Ritacanasmendes
Shared posts
16-11-2019
RitacanasmendesPombo não é pássaro. :D
O NATAL segundo José Luís Brito.
Uma boa parte deste Natal já aconteceu. Foi no sábado de manhã, em Lisboa, em pleno Tejo, junto ao cais das colunas. De repente, há uma vida humana em perigo. Bem perto, muitas pessoas continuam o seu passeio, filmam com os seus telemóveis. O corpo de um homem inerte boia nas águas sujas do rio. A face voltada para baixo, como o pequeno Alan Kurdi, a criança síria de apenas 3 anos de idade, que morreu da mesma forma ao largo da ilha de Lesbos, Grécia, e que o artista chinês Ai Wei Wei imortalizou na sua célebre fotografia em 2016.
“Voltaria a fazer o mesmo. Uma vida humana não tem preço”, explicou humildemente José Luís Brito. Ele foi o homem que, como outros, vendo o sucedido não hesitou. Despiu a roupa que entregou ao seu filho de apenas 7 anos e saltou sozinho para salvar quem não conhecia.
Apenas um corpo sem rosto, boiando. Um desconhecido, como tantos com quem nos cruzamos diariamente. Um homem que minutos antes tentara o suicídio: de verdade, a procura da morte contém sempre um apelo escondido, um segredo dito em voz muda que apenas deseja uma coisa. A vida. Eu sinto que tenho de morrer para poder continuar a viver. Sem este sofrimento. Sem esta dor. Esta era a mensagem que recordava um dos meus mestres, Moses Laufer, director do Brent Adolescent Centre, em Londres.
A capacidade empática e a capacidade de dádiva são características recentes da evolução da espécie humana. Têm cerca de 25 a 30 mil anos os primeiros túmulos que mostram que alguém foi cuidado por outrem até à hora da sua morte. E mesmo doente ou incapaz, foi investido pelos outros que dele quiseram cuidar, celebrando a vida através do ritual da morte.
O menino do Lapedo corresponde a uma descoberta arqueológica feita em Portugal no ano de 1998. Pela primeira vez era encontrada a sepultura de uma criança envolta numa mortalha de tom vermelho, junto da qual existia um ramo de pinheiro queimado: cuidar, envolver, dar aroma. Celebrar a presença do outro no momento da sua dolorosa partida.
Ninguém pediu nada a José Luís. As imagens que documentam o seu acto heróico foram obra do acaso. Não agiu esperando recompensa ou celebração. Saltou para o desconhecido, com certeza arriscando a sua própria vida diante do filho, por um mero impulso de consciência. Por breves minutos relembrou-nos o que tanto esquecemos e não praticamos ao longos dos dias, dos anos, em tantos natais, afinal, como outros: cuidar de alguém. Estar perto dos que mais precisam. Ajudar os que sofrem e, silenciosamente, ainda vivem (?) em silêncio na sua imensa dor. Os que já não têm rosto e simplesmente flutuam ao sabor da corrente, tristes, esquecidos, perdidos.
Obrigado pelo exemplo, José Luís.
Obrigado pela luz!
Feliz Natal para ti!
Pedro Strecht
Médico Pedopsiquiatra
We Interrupt This Broadcast to Bring You an Especially Cursed House
Hello everyone. Originally, this post was supposed to be devoted to the year 1978, however something came up, and by something, I mean this 2.2 million-dollar, 5,420 sq ft 4 bed/4.5 bath house in Colt’s Neck, NJ.
You see, usually, when a listing goes viral, I’m content to simply retweet it with a pithy comment, but this house genuinely shook something in me, genuinely made me say “what the (expletive)” out loud. It is only fair to inflict this same suffering onto all of you, hence, without further ado:
Looks normal, right? Looks like the same low-brow New Jersey McMansion we’re all expecting, right? Oh, oh dear, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Guess who’s making a list and checking it twice?
Guess who’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice?
Guess who’s coming to town?
Guess who’s coming to town to drag your ass into hell?
A gentle reminder that it is not yet Thanksgiving.
But oh. Oh. It continues:
If you’re wondering what’s happening here, you’re not alone, and sadly there is no convenient way to find out via a kind of haunted house hotline or something.
I can’t even label these rooms because frankly I’m not even sure what they are. All I am sure of is that I want out of them as soon as humanly possible.
r̸̘̆e̴̝̻̽m̵̡̼̚ȩ̵͑̎ͅm̷͍̮̉b̸̥̈e̶̯̺̽͗r̸̝͊͠ ̸̡͎̅̀t̴̯̲̓ȯ̷̮̫ ̷̜̅̀ŵ̶̟̱ā̴̭̘s̸̥͋h̴͉̿ ̵̡̑y̸̩͈͑o̷̹̭͛͝ů̷̩̮̔r̶̜̃ ̴̠̗͋ẖ̴̈́͛a̸̢̟̐͒n̶̩̟̆ḍ̵̍̀s̴̨̈́
How is it that a room can simultaneously threaten, frighten, and haunt me? Me, of all people!
My eyes do not know where to go here. They go to the window, they go to the fireplace, they go to the massive mound of fake plant and statuary currently gorging on the leftmost corner of the room, they go to my hands, which are shaking.
“Hello, I would like to get in touch with the Ministry of Vibes? Yes, I’ll hold.”
I haven’t been this afraid of a shower since I went to Girl Scout camp in the fifth grade and there was a brown recluse spider in the camp shower and I screamed until the counselor came in and told me it was only a wolf spider but it turns out those still bite you and it hurts.
I love watching Still Images on my Television Set :)
Nobody make a sound. He’s watching you.
i spy with my evil eye:
:)
Their souls are trapped in these photographs forever :)
Okay, phew, we made it out alive. Here’s the back of the house I guess.
Well, I hope you’re as thoroughly disturbed as I am. Seriously, I’m going to have trouble sleeping. I mean, I already have trouble sleeping, but this is just making that existing problem so much worse.
If you like this post, and want to see more like it, consider supporting me on Patreon!
There is a whole new slate of Patreon rewards, including: good house of the month, an exclusive Discord server, weekly drawings, monthly livestreams, a reading group, free merch at certain tiers and more!
Not into recurring donations but still want to show support? Consider the tip jar! (Tips are much appreciated since I am making a cross country move in two weeks!!!)
Or, Check out the McMansion Hell Store! Proceeds from the store help protect great buildings from the wrecking ball.
coisas que talvez sejam importantes
Há três dias, 15 países da Ásia e da Oceânia firmaram o maior acordo comercial do mundo. As negociações remontam a 2012 e o acordo irá abranger, read my lips, 2.100 milhões de consumidores. O equivalente a, read my lips, 30% do PIB mundial.
OS EUA estão de fora, em mais um desastre de Trump, mas esta associação compreende: a China, a Índia, o Japão, a Austrália, a Nova Zelândia, a Indonésia, a Tailândia, Singapura, a Malásia, as Filipinas, o Vietname, o Camboja, Laos, o Brunei…
Vão ser eliminadas as barreiras alfandegárias em 90% dos produtos comerciados nessa zona gigantesca.
Perante isto, o que diz a União Europeia?
Que dizem os EUA a esta alternativa ao defunto TPP, de Barack Obama?
O facto foi noticiado muito en passant nos nossos jornais – Público, Diário de Notícias, Observador, etc.
Sobre isto, que dizem os comentadores nacionais? Que pensamento têm produzido, que ideias nos têm trazido?
Abrem-se os jornais, há muito artigo e muita opinião sobre os «liberais» e os defensores do Chega, pouca ou nenhuma coisa sobre como será o mundo nascido dos escombros da Covid e como poderão a Europa, os EUA e o Ocidente lidar com a hegemonia da China, que a pandemia, Donald Trump e tudo o mais vieram adensar brutalmente. Notícia de há um mês, na Time:
https://time.com/5901227/china-gdp-growth-covid-19/Sobre isso, que ideias, que opiniões, que simples informações lemos nos nossos jornais?
Pois.
Depois, admirem-se – e chorem muito a «crise da imprensa».
Please enjoy some oddly soothing computer-generated jokes.
I have a low-grade obsession with the project of teaching computers how to joke. I assume it has something to do with my poetry education, which gave me both a greater appreciation of humor (and the many ways in which it can be mangled and misunderstood), and the tenuous divide between art and nonsense.
Wherever my fixation germinated, its current manifestation is me googling “teaching computers to joke” every so often, just to see whether scientists have made any great strides since I last checked. Recently, my searching led me to The Joking Computer out of the University of Aberdeen. The site explains a little about the reasons behind the group’s research—both to help children with disabilities that make speaking difficult explore language, and as a purely scientific analysis of “the secret of humor.”
The true joy of the website, of course, is the computer jokes themselves. Not only will the program give you a computer generated joke (you can choose from a number of different types, including “two similar sounding words are used one after the other” and the classic “swaps a word for one that rhymes with it”), it will also explain the joke to you (“Why is it a joke?”). You can rate them, too, which helps the researchers.
Personally though, I find it difficult to rate them because they are perfect, each and every one:
What do you call a cross between a weakness and a touch? Failing feeling.
What do you get when you cross a construction worker with a warmth? A hard heat.
What is the difference between a principal truck and an egotistical male person? One is a main van, the other is a vain man.
What do you call a just disparity? A fair cry.
If you’re looking for a few moments of respite from rational thought, I strongly recommend checking them out for yourself.
Coisas chatas de pensar sobre a Coisa.
Deixar
Há muitos anos atrás, quando existiam coisas como agências de publicidade, editoras discográficas e agências de viagens, eu tinha algumas pessoas amigas a trabalhar em publicidade. Copys, designers, criativ*s, accounts, todas contavam o mesmo cenário: ambiente tóxico, cheio de egos, ostentação, e mais orçamento que bom senso. E, marco incontornável: um diretor insuportável (na grande maioria um homem, com algumas mulheres monstruosas de assinalar), de pesadelo, tirano de humor instável e uma carreira pejada de prémios (eram todos históricos criadores de anúncios que tinham passado a fazer parte do imaginário nacional, tinham todos trabalhado com o Ary dos Santos e com o Alexandre O’Neill, eram todos o melhor copy desde que o Pessoa disse aquela cena da Coca-Cola ). Quando saiu O Diabo Veste Prada, todas estas pessoas amigas se arrepiavam com a Miranda Priestley (e, passe a representação estelar da Meryl Streep, não lhe achavam gracinha nenhuma): é mesmo assim, diziam, com a voz rouca de stresse pós-traumático. Do cantinho da pequena empresa familiar em que eu trabalhava, dava graças aos céus e perguntava-me como era possível ainda existirem chefes assim.
Quando vi este anúncio da GNR, percebi (não pela primeira vez) a utilidade d* chefe de pesadelo. É evidente que há na GNR, ou na agência com quem trabalham, um pequeno génio de publicidade; alguém com um imenso potencial criativo, um talento ímpar para juntar ideias, e o dom de as pôr por palavras. Mas. Com um potencial a precisar de muita orientação. Alguém que trave a criatividade desenfreada e a frase que só soa bem aos nossos ouvidos. A violência emocional nunca é desculpável, e não sou de todo defensora de estruturas hierárquicas, mas assim que vi este anúncio pensei que o que fazia falta, neste caso, era um WTF ribombante de um* dess*s chefes de pesadelo.
Quem é que deixou passar isto?
Quem é que deixou que a admirável iniciativa de uma campanha para encorajar as vítimas de violência doméstica a pedir ajuda se transformasse numa campanha de culpabilização da vítima?
A quem é que ocorreu que o motor da violência doméstica é uma suposta permissividade da vítima?
Quem é que ainda acha que a violência doméstica acontece porque a mulher “deixa”?
O que uma mulher em situação de violência doméstica mais quer é precisamente deixar. Deixar a situação, deixar aquele homem que a violenta, deixar de se sentir, sim, um saco de pancada. E em tantos casos, é precisamente isso que ela não pode fazer: não pode deixar a casa por não ter para onde ir em segurança. Não pode deixar a relação por medo de represálias. Falta apoio institucional que a proteja devidamente.
E é dolorosamente irónico que seja precisamente uma das instituições responsáveis pelo combate à violência doméstica a revelar uma tão grande falta de compreensão da mesma.
“Não deixes que façam de ti saco de pancada”? Não deixemos que façam de ti culpada pelo crime de que és vítima.
(Por falar no dom das palavras, hesito sempre, quando escrevo sobre violência de género, antes de usar a palavra “vítima”. Precisamente porque, para quem se encontra nessas situações, uma das coisas dolorosas e traumáticas é ver toda a sua identidade reduzida à de vítima. Copys que por ainda aí andem, ajudem!)
(E já agora quem, à exceção do Bugs Bunny quando se veste de senhora para fugir ao Elmer Fudd, é que acha que um vestido vermelho justo é o sinal universal da figura feminina?)
PS – Sobre a Miranda Priestley e o arquétipo da mulher num cargo de poder ser sempre uma cabra, outro post mais longo seguirá em breve.
The 78 Best Book Covers of 2019
This year, at Lit Hub, we spent a lot of time thinking about book cover design. Oliver Munday wrote about designing the cover for Fleur Jaeggy’s newly reissued masterpiece Sweet Days of Discipline; Tree Abraham wrote about designing the (very glittery) cover for T Kira Madden’s Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls; Sara T. Sauers wrote about designing her grandfather’s book (her grandfather being James Thurber); Nicole Caputo wrote about using red, white, and blue on book covers; and Alison Forner laid out the process behind designing the cover for Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House.
We also revisited Raymond Carver covers, Beloved covers, Slaughterhouse-Five covers, and Invisible Man covers from around the world—and we basked in the work of Todd Alcott, who reimagines classic songs as vintage book covers.
But it is December, the official month of Best-of Listicles, and therefore I am contractually obligated to ask: which book covers were the best? To answer the question, as I did last year and the year before that, and good lord, the year before that, I cut to the chase and consulted the experts: the book designers themselves.
This year, I asked 26 of my favorite designers to share their own favorite book covers of the year, and they came back with a whopping 78 different selections. But of course, some of them had similar ideas about the best of the best. Here are the final stats, if you’re into that kind of thing. Below that, you can feast your eyes on all the covers they picked, in order of publication date.
The very best book covers:
Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police, design by Tyler Comrie : 9 votes
Myla Goldberg, Feast Your Eyes, design by Lauren Peters-Collaer : 6 votes
Tegan & Sara, High School, design by Na Kim : 5 votes
Regina Porter, The Travelers, design by Michael Morris : 4 votes
Dunya Mikhail, In Her Feminine Sign, design by Janet Hansen : 4 votes
Jac Jemc, False Binggo, design by June Park : 4 votes
The press with the most covers on the list:
FSG (including MCD x FSG originals) : 18 covers
The designer with the most covers on the list:
Na Kim : 7 covers
*
Cover design by Alex Merto (FSG, January 8)Such a clever image, both delicate and sinister. Also love the modern feel this has with the use of neon inks on natural papers.
Cover design by Oliver Munday (The New Press, January 8)When so many designs have their main visuals in the center, it’s very satisfying to see a layout that leaves the middle completely blank. The handwritten subtitle and author are an ingenious contrast to the weighty title—I find it so exciting when type is used in such a creative way that additional imagery isn’t needed.
Cover design by Grace Han (FSG, January 15)The description and blurbs for this book detail characters who are searching without knowing what they seek, quiet suspense and spare and exacting prose. Grace’s art selection could not feel more perfect. Lino Lago’s “fake abstract” painting and the clean minimal typography give a modern sensibility, a historic nod and the sense of something being uncovered.
I was immediately drawn to this cover when I first saw it in the bookstores. The cutoff at the bottom half of painting is at the right placement exposing a sliver of the right eye where the slight tension is enough to bring intrigue to the viewer. The light pink is a lovely contrast to the oil painting and brings the image into focus.
Cover design by Michael Morris (Crown, January 29)A lovely pastiche of the classic Hogarth Press Editions for Virginia Woolf designed by Vanessa Bell. The wonderful culmination of tiny details and care.
Cover design by Rodrigo Corral (One World, January 29)My eyes feel like they’re playing tricks on me with this cover. The pattern on pattern design, and white type on off-white background is totally mesmerizing.
Cover design by Charlotte Strick & Claire Williams (Catapult, February 5)Mesmerizing harmony of image and type. Can all but hear the waves on the shore.
Cover design by Na Kim (FSG, February 12)I’ve seen stretched type, but I don’t think I’ve seen a cover with stretched imagery executed to such visceral effect. The drooping, face-down profile conveys a feeling of malaise in such a refreshing way. I’ve never been as excited about misery.
Cover design by Grace Han (Riverhead, February 19)My eyes do not seem to want to focus on one element. Everything is rushing at me. The energy of this cover is so good. I can’t help but be curious about the energy of the writing inside.
I love how there are three distinct elements here, but they are all integrated seamlessly. The drops look like they could also be feathers of the bird. And the type is layered into the drops. And on top of it all . . . it’s green!
This cover, holy smokes. It’s impossibly lush. The shimmering dimensionality that it achieves is incredibly striking. I want to be in there!
Cover design by Richard Green (Tim Duggan Books, February 19)This is a jacket design that’s just as effective as Big Bang, but its polar opposite. The lack of volume and energy gets the point across here. Is there anything sadder than this title paired with a bee in the fetal position? (I can’t bring myself to say it’s dead.)
Chilling, arresting design that expertly delivers the message of a bleak but urgent book.
Cover design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday, February 26)This cover encapsulates all the information the reader needs with so few elements. The green and orange lines nod to the Irish Flag and represent the Catholic and Protestants. The real focus of the cover, however, is Dolorous Price who stares at you over the edge of her turtle neck, the classic uniform of the IRA.
Cover design by Linda Huang (Anchor, March 5)I enjoy the wit and playfulness of this design. It’s a clever way of combining two unlikely things together, and in this instance, it just makes sense.
Cover design by Rachel Willey (Penguin Books, March 5)The fly is such a simple, yet impactful and witty move. It immediately reads as a smart, humorous, and satirical book.
Would not be a best of list without at least one or five of Rachel’s covers!
Cover design by Alex Merto (FSG, March 5)Alex’s casket-shaped bureaucratic envelope immediately telegraphs the book’s subject matter. So I love this cover for how succinct it is . . . but also that he’s managed to imbue a sad topic with humor.
Cover design by Na Kim (FSG, March 10)I love this book cover because it’s such an unexpected—but exquisite—pairing of art and lettering. At first glance you think you’re looking at a staid and elegant old botanical print, but then you realize that Na has snuck in meats and fruits where they have no business being. And the tragically drooping tulip makes me laugh.
Not only do I feel hungry when I see this cover, but I’m intrigued by the ever-so-graceful balance of shapes and form and the type which complements them.
This is one of those delightful covers so easily likable by the general population I hesitate to confess how much I like it, too—but I can’t deny how excellent it is, nor can I peel my eyes from it. Between the illustrations and the hand lettering, there’s so much to feast on. It’s tender but not saccharine. Pretty sure Na did the illustrations as well, which makes it all the more satisfying.
Cover design by Donna Cheng, cover illustration by Gerrel Saunders (Gallery/Scout Press, March 19)Queenie herself is that star of this cover, which is fitting since she is also the star of this book. The title tucked into her hair like a crown and the “A Novel” tucked in above her ear are just perfect.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf, March 26)It’s playful and idiosyncratic. Translating screen objects to physical things can look awkward, but this feels well handled and good humored.
Tyler’s jacket captures the repetition of the Kaddish prayer via the internet with clever humor that matches Englander’s writing.
Cover designs by Leanne Shapton (Faber & Faber, March & September)Leanne’s watercolor illustrations never fail to have emotional resonance. The color palette is tasteful. Very beautiful collection.
Covers designed by Rodrigo Corral (Picador, April 2)Beautiful in hand with uncoated stock, debossing and gloss and just as powerful on screen. They are art objects for your shelf but also entice me to read them back to back in succession to learn the inspiration behind the image selection. I swear I would wash my hands well or read these with gloves on so as not to wreck their beauty!
Cover design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon, April 2)The art on Tyler’s cover is beautiful, but also deceptively simple—it’s actually quite rich with subtle detail. And overall, the colors and lettering strike a perfect balance.
I love that clean and bold illustration. There are some multidimensional messages happening in that emblem and it’s got me so curious about the book….That blue background is lovely and the delicate gold foil fragments on uncoated stock makes the cover that much more special.
Cover design by Helen Crawford-White (Head of Zeus, April 4)I adore this cover! It feels so familiar and fresh at the same time—channeling the likes of Paul Rand, Alexander Calder, Henri Matisse, but with a something all it’s own. It is whimsical in its use of color, as well as its abstract and anthropomorphic forms. The nuance of texture and shaded elements draw me in, telling me that there is something more, something dark and strange inside these pages that I need to know. Quirky and surreal, I find it terribly charming.
Cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner, April 16)Such a clever use of a collage! The pieced-together camera works as a compelling device to hold the inset photo and type. The limited palette and organic illustration are perfection.
The confidence of this cover crushes me. It demands just the right amount of work from the viewer, a tough line to walk when playing with unique copy/type treatments. The unusual cropping of a young girl gazing directly at you, eerily out of focus, carries the darkness set by the surrounding black and vast negative space. The irregular edges and distressed paper in the collage, as well as the type, are rendered perfectly. This cover really stood out on tables and shelves in store, a total knock out for me.
The collage is simple yet clever. I never get tired of looking at it and finding new details.
I may be partial to this cover because I love Myla Goldberg’s writing, but I find Lauren’s collage incredibly clever and I love its tactility.
I love the artistry of the collaged camera from newspaper pieces and the peering view from the lens.
All the elements feel considered. I love how the red frame brings focus to a photo with depth. It makes me feel like I’m actually looking through a camera lens.
Cover design by Elena Giavaldi, illustration by Molly Bounds (Hogarth, April 16)Sally Rooney’s first book had such a distinctive look that it would be a challenge to create the cover for her second that doesn’t feel like it’s in the shadow of Conversation with Friends, but this cover succeeds. The characters in the white line drawings are not even looking at each other and yet you can feel the tension between them. The thick, black type contrasts with the delicate illustrations while the color blocking signals that the characters are trapped in very different worlds.
Cover design by Jonathan Bush (W. W. Norton, April 16)The giant type makes this cover look so big, yet elegant and substantial . . . and important! Without any other type on the cover, this design is minimalist and maximalist at the same time.
Cover design by Pablo Delcan (Verso, April 30)The simplicity of the type and bold focal image work together so perfectly. The image is presented in a way that reinforces the subject of the book all while creating a sense of intrigue. And despite the fact that the subtitle is obscured, we are given enough information to read it.
Cover design by Paul Sahre (New Directions, April 30)Love that the size of the type helps emphasize the overall mood and atmosphere of this cover.
Cover design by Na Kim (Picador Paper, May 7)I love this bizarre assemblage: impossibly and perfectly precarious, such a deft metaphor for motherhood.
Cover design by June Park (FSG, May 7)Beautiful abstract illustration by June Park. Always catches my eye in a bookstore.
There is so much sophistication in the way the sea is rendered, incorporating as much negative space as positive. Set in Alaska, the water is appropriately icy and harsh, yet full of movement—redolent of a Rorschach test. Simply bleak and beautiful.
Every time I look at this cover it evokes a calm zen feel. The watercolor painting fills most of the cover and although it’s quiet, the small flecks of gold over the art give it that extra distinctiveness.
Cover design by Na Kim (MCD x FSG Originals, May 14)Exuberant! I love the painterly style and bright colors.
Cover design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown, May 21)It’s always a pain when editors give us extraneous copy to put on a cover. However, the way the tagline (or rather tag-paragraph!) is incorporated into the design, here, looks effortless! Also, I love the quirkiness of that “Q”!
Cover design by Matt Dorfman (W. W. Norton, May 28)I love Matt Dorfman’s work. This book cover in particular is delightfully disorienting. The quirky juxtaposition of word and image, varied textures, type orientation, all come together to create a timeless art work. I particularly love the exaggerated elevation of title elements creating depth and space, deepening the dissonance between language and image. It is concise, clear, and I think quite brilliant… and it makes me smile.
Cover design by Na Kim (MCD, June 4)How did this get approved!? I mean really. This could have been a cover with tree on it, but how freakin brave and awesome to do the diary.
So simple and elegant, burned in my mind when I saw it. A bold and memorable typographic approach with great use of effects, helping to create a coveted physical object.
Covers designed by Jim Tierney (Ace Books, June 4)Jim is so incredibly talented and I also want to commend art director Adam Auerback who I believe selected Jim for the project. We do not hear as much about ADs, but they start this process and choosing the right person is an important skill set. I could not think of a better illustrator and designer to put a modern face on Dune, with each illustration and typographic layout inviting you deeper into the undulating terrain . . . and they feel so great in the hand! You must take home every single one.
Cover design by Holly Ovenden (Penguin, June 6)A perfect example of text not having to be giant to stand out. A lot of depth and texture to this cover that keeps me going back to take another look.
Cover design by Janet Hansen; illustration by Cody Comrie (Pantheon, June 11) Cover design by Michael Morris (June 18, Hogarth/Crown)These many colors are so pretty and unusual. This cover has a unique energy and curiosity, and my eye doesn’t stop wandering the page for more subtle surprises.
I love this jacket so much I want to wear it! The colors and the typography are spot on.
This is a very fun and dynamic cover that has the right amount of design elements converging together. The dispersed bright colors, intersecting angles, spiked bursts, and differing type sizes overall creates this energetic dimension that doesn’t have a still moment.
This cover epitomizes the word “pop.” I was immediately reminded of the energetic quality of vintage Gee’s Bend quilts. Modern and striking.
Cover design by Joan Wong (Nouvella, June 18)I love how understated this cover feels in the midst of some bold design choices. Those tiny, disembodied arms floating in space are mysterious, and even though the title and author sit quietly at the top and bottom, the spacing is unusual and intriguing.
Makes me feel like I’m in the thrall of a spellbinding magic trick.
So Joan Wong in the very best way possible.
Cover design by Oliver Munday (New Directions, June 25)This cover is so lovely, but when you look closer you wonder hmmm whats going on here. The crow is a signifier that this might be a bit macabre, but the palette is such a contrast that its makes you scratch you head. It’s sorta delicate and small for a cover, but as a teeny online thumbnail the composition is stronger than most. A win-win!
Cover design by Pablo Delcan (New Directions, June 25)One common criteria for a “good cover” is the ability to draw the reader into the book, and this red soaked man checks that box with a big “” Is he angry? Heartbroken? Pensively dripping with paint? I want the answers to the questions this cover asks!
Cover design by Janet Hansen (Knopf, July 2)I have only seen this cover on screen but the spareness, the color and the incredible photograph of the typographic cubes melting immediately piqued my curiosity and sent me to the book description page. A perfect summer read cover! I should hunt this down in a shop just to touch it.
I love how the letters are concrete which makes the cover more alive and expressive. The treatment of the title alone does the job of setting a sense of place and mood. It’s pleasing to the eye and therapeutic just looking at an image of melting letters.
Another deceptively simple design—so effective because it’s so well-executed, from the letterforms to that rich shade of teal. Title says it all.
Cover design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull, July 9)I love the full use of space. The narrow type is freaky and captivating.
Cover design by Thomas Colligan (FSG, July 9)This cover reminds me of an old Black Sparrow Press book (à la the inimitable Barbara Martin) in the best way possible.
Cover design by Matt Dorfman (Hogarth, July 9) Cover design by Matt Dorfman (FSG, July 9)This cover is wonderfully energetic and unexpected. I especially love the old fashioned lithographs tearing through the surface.
The organic and spirited treatment of this cover works so well with the hand-drawn type and illustrated snake and plants that are bleeding off the edges. It reminds me of a protest poster which is fitting to the title.
Love the combination of intrigue and curiosity, which makes for a memorable cover.
Cover design by Thomas Colligan (FSG, July 16)I love a fully hand-drawn cover, especially one that looks like it was made by a grade-schooler. The rudimentary quality feels so right for a book of poetry.
Cover design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday, July 16)Bold, graphic and instantly iconic.
No doubt Oliver Munday has had some top notch covers this year, but this one stopped me in my tracks. The square pool of red, itself reminiscent of a stop sign, creates a feeling of unrest and foreboding. This cover held me in feeling for a time, delaying my typical hyperactive jump into ogling and critiquing. The restraint in composition, the rigidity of shape, form, and color, the blood red, and the oh so subtle nod to time period via type and clothing style, this cover is nothing short of iconic to me.
Great use of negative space.
Foto de Grupo, 1980.
Gravei esta imagem para o disco não sei de onde. É provável que a tenha visto no facebook ou num blogue. Guardei-a porque conheço perfeitamente aquele lugar e aquele tempo.
Estudei naquela escola. É o Ciclo Preparatório de Vila Real. Sei que a fotografia foi tirada na passagem da década de 1970 para a de 80.
Não reconheço nenhuma das pessoas da foto, excepto a menina ruiva que me lembro de ver anos depois no Liceu Camilo Castelo Branco. Andava dois ou três anos à minha frente, portanto aqueles rapazes e raparigas devem ter agora cinquenta anos. A maioria terão filhos, talvez mesmo netos. É possível que alguns tenham entretanto falecido.
Ganhei o hábito de a ter aberta no desktop. Quando o computador vai abaixo, reabro-a. Comove-me de um modo que me surpreende, dado não me ser pessoal. Representa perfeitamente um conjunto de memórias minhas das quais não tenho as minhas próprias fotos.
Passei muito tempo na biblioteca, a parte mais elevada do edifício que se vê atrás. A entrada da escola era um portão assinalado pelos dois mastros mais altos. Chegava-se através de uma avenida recente marcada de cada lado por uma fieira de candeeiros de iluminação pública. Em frente ao ciclo, havia quintas, vinha, mato, pinheiro bravo. Agora, há vivendas, serviços, centros de saúde e pavilhões desportivos. É possível que todo aquele horizonte esteja hoje eriçado de casas.
A memória daquela paisagem é só um detonador para chegar ao que verdadeiramente me comove. Sensações às quais não é difícil aceder individualmente mas que se tornaram inacessíveis no seu conjunto.
Lembro-me daquelas nuvens sempre pesadas que pareciam tão sólidas a um miúdo transplantado do sol de Lisboa. Foi nesse preciso sítio, naquele pátio molhado pela chuva que vi nevar pela primeira vez, numa véspera de Carnaval penso que em 1983. Recordo-me de passar o Inverno com frio, com as botas e meias sempre molhadas como as das crianças da foto.
Quase não há fibras sintéticas, plástico ou nylon naquelas roupas. As cores são escuras, castanhos, ocres, os pretos têm o pardo das fazendas, os brancos, a sujidade natural da lã. Lembro-me do momento, também naquele pátio, em que percebi a ausência daqueles tecidos e cores antigas. Os meus colegas e eu próprio tínhamos trocado as samarras e as canadianas por Kispos de cores eléctricas, berrantes de televisão a cores.
Ainda hoje sinto uma espécie de aperto pela sensação e cheiro da fazenda junto à pele.
Se não tivesse outras maneiras de o fazer, poderia datar a imagem pelas roupas. Não sei quando se começa a ter consciência do tempo histórico, da passagem de uma época para outra. Penso que o que me atrai nesta imagem que não é minha é a lembrança por associação da parte da minha vida em que comecei a perceber o movimento da história, todas as sensações físicas, emocionais, que ficam para trás, soterradas pelo que viria depois, impossíveis de recuperar pelos dispositivos de memória habituais, mesmo os mais sofisticados.
Pato à Pequim.
Work in Progress
Lucy Knisley for the New York Times Book Review.
Assim, talvez.
Fonte: Wikipedia
|
Fonte: Wikipedia
|
Why should you pay more (if you can) for a book that’s cheaper on Amazon? Read this thread from an indie bookseller
Over the years we’ve had much to say about the economics of book publishing, from how difficult it is to subsist as a writer to the value of sub rights and beyond. Realistically, we’ve probably spent the most time talking about how Amazon is bad for bookstores, and, well, humanity.
But when we talk about Amazon being bad for independent booksellers, perhaps we too often overlook a crucial variable in the equation: the consumer, who can find even the newest books attractively discounted on Amazon.
But even if customers can afford to pay a higher price at their local bookstore, why should they? It’s an interesting question, and behind it lies some math that your average reader may be blissfully unaware of.
Luckily we have Raven Book Store—a Lawrence, Kansas indie—to explain how it all works. They took to Twitter last week to shine a light on why some of your favorite businesses might be disappearing from your neighborhood.
Let’s hand the mic over to them (what follows is a text-ified reproduction of last week’s thread):
Today a customer mentioned that she could get a new hardcover book online for $15. Our mission is not to shame anyone for their shopping practices, but we do feel a responsibility to educate about what it means when a new hardcover is available for $15 online.
When we order direct from publishers, we get a wholesale discount of 46% off the cover price. The book in question had a cover price of $26.99, meaning our cost for that book from the publishers would be $14.57. If we sold it for $15, we’d make . . . 43 cents.
It goes without saying, but we cannot operate making 43 cents per book sold. We have 10,000 books in stock. If we sold every one of them with a 43 cent markup, we’d make enough to keep the store open for about six days.
The biggest (and cheapest) online booksellers have lots of other revenue streams that are MUCH more profitable than books, so they can stand to lose money on books. They also most likely get better discounts from publishers because they sell at higher volume. Fair enough.But remember what those giant online booksellers have no interest in doing:
- bringing your favorite authors to town so you can meet them and get your books signed
- creating good jobs in your community
- partnering with cultural organizations in your town to enrich the arts
- feeding and taking care of store cats that you can take pictures of and pet
- creating a safe and comfortable space for you to spend an hour or two
- working to support the local authors where you live
- hosting open mics etc. so emerging artists have a platform
- paying taxes
Every time we tweet something like this someone replies with something like “shut up and let me enjoy my cheap book.” Fine, go nuts. We have no right to tell you what to do. We want this to be informative, not shaming.
But we will say: we feel a responsibility to use our platform to educate people about this stuff. If you’ve ever wondered why it seems like “there are no bookstores anymore” or why retail businesses keep closing in your downtown, this is it. A cheap book still has a high cost.
Why should you pay more (if you can) for a book that’s cheaper on Amazon? Read this thread from an indie bookseller was first posted on April 22, 2019 at 12:41 am.
©2019 "Melville House Books". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at simon@mhpbooks.com
O meu 25 de Abril.
Leaving Neverland.
Some Hilarious Illustrations from America’s First Bestselling Diet Book
In December, as I was compiling the biggest nonfiction bestsellers of the last 100 years, I noticed a diet book pop up multiple times in the 1920s: Lulu Hunt Peters’s Diet and Health: with The Key to the Calories. Though it was first published in 1918, it hovered in the middle of the list for several years and managed to become the bestselling nonfiction book in the country for two years running: 1924 and 1925. So, I investigated.
Lulu Hunt Peters was a doctor with a popular newspaper column, Diet and Health, which she turned into a book (turns out this isn’t exactly a modern phenomenon). Diet and Health was the first diet book to popularize the now-ubiquitous technique of counting calories for weight loss—and not for nothing, in it Peters also argues that dieting is a patriotic act, to which I say: ok. It was an instant hit, and became the first weight loss book to make the national bestseller lists. After reading some of it, I can see why—and it’s not because she makes me feel patriotic. Frankly, she’s a hoot, and so are the illustrations, which are credited to “The Author’s Small Nephew, Dawson Hunt Perkins, The little rascal.” (Imagine a diet book illustrated by someone’s nephew these days. ) So for your own amusement, enjoyment, and/or New Years resolution-ing, I have reproduced the author’s introduction as well as the chapter on exercise, which I thought was among the funniest. I mean, I never knew that hair-brushing counted as exercise, but boy am I glad I do now.
I am sorry I cannot devise a key by which to read this book, as well as a Key to the Calories, for sometimes you are to read the title headings and side explanations before the text. Other times you are supposed to read the text and then the headings. It really does not matter much as long as you read them both. Be sure to do that. They are clever. I wrote them myself.
I have been accused of trying to catch you coming and going, because I have included in my book the right methods of gaining weight, as well as those for losing weight. But this is not the reason—though I don’t object to doing that little thing—the reason is that the lack of knowledge of foods is the foundation for both overweight and underweight.
I did want my publishers to get this out in a cheaper edition, thinking that more people could have it, and thus it would be doing more good; but they have convinced me that that idea was a false claim of my mortal mind, and that the more you paid for it, the more you would appreciate it. I have received many times, and without grumbling on my part, ten dollars for the same advice given in my office. Perhaps on this line of reasoning we should have ten dollars for the book. Those of you who think so may send the balance on through my publishers.
L.H.P.
Los Angeles, California
June, 1918
Exercise
It is practically impossible to reduce weight through exercise alone, unless one can do a tremendous amount of it. For the food that one eats is usually enough to cover the energy lost by the exercise.
Light On Your FeetHowever, exercise is a very important feature of any reducing program; not because of the fat that is burned up in the exercise—and there is some burned—but for the reason that it is necessary to keep one in a healthy condition. The muscles, the internal organs, the bones, the brain, are all benefited—in fact, the entire system.
The exercises described hereinafter will help make you fat or thin, and they will keep you supple, graceful, and light on your feet, so that when I tell my husband that he must dance with you, Madam, he will not say, “Nothing stirring,” and when you, Professor, ask me to dance, I will not curse the day I was born.
Warning: If you have not been accustomed to exercise, I warn you to take up only one or two at a time and do each one a few times only. You will be atrociously sore, and you will realize that you have muscles of which you wotted not.
However, persist, if you are sure there are no organic reasons why you shouldn’t—such as a weak heart. (In case you are very much overweight, I think it advisable to wait until you have reduced somewhat.)
It is splendid if you can belong to a gymnasium or to a physical culture class, but ten to fifteen minutes’ systematic daily exercise practiced with vim, and each set followed by deep breathing, will do more good than a gymnasium spasmodically attended. Brisk walking with a long stride isn’t so bad; in fact, if taken with a very long stride it will twist ‘most every organ you have in your body.
There are hundreds of exercises you can take. If you will notice little rascal’s illustrations you will find many good ones. Those illustrating the beginning of this chapter are excellent.
If possible, it is best to take the exercises on arising in the morning, but if you have a household to care for you may not be able to do so. For those who have to do their own work, it may be well to do the work first. You can do it in half the time if you plan it carefully and speed up. (This advice is not for my thin friends; their speedometers register too high already.) It does not matter so much when the exercises are done as that they are done, and done every day for the rest of your life, with the possible exception of two or three days a month.
Gallstones, permanent stiff joints, and other little things like that will have a hard time forming.
My Exercises
(The services of my noted artist I was able to obtain with great difficulty, as he was engaged in the more important work of making a swagger stick. I finally secured him by the promise of an ice cream cone and twenty-three cents to go with his two cents so that he could buy a Thrift Stamp. He is given due credit on the title page.)
These exercises executed with vim, vigor, and vip—deep breathing between each set—will take ten to fifteen minutes. Re-read my warning.
1. Feet together, arms outstretched, palms up, describe as large a circle as possible. Fine for round shoulders and fat backs. Do slowly and stretch fifteen times. Smile.
2. Arms outstretched, swing to right and to left as far as possible at least 15 times each.
3. Bend sideways, to right and left, alternately, as far as possible at least 15 times each.
4. Revolve the body upon the hips from right to left at least 10 times, and left to right the same.
5. Bend and touch the floor with your fingers, without bending your knees, at least 15 times.
6. Knee-bending exercise, at least 15 times. This is hard at first.
7. Hand on door or wall, swing each leg back and forth at least 15 times. To the side 15 times. Turn head, raise arm, and tense both.
8. Step on chair with each foot at least 10 times. This is good for calf and thigh muscles. After a while you won’t look as though you needed a derrick to get onto a street car.
9. Arms on sides of chair. Come down and touch abdomen. Fine for back and abdomen. Fifteen times.
10. Brush hair vigorously at least 200 double strokes all over the head, N.S.E.W., using a brush in each hand.
(Military brushes are best. If you can’t purloin a set of your husband’s, two ordinary brushes will do.) Now shake out the loose dandruff. This is one of the best exercises and must not be omitted, for it accomplishes two purposes. It is a good arm and chest exercise, and it gives a healthy scalp absolutely free from the dammdruff.
NOW
This for a few minutes, followed by this, the hot preferably at night.
Falta de civismo
Do Que os Homens São
Das decisões que tomei, as maiores são como sopros, ventos que atravessam, que desfazem as palavras, as que dizemos e as que ouvimos. Só com o tempo é possível nomeá-los.
Num jantar em Lisboa perto do intendente ouvi do outro lado da mesa uma conversa que me nomeou um desses sopros, uma dessas decisões do nosso tamanho. Alguém falava da década de oitenta, de como era jovem, numa periferia qualquer, e de como praticamente toda a gente que conhecia se drogava de um modo ou de outro. De como muitos tinham morrido. Enunciou os nomes, ao que as outras pessoas responderam com outros nomes. Nada de novo. Também tinha os meus nomes. Também me lembro dos tempos da escola e dos colegas que fumavam, injectavam e tantas outras coisas. Mas ele continuou, disse que não tomar parte daquilo se tinha tornado numa questão identitária, crucial. Uma resistência. Não se resistia com um vazio mas com algo que o ocupava. Reconheci ali a minha própria resistência sem nome. Apesar de todas as pressões, fui resistindo. Sem uma moralidade ou sequer argumentos sobre a saúde. Sem impôr a minha decisão a outros. Se era tabaco ou charros, dizia quase sem mentir que era a bronquite. Só ali, à espera dos cafés numa tasca de Lisboa, enquanto os outros fumavam lá fora, é que encontrei um nome para uma parte de mim, que até aí era só uma torção física, um movimento.
Há tanta coisa assim sem nome. A primeira parte das nossas vidas é assim, sopros que só ganham palavras muito depois. Toda a dolorosa construção que é aprender a ser homem é talvez o maior desses ventos. Aprende-se através de piadas, de histórias, de rituais, de obrigações. de agressões, de nomes atirados em todas as direcções, nomes que não se percebe. O «paneleiro» que se atira a outro é uma coisa nebulosa que não se percebe. Talvez venha a consciência muito depois que é o uso aberto, público, desses nomes que define a masculinidade tradicional. O homem, o macho, é o único que pode dar esse tipo de nome. De quem os recebe, espera-se a luta ritual ou real, ou o silêncio. Aprende-se uma certa relação com as mulheres, que se não for cumprida é uma derrota, uma vergonha. Aprende-se.
A construção da identidade masculina é uma subcategoria de bullying. Se calhar até é o bullying quase todo. E desde então que lhe tento resistir pior ou melhor, mesmo quando ainda não tinha um nome para essa resistência. Penso muitas vezes que seria muito fácil ter-me tornado num misógino ressentido, a queixar-se da ditadura do politicamente correcto. Tive sorte. A identidade masculina dominante era algo que não me era confortável. Não sei porquê. Se calhar porque na minha família há mais mulheres. Se calhar por o meu pai ter sido criado por mulheres. Não sei.
Tenho a convicção que dos maiores problemas actuais é acreditar-se que se pode apagar a identidade masculina dominante sem erigir nada em sua substituição. Acredita-se que se pode dispensá-la. É esse vazio que os extremismos têm vindo a ocupar, nem digo apenas a alt-right, mas também a direita «clássica», o novo fundamentalismo islâmico, etc. Tudo marcado por uma misóginia identitária que deveria ser um alerta muito forte.
Time to Pick the Oddest Book Title of the Year
It’s time for the annual Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. First conceived at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1978 in order to “stave off boredom”. The inaugural prize was awarded to Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice (University of Tokyo Press). Other notable winners include: How to Avoid Huge Ships (1992), Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers (1996), Managing a Dental Practice: The Genghis Khan Way (2010) and Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop (2012). Last year’s winner was The Commuter Pig Keeper.
Here are your 2018 finalists:
Joy of Water Boiling, by Christina Scheffenacker
Jesus on Gardening, by David Muskett
Are Gay Men More Accurate in Detecting Deceits? by Hoe-Chi Angel Au
Call of Nature: The Secret Life of Dung, by Richard Jones
Equine Dry Needling, by Cornelia Klarholz and Andrea Schachinger
Vote here for your favorite . Voting ends on November 16th.
Pictured above Why Sell Tacos in Africa? by Paul Oberschneider
Cross It Out
I’ve been thinking about covers that feature one form of redacted text or another for a while, but this post has been sitting in my drafts folder gestating for far too long so I’m publishing now, as-is, because otherwise it is unlikely to ever see the light of day!
The covers of Censoring an Iranian Love Story, designed by Peter Mendelsund, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, designed by David Pearson, are classics of the genre:
I thought that this kind of bar redaction (is there a technical term for it?) might be a relatively new — post-The 9-11 Commission Report — phenomena, but (friend of the blog) Richard Weston, AKA Acejet170, recently posted this 1974 Penguin cover for Academic Freedom by Anthony Arblaster, designed by Omnific, on Instagram:
In a lovely design touch, the redacted words appear on the back cover:
Related to bar redaction is the strike-through. One of my favourite examples is Barnbrook‘s cover design for How to Run a Government by Michael Barber, published by Allen Lane.
How to Run a Government by Michael Barber; design by Barnbrook (Allen Lane / March 2015)
I’ve been seeing the straight strike-through used a lot recently. It does a neat job of doing two things at once. It allows you to not say something, while also emphasizing that you are pointedly not saying it.
I’ve seen it mostly used for nonfiction (as above), but Janet Hansen recently used the strike for the cover of Amitava Kumar’s novel Immigrant, Montana:
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar; design Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2018)
Black text on a white background with a red strike-through is its own sub-genre:
In fact, using red — be it more artistic blocks, strikeouts or scribbles — is a popular way to highlight what is being crossed out:
And generally the hand-drawn strike-through or scribble seems to be the most popular way to cross something out …
Hope A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander; design by John Gall (Riverhead Books / January 2012)
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Knopf / March 2014)
If you have (constructive) thoughts on the matter, and/or other examples, please leave them in the comments.
The Last Word by Hanif Kureishi; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / March 2015)
Paleolítico Inferior.
|
Why Buying Books Will Not Save Our Beloved Bookstores
An independent bookshop owner explains why purchases alone can’t keep small stores afloat—and what to do instead
A s if we didn’t have enough kick-in-the-teeth bad news hitting our screens this week, the beloved McNally Jackson Bookstore in Soho is reportedly leaving its home at 52 Prince Street. The news, which hit Wednesday, engendered a collective gasp that shuddered its way through all five boroughs of New York City. Though McNally Jackson promises that they are “definitely staying in the neighborhood,” they are moving shop because the rent prices are too damn high.
We don’t have an exact count on the number of bookstores we have left in New York right now, but as of 2015, according to this report by Gothamist, there were 106 bookstores in Manhattan, compared to the 386 bookstores in the borough in 1950. These numbers don’t reflect the number of independent bookstores opening in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx or Staten Island, but I remain pretty confident that we’re still below that original number.
While it may be easy to slip into a kind of dangerous daydream of the better days of yesteryear — “when people still bought books” — you shouldn’t do that. Because while buying books is important, that “call to action” distracts us from the real problem. Capitalism is not good for small, low return-on-investment businesses that we need in our community. So what are we going to do about that?
Commercial real estate norms are killing your darlings.
Luckily, we have bookstore proprietors like Lexi Beach, the co-owner of Astoria Bookshop in Queens, New York. In a tweet thread on Tuesday, Beach declared: “At a certain point, buying books from the store you love is not going to be enough to keep it open.” She went on to explain that the bigger problem lies in the relationship between capitalism, the commercial real estate market, and the toxic marriage between the two for low-margin businesses like bookstores.
Ok, bookstore loving friends, here is the truth: At a certain point, buying books from the store you love is not going to be enough to keep it open.
I promise you, there is no volume of business that McJ could have feasibly been doing such that, when the initial sweet deal of a 15-yr lease expired, they'd magically be able to pay market rent in that neighborhood.
The problem is not the sustainability of bookstores. It's the immoral capitalist (is that redundant?) system we've all accepted as normal wherein the composition of your neighborhood is dictated by people who do not actually live there.
“I’ve worked in the book industry for a long time, beginning with a job coordinating author tours at Simon & Schuster, where I was in regular touch with booksellers and events coordinators at bookstores around the country,” Beach told Electric Lit over email. “I’ve watched the landscape for brick and mortar stores change dramatically, a few times over, since 2003. I’ve always known that it’s not a business you get in to make a ton of money.” But, she says, she didn’t fully understand the calculations that go into the bookselling game until opening Astoria Bookshop in 2013. Now, the rest of us can learn from her experience.
In her Twitter thread, Beach outlined further calls to action for community members looking to keep the businesses they care about alive. We list them out here, in order to megaphone this real call to take down the bullies of capitalism with collective action.
Start at the Grassroots Level
Call your local officials. Write letters. Go to town hall meetings. Speak up about the value of this institutions in your community.
So what can you do? Talk to your hyper local elected officials. Community board, city council. Tell them how these locally owned, independently run businesses make your life in their district so much better.
Beach told us that grassroots organizations like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance give her hope that bookstores aren’t going anywhere. So does the fact that “local elected officials here in NYC are recognizing that empty storefronts are a community problem — for their tax base, for quality of life of their constituents, for health and safety — and looking for innovative solutions.”
One thing we can ask for: tax breaks for local businesses. As Beach suggests, there are not many incentives for landlords to keep rents reasonable for locally-owned businesses with low profit margins, especially in a city that continues to live up to its impossibly expensive mystique.
My idea is that landlords who rent to locally owned, independent business should get a real estate tax break. My occupancy costs went up 7% year one because of a real estate tax assessment after I opened.
Invite Small Business Owners for Panel Discussion on Community at Commercial Real Estate Conferences
Imagining the dialogue between bookstore owners and commercial real estate developers at a conference feels like fodder for a scathing short story, but it might also initiate an important conversation we don’t know how to start.
Maybe there is a conference for commercial real estate investors that would accept a panel of small business owners and BID administrators to talk about community?
Ph.D.s in Urban Studies Looking for a Project? We Need You!
I almost want to go get a Ph.D. in urban studies just to start this project.
Maybe some PhD candidate in urban studies wants to write a thesis on the inherent conflicts between a business model that aims for sustainable steady growth (small biz retail) vs one that aims for maximizing return on investment (real estate)
Or a parity study of leases to national chains vs locally owned shops. That would be so interesting!
And if none of these ideas suit you — we need more! As Beach writes in another tweet, we need to implement all of these ideas and more. Change is not going to happen in one sweeping gesture, but will require all of us to chip in with the actions we can take on.
Ultimately, Beach is optimistic. Channeling the spirit of Jane Jacobs (the urban studies activist who argued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of city dwellers), she believes these problems can be solved. “I’m hopeful because we sell copies of Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities very steadily,” Beach told us. “Her vision of what makes a neighborhood welcoming, safe, vibrant, and sustainable is still so relevant.”
What’s so important about Beach’s Twitter thread is that she houses the debate about bookstores in a much larger conversation about what it means to make our neighborhoods vibrant. Beach is hopeful that her bookstore in particular will go the distance “because Astoria is such an incredible neighborhood. Our customers are so supportive of us, and of the other wonderful small businesses here in western Queens. They are very outspoken about how glad they are that we are here, and quite determined to make sure that we stay for many years to come.”
Because bookstores are more than just book adoption centers. For me, I’ve fallen in love in a bookstore, I’ve met authors who became friends, I’ve pet cats that soothed my soul, and yes, I’ve found books that make me feel a little more whole. Bookstores are important spaces for reminding us that the work of building community is an art that takes time, takes dedication, and takes all of us to make it happen.
I'm just spitballing while I walk my dog and eventually get to work to help with the giant stacks of new releases. There are so many possible solutions to Make Our Neighborhoods Vibrant Again.
“Has minimum wage gone up? Yes. Does my rent go up regularly? Yes,” says Beach. “But I’m part of so many networks of smart people (the American Booksellers Association, Shop Small Astoria, the amazing community of NYC booksellers) who all face overlapping problems. There are solutions to all the questions we have and we’ll find them.”
Why Buying Books Will Not Save Our Beloved Bookstores was originally published in Electric Literature on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.