Jake Adam York
The Machine in the Library, the Machine in the Bookstore: On Book Machines
This past week, NPR ran a story on the “Biblio-Mat,” which is exactly what it sounds like, a book dispensing machine. Reports NPR: Earlier this year, Stephen Fowler, owner of The Monkey’s Paw used-book store in Toronto, had an idea. He wanted a…
Mash Note Part II: Love from the Book Designer
Earlier this week, I wrote about Noah Falck’s Snowmen Losing Weight. I was making an argument that book design is often underappreciated and an argument that good book design can be one of these forms of enthusiasm (critical appreciation that sneaks by…
Forms of Enthusiasm: Noah Falck’s Snowmen Losing Weight: A Mash Note With an Interview Inside It
Earlier this year, I saw on a friend’s desk an unusual book. It had a rather simple board cover—type, but no image—but it had four spines, two on one side and two on the other. It was like a dos-à-dos…
Forms of Enthusiasm: On Chapbooks
Back at the end of August, I was writing to suggest the value of enthusiastic engagements—interviews, conversations, encomia, even blurbs, however hyperbolic—as counterweights to “negative” reviews, which too often seem to exemplify judgment or criticism. I think a well crafted…
Forms of Enthusiasm: On Poetry Criticism, Book Reviews, and (yes, again) Blurbs
You may have heard something over the last week or two about William Giraldi’s review of two Alix Ohlin books in The New York Times. It’s a wildly negative review that’s spawned a great deal of commentary that’s more interesting…
