books

Introducing The Quentin Blake Typeface

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If you have ever read a children’s book illustrated by Sir Quentin Blake, you are probably familiar with Blake’s playful and original handwriting style. The folks at Monotype were tasked with creating a typeface that replicated the unique form of Blake’s writing in an authentic and natural way.

Monotype’s solution included using four subtly different variants of each letter that was selected from a large collection of writing samples. The variants allow for the typeface to seem to have random alterations and diversity among the letters, making it appear more like handwriting. The result is a typeface that doesn’t just look like Sir Quentin Blake’s writing, it acts like it too.

Quentin Blake Typeface

via Kottke

Top 10 Most Banned Books: 2014

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For the past many years, during Banned Books Weak, I have put together a list of the top ten most banned books of the previous year. Out of 311 challenges (a slight increase from the 307 challenges reported in 2013) as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, here are the top ten:

2014

  1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence. Additional reasons: “depictions of bullying”
  2. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi
    Reasons: Anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “promotes the homosexual agenda”
  3. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
    Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  4. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”
  5. It’s Perfectly Normal (The Family Library), by Robie H. Harris
    Reasons: Nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group. Additional reasons: “alleges it child pornography”
  6. Saga, Vol. 1, by Brian K. Vaughan
    Reasons: Anti-Family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group.
  7. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
    Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence
  8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”
  9. A Stolen Life: A Memoir, by Jaycee Dugard
    Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group
  10. Drama, by Raina Telgemeier
    Reasons: sexually explicit

Click these links if you are looking for the top 10 lists for previous years with easy links to Amazon: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001.

Additionally, in 2010, I put together a list of the 100 Most Banned & Challenged Books Of The Decade by aggregating several lists from the American Library Association.

First New Dr. Seuss Book In 25 Years

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What Pet Should I GetImage via Random House

The first new Dr. Seuss book in 25 years, was released yesterday! “What Pet Should I Get?”” was discovered in a pile of papers by Audrey Geisel (Dr. Seuss’s wife) shortly after his death in 1991. It is thought that he wrote and illustrated the book sometime between 1958 and 1962. And there are more unpublished books from that posthumously discovered pile of papers to come!

I have read “Hop on Pop” to my son so many times I have it committed to memory. I sure he’ll like this new one too.

Mad Men Reading List

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The New York Public Library (NYPL) has created a Mad Men Reading List, a collection of 25 titles read by the main characters during the course of the series. These titles are a great way to gain insight into the social and cultural eras in which the series takes place.

DON DRAPER’S PICKS

ROGER STERLING’S PICK

JOAN HARRIS’S PICK

BERT COOPER’S PICK

  • Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
    (Episode 108 “The Hobo Code”)

BETTY DRAPER’S PICKS

PETE CAMPBELL’S PICKS

SALLY DRAPER’S PICKS

LANE PRYCE’S PICK

HENRY FRANCIS’S PICK

Billy Parrott has also written a more comprehensive blogpost that lists books seen on shelves and lying around on tables during the show.

Top 10 Most Banned Books: 2013

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For the past few years, during Banned Books Weak, I have put together a list of the top ten most banned books of the previous year. Out of 307 challenges (a decrease from the 464 challenges reported in 2012) as reported by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, here are the top ten:

2013

  1. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
    Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
  2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
    Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
  3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  4. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
    Reasons: Nudity, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
    Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group
  6. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl, by Tanya Lee Stone
    Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit
  7. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
    Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
  9. Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
    Reasons: Occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
  10. Bone (series), by Jeff Smith
    Reasons: Political viewpoint, racism, violence

Click these links if you are looking for the top 10 lists for previous years with easy links to Amazon: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001.

Additionally, in 2010, I put together a list of the 100 Most Banned & Challenged Books Of The Decade by aggregating several lists from the American Library Association.

A list Of The 100 All-Time Best Film Noir And Neo-Noir Movies

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In two months Taschen Books will be releasing a photography book called Film Noir. TASCHEN’s 100 All-Time Favorite Movies. The 688 page book is a film-by-film photography book of the 100 greatest Film Noir movies since 1920. It will contain posters, tons of rare stills, cast/crew details, quotes from the films and from critics, and analyses of the films. The list of the 100 greatest film noir movies in the book is below.




1920-1959

1920

  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

1927

  • The Lodger

1931

  • M<

1938

  • Port of Shadows

1940

  • Rebecca

1941

  • High Sierra
  • The Maltese Falcon

1943

  • Shadow of a Doubt
  • Ossessione

1944

  • Phantom Lady
  • Double Indemnity
  • Gaslight
  • Laura
  • The Woman in the Window
  • Murder, My Sweet

1945

  • Hangover Square
  • Mildred Pierce
  • Detour
  • The Lost Weekend
  • The Spiral Staircase
  • Leave Her to Heaven

1946

  • Gilda
  • The Postman Always Rings Twice
  • Notorious
  • The Big Sleep
  • The Killers

1947

  • Body and Soul
  • Nightmare Alley
  • Out of the Past
  • T-Men
  • The Lady from Shanghai

1948

  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
  • Call Northside 777
  • They Live by Night
  • Force of Evil

1949

  • Champion
  • The Third Man
  • White Heat

1950

  • Gun Crazy
  • Night and the City
  • In a Lonely Place
  • The Asphalt Jungle
  • Sunset Boulevard

1952

  • The Thief

1953

  • Poison Ivy
  • Pickup on South Street

1954

  • Rear Window

1955

  • Diabolique
  • The Big Combo
  • Rififi 366
  • Kiss Me Deadly
  • The Night of the Hunter

1956

  • The Killing
  • Foreign Intrigue

1957

  • Sweet Smell of Success

1958

  • Elevator to the Scaffold
  • Touch of Evil
  • Vertigo
  • It Happened in Broad Daylight
  • Murder by Contract

1959

  • Odds Against Tomorrow

1960-2011

1960

  • Purple Noon
  • Peeping Tom
  • Psycho
  • Shoot the Piano Player

1962

  • Cape Fear

1963

  • High and Low

1966

  • Blow-Up

1967

  • Point Blank
  • Le Samouraï

1971

  • Get Carter

1972

  • The Getaway

1974

  • The Conversation
  • Chinatown

1975

  • The Passenger

1976

  • Taxi Driver

1978

  • The Driver

1981

  • Diva
  • Blow Out
  • Prince of the City
  • Body Heat
  • Clean Slate

1982

  • Blade Runner

1985

  • To Live and Die in L.A.

1986

  • Blue Velvet

1987

  • House of Games

1992

  • Basic Instinct
  • Bad Lieutenant

1994

  • Pulp Fiction

1995

  • Se7en
  • Heat

1997

  • L.A. Confidential
  • Hana-Bi

1999

  • The Limey

2000

  • Memento

2005

  • Sin City

2007

  • No Country for Old Men

2008

  • The Dark Knight

2010

  • Black Swan

2011

  • Drive

#oneSecond: A Four Volume Set Of Every Single Tweet Created During A Single Second

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#oneSecond 1

Check out this cool data visualization project called #oneSecond. Philipp Adrian created a four volume set of all the tweets created during a single second. Adrian created it as part of an assignment for his typography class while he was a student at The Basel School of Design.

He used Datasift to acquire every tweet in the world on Nov. 9, 2012, at 14:47:36 GMT. The tweets were then layed out in four books covering over 4,500 pages. Each tweet was categorized by language, timezone, avatar type or registration date. Data like followers, friends and status counts determined the appearance for each users tweet. The books contain 5,522 tweets in 42 languages.

#oneSecond 2All images via Philipp Adrian

Some Say The World Will End In Fire, Some Say In Ice

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This comic by Stuart McMillen is an adaptation from Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. It compares Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” with George Orwell’s “1984”. With the recent revelations of NSA surveillance, I think the jury is still out on which vision is more correct. I think both Huxley and Orwell were right – the iron fist of government and the attention-sapping distractions of technology are dangers to modern society. The whole thing resonates quite loudly in today’s internet landscape.

Amusing Ourselves To Death

Denver Public Library Lookup Extension

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My family is full of voracious readers. We all spend a pretty penny at Amazon.com and related sites buying books we are interested in while our Denver Public Library cards sit dormant in the junk drawer. I wanted a way to save some money and support our local library. So I created a Chrome Extension to do just that. Now when we are about to buy the next book for our book club from our favorite online retailer we can, with one click, check to see if the Denver Public Library branch has it available first.

Use the Denver Public Library Lookup Extension for Chrome to instantly search the Denver Public Library at the same time you’re viewing pages at online bookstores. Get the extension by clicking the button below or by visiting the Chrome Web Store.

Right now this extension is for Google’s Chrome web browser only. If you are using Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari, drag the button below up to your to your bookmarks bar.

More detail instructions and some caveats below.
…

Denver Public Library Lookup ExtensionRead More »

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