The Thing The Book

The Thing The Book: A Monument to the Book as Object | Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan

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Chalk this up as another book doing battle with its own subtitle 'a monument to the book as object', based on the introductory discussion of The Thing periodical, it's clear that non-traditional formatting is key in the minds of those putting together the magazine. So when they decided to make a book, what you get is partly an exploration of books, their components, the way they tell stories, 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? but also partly an art object, something to engage with rather than read.
There are a number of written pieces I find interesting for different reasons, but I'd argue there were an equal number of entries that I can't review because I didn't interact with them as I do with a book. As little as I might find myself qualified to discuss the merit of a book, that dwarfs my readiness to talk about the relative values of art. 1w

Robotswithpersonality 3/? Regarding the written works that I perceived and enjoyed as short stories or essays, my favourites:
Footnotes by Jonathan Lethem, yep, the entire text of the essay is in the footnotes. Terry Pratchett would be proud. 1w

Robotswithpersonality 4/? The Artist as Bookmaker by Gwen Allen, a short history of other objects introduced as books, and artists making books that were art first, nad where that blurred line might be going in the future. Loved delving into the creative minds of the past, a little worried about the implications of the conclusion. 1w

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? A Note to My Students by Andrew Leland, cheeky commentary, the role of academia in determining textual value meets the wide-eyed wonder that is realizing how much can be done with text to make stories. 1w

Robotswithpersonality 6/? The Fire This Time: Razing the Book by Andrew Hultkrans, could be dismissed as a product of its time diatribe against ebooks, but I think the concern around information retention threated by format viability and licensing is a perennial concern it's always good to add more well-spoken voices to. 1w

Robotswithpersonality 7/? Endnotes by Rick Moody, a tad surreal, but I happily floated along, again, once you realize the author is choosing to tell some kind of story entirely in end notes it's just fun to bounce about in the creativity for ten pages 1w

Robotswithpersonality 8/? Questions for a Reading Group by Starlee Kline, reading group questions feel like a ripe format for creativity and parody, and the author makes a short narrative that seems to poke fun at how off topic a reading group might get, how provocative or awkward questions might get, how nitpicky they can get, but also how a person might approach a work written by someone they know, and how people can be petty, and the good old standby 'divorce/having 1w

Robotswithpersonality 9/? an acrimonious ex means you might start blurting out grievances regardless of the time or place
1w

Robotswithpersonality 10/10 ā ļø¸ The Hearing Trumpet: A Character List, big warning on this one, among the dated language used is a particular transphobic character description; while telling a tale solely through a character list and accompanying descriptions is a neat premise, it's not so great that you can't skip it to avoid the harmful sentiment (may just be a result of being published in 2014?) 1w

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