We do it #ForTheCultr
It doesn’t matter how many pages they have, books have the power to captivate and intrigue. These articles cover everything from cat pamphlets to 10th century bibles.
What started out as a comical article on literature turned into a look at the pervasive world of publishing. Tom Comitta's Airport Novella was a whimsical jab at trashy airport books. But for his recent essay, I Said Mainstream Novels Aren’t Literature. Let Me Explain., Comitta took on one of the greatest film directors in …
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Behind a silver cover lies the purple pages of Codex Argenteus, an enigmatic bible from 6th century Germany. The codex set the standard for future book formats that live in on modern times. Some are peculiar, like Codex Seraphinianus, but Codex Argenteus is the bible of Gothic Germany. What is Codex Argenteus? Codex Argenteus is …
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Standards Manual have previously published graphic manuals for Nasa and the New York City Transit Authority. Hamish Smyth and Jesse Reed’s publishing imprint Standards Manual have released a new book celebrating the emojis designed by Shigetaka Kurita for Japanese telecoms company Docomo. 176 symbols were originally created and according to their research, Docomo came up …
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Airports are fascinating sites. Walking through departures feels like taking steps through a wardrobe into Narnia. You can buy things tax-free and as far as you're concerned, you're already on holiday the moment you're at the gate. At the overpriced newsagents, they sell cheap holiday books. A few hundred pages of drivel containing gaping plot holes, …
Continue reading "Airport Novella – A Comedic Book by Tom Comitta"
With a name like Codex Seraphinianus, it's no surprise it features peculiar drawings. There are plenty of weird and indecipherable texts in history. But one of the most curious texts in recent times is the Codex Seraphinianus. Published in 1981, the codex was written by Italian artist, architect and industrial designer Luigi Serafini over a …
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Ever heard of Marvin R. Clark? Probably not. But in 1895, he self-published "Pussy and Her Language", a publication teaching cat owners how to treat their feline friends. He was a cat lover himself and his intention with the pamphlet was to give "one out of a million Cats" a good name. Here are some …
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Hibaq Osman releases a bittersweet anthology you must read. Hibaq Osman is a Somali writer born and based in London. Her work centres women, identity and the healing process. I've been following Hibaq online for a number of years and it's been wonderful watching her grow as a poet. Her words cut and soothe in …
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You'd expect a man who made the latex heads for Spitting Image to have a wicked sense of humour and that's precisely what you get here. Wilfrid Wood gave his opinions on some of his favourite books for It's That Nice. More than likely you won't have read many of these apart from the last …
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We presume you've heard of CliffsNotes or literary abridgements but this really takes the biscuit. Book-A-Minute Classics condense classic literature down to a few sentences. This is clearly tongue-in-cheek but it's interesting to see the "essence" of some of the most famous novels in the English language in such a reduced form. Here's an example …