-Nietzsche
The Gay Science

I have been here before
But when or how I cannot tell
I know the grass beyond the door
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore

You have been mine before-
How long ago I may not know
But just when at that swallow’s soar
Your neck turn’d so
Some veil did fall-I knew it all of yore

-Rossetti
Sudden Light, 1853/4

“There the theory of the moebius. A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop from which there is no escape. When we reach that point, whatever happened will happen again.”

- Lieutenant Comm. Worf
Star Trek, “Time Squared”

I had the honour of not only being a contributor but also of designing the cover which, with the help of the keen photographic eye of Leigh Peterson, turned out quite decent.

Best of all it is for a good cause: all profits will go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. So order your copy today.

“At some unpredictable point along the way, in my mind, the images start to invent themselves. Using colored vellums, graphite and or India ink to highlight or obscure my words; I create the image of that invention. Though I strive to make each document visually engaging I find it is the words that I value most.”

—Will Ashford’s Recycled Words
(via coudal)

Any and all of the above methods for fully appreciating Remainder should be taken under strict advisement by the reader however, if you begin to experience black outs or mild seizures, then I must advise that you consult a physician immediately.

Read The Believer interview with McCarthy here.

“We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it.”

This year, the ever-experimental crew are trying their hand at book publishing by offering the Field-Tested Books collection (including all three years of FTB reviews) “in a handsome trade paperback”. I was quite honored to be asked back as a contributor, and in return submitted a gonzo-inspired review of “The Proud Highway” by Hunter S. Thompson as read in Bangkok. (My 2006 submission, “Siddhartha, on a train between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain” can be found here.)

A perfect way to blow a Friday morning: peruse the website, buy the book and be sure to throw it in your backpack this summer when you light out on your own great literary adventure.

(via Coudal)

-from the intro to the Flickr group “The Library” by Alex Itin, the current artist-in-residence at the Institute for the Future of the Book.

“For the past five hundred years, humans have used print — the book and its various page-based cousins — to move ideas across time and space. Radio, cinema and television emerged in the last century and now, with the advent of computers, we are combining media to forge new forms of expression. For now, we use the word “book” broadly, even metaphorically, to talk about what has come before — and what might come next.”

-from the mission statement of The Institute for the Future of the Book

“The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in England is the only place you are likely to find an Ethernet port that looks like a book. Built into the ancient bookcases dominating the oldest wing of the 402-year-old library, the brown plastic ports share shelf space with handwritten catalogues of the university’s medieval manuscripts and other materials. Some of the volumes are still chained to the shelves, a 17th-century innovation designed to discourage borrowing. But thanks to the Ethernet ports and the university’s effort to digitize irreplaceable books like the catalogues — which often contain the only clue to locating an obscure book or manuscript elsewhere in the vast library — users of the Bodleian don’t even need to take the books off the shelves. They can simply plug in their laptops, connect to the Internet, and view the pertinent pages online. In fact, anyone with a Web browser can read the catalogues, a privilege once restricted to those fortunate enough to be teaching or studying at Oxford.”

-from The Infinite Library by Wade Roush

“The Library Project’s aim is simple: make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books they wouldn’t find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefully respecting authors’ and publishers’ copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers.”

-Google Book Search Library Project