One of the ways in which people express bookishness is through a declaration of love for ‘the smell of books’, a phrase that evokes nostalgic attachment to print. Rather than accepting, critiquing,... Show moreOne of the ways in which people express bookishness is through a declaration of love for ‘the smell of books’, a phrase that evokes nostalgic attachment to print. Rather than accepting, critiquing, or deconstructing this familiar rhetoric, our research proposes a non-traditional response. As researchers, when people have brought up the smell of books, we have redirected the conversation by gesturing towards ferries. The diplomatic non-sequitur ‘Oh look, a ferry’ has become a catchphrase that we have extended metaphorically and literally. In this paper, we report on a range of arts-informed experiments, including a YouTube channel, pyjamas, and a manifesto. These creative, playful experiments suggest ways of expanding discussions about print and e-books amongst academia, industry and members of the public. Our research suggests that arts-informed experiments can produce tools for thinking about the materiality of books, thereby contributing towards the development of book culture epistemologies. Show less
The book reigns unfettered as the cultural object per excellence. Next to being carriers of information and symbols of social prestige, books embody concepts of enlightenment, emancipation, and... Show moreThe book reigns unfettered as the cultural object per excellence. Next to being carriers of information and symbols of social prestige, books embody concepts of enlightenment, emancipation, and self-discovery. As an object, it is akin to a sacred object. Yet unlike the relics from many religions, books are anything but scarce. Even as they pile up and gather dust, their cultural status makes it impossible to dispose of them as any other object. As experts on compartmentalisation, we have found creative ways to “ditch” those books we no longer want. Through the secular ritual of book donation we are not “getting rid” of them, we are just “passing them around”.This paper stems from a research in progress with Giulia Moriconi on Little Free Libraries. Based on our framework of book donation as a ritual of disposal, I focus on book donation programmes. Show less
Although useful, digital screens have not yet replaced physical books. The printed book offers three concurrent psychological advantages that explain its puzzling resilience: (1) Better learning... Show moreAlthough useful, digital screens have not yet replaced physical books. The printed book offers three concurrent psychological advantages that explain its puzzling resilience: (1) Better learning and remembering are associated with the physical act of moving through the space of printed pages, which stimulates the visuo-spatial sketchpad component of working memory; (2) since reading is based on temporal, sequential processing, the fixed frame of reference of printed pages and their fixed shape are great aids to memory; (3) the properties of paper and the standard design of a printed book guarantee that it will always function properly: one day, a year, or many centuries later. One reads the same words on screen or in print, but the context in which the symbols are read is very different. The digital book appears and vanishes. The physical book – where kinesthetic experience is more vivid – remains as an actual, remembered space. Show less
The paper book’s chief accomplice? Who could it be but the bookseller. TXT consulted three independents. What will the future of bookselling look like? We spoke to the new director of Athenaeum... Show moreThe paper book’s chief accomplice? Who could it be but the bookseller. TXT consulted three independents. What will the future of bookselling look like? We spoke to the new director of Athenaeum Booksellers, Caroline Reeders. We talked to comic bookstore owner Menno Barkema, of Leidse Stripshop Mevrouw Kern. Lastly, we spoke with entrepreneur Tim van den Hoed of the crowdfunded De Utrechtse Boekenbar. They may be fortes and cities apart, but these booksellers show striking commonalities. All waved digital goodbye and returned to paper. They have faith in the paper book, but do they have equal faith in the bookshop? Show less
During the Second World War, the Nazis carried out violent attacks on Jewish cultural heritage, paying special attention to book collections in libraries, archives and other institutes. This... Show moreDuring the Second World War, the Nazis carried out violent attacks on Jewish cultural heritage, paying special attention to book collections in libraries, archives and other institutes. This destructive event is now sometimes referred to as the ‘Bibliocaust’. The plundering, destruction and dispersal of many private and public collections by the Nazis’ ideological brigade, Alfred Rosenberg’s ERR, shifts our perception of the Germans as anti-intellectual vandals: their aim was to preserve certain Jewish cultural artefacts to justify their extermination, and destroy the rest. Inspired by an essay on becoming a book collector written by the Jewish writer and culture critic Walter Benjamin, this article investigates what the term ‘collecting’ meant during this chaotic time, how books lost their meaning as a result of dispersal, and how their owners fought back against the destruction of their memory. Show less
This article analyses the practice of giving books as gifts through history, in Europe. It starts from the book as a ‘gift of power’ in the Merovingian and Carolingian time, going through the... Show moreThis article analyses the practice of giving books as gifts through history, in Europe. It starts from the book as a ‘gift of power’ in the Merovingian and Carolingian time, going through the presenting of books amongst scholars as signs of friendship and professional appreciation, the book as ‘public gift’, and the emergence of the early nineteenth-century genre of ‘gift books’, to eventually reach the present days and the dispute between eBooks and physical books in gifting habits peculiar to the period. Wealth, symbolism, the ability to convey messages: different aspects are taken into consideration, to try and give reason of why books have always been considered so appropriate for gifting. Show less
