Arrival (photos by Andrey Yakovlev; model: Anastasija Ivanova)
Found via Original Hover Effects (which are sweet, by the way).
Chevy True Stories, “My Dad’s Car”
Obviously, I love this. Of course, I teared up. (Honestly, GM: this is the tack you should have taken 5 years ago.)
Notice how you know where you are in the book by the distribution of weight in each hand, and the thickness of the page stacks between your fingers.
Bret Victor, A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design
In the however-many articles I’ve read about reading, books, ebooks, and reading devices, I don’t think this point has ever been made, not this well, anyway. Love it.
Progress: 20 down, 20 to go (list)
I’ve kept up reading at a fairly brisk pace, but forgetting to note them or get pictures before lending the books out. Oops!
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
As the first Christie book I’ve read, it’s a pretty good one. The reveal took me completely by surprise and stretched believability… a little bit. Lesson learned? If in receipt of a note inviting me to some dodgy island for a week… don’t go.
Salt A World History, Mark Kurlansky
Kurlansky’s storytelling and enthusiasm make Salt a fun read, one well-peppered with “how about that!” moments. I really enjoy these survey-class-like books when they’re done so well; I’ll be adding the rest of Kurlansky’s catalog to my list, now…
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Less than 30 pages into the sample, I was hooked enough I bought the hardcover (I know). I really, really like Morgenstern’s style: The Night Circus isn’t strictly linear, but it’s never confusing and the timelines join up nicely.
The Mother Tongue, English and How It Got That Way, Bill Bryson
Another survey class that had me cracking up on the bus daily. This is definitely a book that will stand up to being re-read (and not just for the chapter on swearing).
Five Skies, Ron Carlson
I didn’t expect to like Five Skies as much as I do. I didn’t settle in until a quarter of the way through, but then I was all in. Carlson has a steady, purposeful pace for Darwin, Arthur, and Ronnie that works beautifully. I’d wish for the book to be longer, but it can’t be, y’know? This is definitely a favorite for the year.
The Heroes of Olympus, Book Two: The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan
Percy! What keeps me coming back to Riordan’s books is how fun they are. Are they perfect? No. But what they might lack in literary polish, they more than make up for with consistently-written (and growing) characters and stories. Not to mention, here in Neptune, a foul-mouthed horse who doesn’t appreciate being underestimated.
The Scorpio Races, Maggie Stiefvater
I knew that I would like The Scorpio Races—I like Stiefvater’s style. What I didn’t know was that I’d like it enough to read it twice. In three weeks. I know! It’s graphic—water horses given to maiming riders—but she’s so good at developing distinct characters and letting the reader find the humor and making her stories earn everything they get. (It’s been optioned for a film, I think it would be ace in the style of “The Secret of Kells”.)
I should like to have these in life-size for use as a reading spot. Can you make that happen? Merci.
…the authentic creak of the Victorian stage boards and the gaslit melodrama.
Robin Buss, introduction to The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
This week on Instagram: In the trees, autumn.
Untitled by jb / The Woods by chris0007 / Fall in PA2 by iso50 / Untitled by roidrage
This week on Instagram: meep!
“meep meep” by bexfinch / “no slug backs (golden hour edition)!” by karendotstrolia / “Meep” by doublecap
Industrial brachiosaurus. (Taken with instagram)
…and like people who read as the day fails, they didn’t see that they’d lost the light. At close range, they could see everything they needed.
Five Skies, Ron Carlson (p. 164)
Key pointed his burned bread at where the old yellow road grader reclined in the bright sage like the rusted skeleton of a creature as primitive and forgotten as the ioslated plateau.
Five Skies, Ron Carlson (p. 54)
Maybe only a single color is named in that sentence (two if you’re fussy about sage) but the whole image is so lush and it wants to feel like a run-on but it isn’t but damn if it doesn’t match the Idaho landscape setting. So good.
I am thoroughly enjoying Nicole Meyer’s Branding 10,000 Lakes project. It’d never occured to me lakes had logos? These are pretty great. And! there’s a store. (:
“20Hz”
20 Hz observes a geo-magnetic storm occurring in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Working with data collected from the CARISMA radio array and interpreted as audio, we hear tweeting and rumbles caused by incoming solar wind, captured at the frequency of 20 Hertz. Generated directly by the sound, tangible and sculptural forms emerge suggestive of scientific visualisations.
So rad.
Rashard reminding everyone he’s still got it. Keisel doing what he does best. (:
