A little something awesome.

For those of you who don't have enough on your plate as it is, I highly suggest taking a moment to stop by Turning the Pages a project hosted by the British Library. They've used new software to digitize books and the end result is absolutely stunning. Really, you must take a look for yourself to get the full experience. (Side note: you need to use Internet Explorer, Mozilla doesn't open this application properly.)

A little something to keep in mind, the program is designed to consider the physical aspects of the book (i.e. they film the pages of the book turning to capture the weight of the page and how the light reacts to illuminated elements). They also include supplemental interpretive information such as recordings of a piece of written or printed music, a translation of a text, or a reading of a play found in a book and a magnifying lense to get an up close and personal look. Rather than attempt to merely duplicate various aspects of the book, they utilize new media to further contextualize the book.

A fellow library student told a story of how The Queen of England showed up for the unveiling of this project where the final coding was finished only moments before they were to present the project to her. The on-site TTP books utilize touch screens. Having finally debugged everything right before they Queen's arrival, they were foiled by her silk gloves. Someone else had to turn the pages for her. The screens were not glove-accessible.

Also, you might want to take a look at University of Illinois equivalent of TTP. I met the two people who are responsible for making all those images available to you. They are very nice and diligent folks and deserve a little pat on the back for all their hard work.

No love for Jane Austen these days

I'm a pretty big Jane Austen fan. Well, pretty much just Pride&Prejudice, which is one of my favorites. But you know who doesn't love her books? Publishers. David Lassman, the director of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, has been unable to find a publisher for his novel. Which I am sure he thinks is brilliant. Curious to find out how difficult it is to find a literary agent today, he took three of Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Pride&Prejudice, changed names and locations and whatnot, and sent them out to 18 of the U.K.'s biggest publishing house.
They were all rejected. What is amazing is that Lassman did not even change or take out the first line of P&P, one of the most famous and quoted opening lines in literary history. Only one response from the publishers noticed any connection to any Austen (and it wasn't the opening line). For shame.

Keep on Readin'

Luminous is at a point of transition, if you haven't already noticed. It's not that I haven't been reading, because believe me, I have. I am just hesitant to swamp you with more information than you want, or not even more information per se but information that you might not be interested in. Information about the Federal Depository Library Program maybe (did you know you can access any "public" govt doc via your FD Library, find your library here)? Or how about Copyrighting and Fair Use? Which would of course lead me to talking about Creative Commons, for you artistic types looking for the balance between copyrighting and fair use. No? Well then, how about this...I finished my school reading this weekend and now I have my head in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Has anyone read it? "They" say its the greatest mystery novel ever written. And while I have just started the novel and am usually hesitant to rave about a book before I finish it (lest it take a nose dive at end) I really am enjoying it thus far. It is a very cinematic novel, I can literally see Sam Spade's cigarette smoke rising from his dimly lit office as I delve into the pages. And no, I have not see the movie...yet. But here is a pretty kick ass poster for the movie to peak your interests.
Also, as I don't have the time for those great big and often slow reads, (think the Russian's) I am looking for books that I can really get into but won't keep me from school work. Hence the mystery novel. Please let me know if you have any book recommendations that I just must read.

Muir in Alaska 'preaching glacial gospel in a rambling way'

So. I'm reading Travels in Alaska by John Muir, which I expected to be good. But I honestly didn't expect him to be such a beautiful writer. For being one of the great ecologists and environmentalists (not a word in his day, but oh well) of U.S. history, he sure can also use words. I wanted to share some of his odd mix of Thoreauishness mixed with actual interaction with nature. Here are two parts I like:
After a fellow climber had both his arms dislocated and Muir brought him down a glacier on the side of a mountain, foot by foot for about a half a day: "Here I took off one of my boots, tied a handkerchief around his wrist for a good hold, placed my heel in his arm pit, and succeeded in getting one of his arms into place." Jesus.

Before a mountain covered in glacier. "Standing here, with facts so fresh and telling and held up so vividly before us, every seeing observer, not to say geologist, must readily apprehend the earth-sculpturing, landscape-making action of flowing ice. And here too, one learns that the world, though made, is yet being made; that this is still the morning of creation; that mountains long conceived are now being born, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes."

Tolkien and Rowling.

The last two books I have read are Harry Potter year 1 and 2. Before that I read Lord of the Rings. It's been an interesting back to back series. J.R.R. can write extremely well. He tells a great story and moves me with the words that he uses. J.K. doesn't really know how to write. It's just the case. She tells a good story and creates wonderful characters, but doesn't have any capacity to command the language (for God's sake leave adverbs alone unless you know how to use them!).
But that's no surprise.
Here are some things that I have thought of in these reading experiences:
LOTR is a book about Sam having children. That's really it. Everything in the series is family, but Sam's in particular.
Harry Potter is pretty funny, which I didn't expect. Fred and George are sweet. Does every book make the school hate Harry and think he's bad and then turns out he's actually the good and saving guy?
Do you think that Sam goes to the Grey Havens as it said in the appendix? It leaves it open as a tale of legend, which is definitely a part of LOTR, and I think he does, but I like how it could just be legend.
Everyone says Rowling hits her stride in year 3, which I hope is true. I have enjoyed the first two books, but to be honest, not all that much.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Believe it or not, Luminous has been around for a whole year as of last Saturday, June 30th. Thanks to all of you who have come by and read our ranting and raving and a special thanks to those of you who humor us by posting comments every now and then. The ZF's and Luminous would be nothing without you.

Other notable birthday's on June 30th:

Susan Hayward, Actress in the movie adaptation of "Valley of the Dolls" written by Jacqueline Susann, whose birthday is not June 30th but August 20th and interestingly enough also tried to become an actress after being a successful writer wasn't enough.

Frank Marcus (a.k.a. Frank Ulrich Marcus) playwright/critic, and author of "The Killing of Sister George" which I believe was popular at one time, long before I was born, he has likely written other things as well...look into him if you are interested. (b. 1928)

& "Iron" Mike Tyson, youngest heavyweight boxing champ (b. 1966)--who has no relation to books, as far as I know...