the Book Exchange (Kloveniersburgwal, loads and loads of English-language secondhand, good sf section, highly recommended).
Last week’s Primo Levi (The Periodic Table) has started me on a Levi kick: Moments of Reprieve, Other People’s Trades and his Auschwitz memoirs If [...]
From the Boekenmarkt Spui:
Primo Levi, The Periodic Table Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
From the Boekenmarkt Spui:
Allen Ginsberg, Reality Sandwiches
> A naked lunch is natural to us, > we eat reality sandwiches. > But allegories are so much lettuce. > Don’t hide the madness. > –On Burroughs’ Work
On the psychology of Military Incompetence, by Norman F. Dixon. This promises to be horrifying.
> Finally, [...]
From the Boekenmarkt Spui:
Hugo Claus, “Het Verdriet van België” (”The Sorrow of Belgium”). A classic, apparently, recommended by Marijn. At a hefty 774 pages, this should keep me going for a while. “Sometime, Never: 3 Outstanding Tales of Science and Fantasy”. I can hear my mother sighing deeply… but this is good stuff! It’s William Golding [...]
Yesterday’s post brought SteamPunk magazine with it, which explains me turning up bleary-eyed an hour late to work this morning. It’s a new no-budget zine, pdfs for free download or you get a handsome printed copy on recycled paper for US$3 plus shipping.
The good
It’s very handsome. The design and typography is great, mixing up faux-Victorian [...]
I’m seriously in two minds about this. According to Lucy Orbach of BooksPrice, I rate a notification that their service just got better. On the one hand, it’s spam [ok, no it's not.]. On the other hand, it’s personalised and polite and damn it I think I probably do want to use their site.
I can’t [...]
As promised, my LibraryThing reviews account has a bunch of new reviews. I even managed to keep some of them short.