Saturday, March 13, 2010

Starred Saturdays: week of March 7


Where does the time go?  We're a few days away from St. Paddy's Day (yay!).  We're changing our clocks forward an hour this weekend (boo!).  And we're wrapping up winter and welcoming spring.  Time flies!

Penguin is determined to create an alternative cover for every taste and now we have their (RED) series.  There are some beautiful books there and they fund a fantastic charity!  (via Rob Around Books)

If you have lots of spare money and a book-lover who has almost everything, how about getting them The Oxford Companion to the Book?  $270 for 1408 pages comes out to only 19 cents a page.  It's really quite a good deal!  (via The OUP Blog)

Here's an amazing database of 20th century bestselling American novels that The Millions calls "bibliophilic crack".  Click on a novel and find a ridiculous amount of information (compiled by graduate students) including descriptions of paper and binding and dust jacket flap blurbs.

Don't forget to pre-order your iPad.  I've decided to wait for the next version.  It's always improved and usually cheaper.

If you're heading to Buenos Aires, don't miss the Palacio Barolo -- a 22 floor building modeled on Dante's Divine Comedy.  "The lobby, a central hall adorned with inscriptions of Latin verse and monster statues, radiates out from a central dome into 9 vaulted archways, which represent the nine circles of hell as described by Dante in the Inferno."

Are you a tree house lover?  Check out the Wilkinson Residence from Portland, OR.  Be warned, at 3300 square feet, it's no kid's playhouse!  (via Apartment Therapy)

A woman in New Zealand has just made a tidy sum by selling the souls of the previous residents of her home.  However, she donated the proceeds to the SPCA. (via io9)

Need some useless information about yourself?  Take the True Value personal color quiz.  I got black.  What am I supposed to do with that?  (via Apartment Therapy)

And for your viewing pleasure ... Dead Vlei.  The trees are dead and dry and the sand is red with rust.


Thinking about a weekend excursion,
K

7 comments:

  1. I took the color quiz and got brown. Brown and green are my favorite colors!

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  2. I love those red Penguins--I think they are only available in the UK? Is it just me, or do British publishers spend more time and energy on book design? I would certainly love to have a few of them and will be curious to see if Amazon gets them.

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  3. Lenore - Perfect! I like black but I just think it's a strange color to assign on a design site. ;)

    Danielle - Yes, they are only UK as far as I can tell but I guess we can get them from The Book Depository when they come out. I definitely get the feeling that British publishers make more of an effort on book design - especially in relating the cover design to the plot itself. Strangely, they also seem to do better on relating book TITLES to the actual story.

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  4. I think I want the Oxford Companion to the Book but I thinkt hey shoudl send me a review copy, LOL :-)

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  5. Haha, Marie! I need a review copy too! I think the book seems fascinating.

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  6. I'm not sure what I would do with the iPad but I want one ... someday.

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  7. Jenners - Well, I currently sit on the couch in the evenings on my iPhone when I'm not reading or writing reviews so it would be nice to be staring at a bigger screen! But then again, that makes it not really essential ...

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