Reading helps keep the ol’ thinkamajig in tip-top shape. Novels
are my box lunch, but sometimes I like to have steak, or a big mac. In
this vein, I present the following:
Make Vol 1
is the first issue of O’Reilly’s
new quarterly ‘mook’.
I had originally not intended to get a copy of Make; at $21.99 CAN a
pop, an issue of Make seemed prohibitively expensive. I happened to
chance upon a free copy, however; after reading it, I now plan on
getting a subscription. Make is paper nostalgia for me; it’s writing
your own Commodore Vic 20 games, lusting after a Radio Shack hobby
electronics kit, playing with legos, or taking apart record
players. It is all of these things, updated for Today, and wrapped in
pretty graphics. Some of my favourite articles included “Maker:
Welcome to the Fab Lab” and “Aerial Kite Photography”. Make Vol 1 is
also of perfect dimensions for reading on the bus, which scores high
points with me.
Clyde Fans: Book-1,
by
Seth,
is quite good. It’s a graphic novel
(i.e. fancy comic book) about the two brothers who own the Clyde Fans
Company. I find a lot of the joy I derive from the printed word comes
as much from the packaging as it does from the content (so long as the
content could stand on its own). Since the content of Clyde Fans:
Book-1 is very good, I will write about the packaging of that
content. Clyde Fans is a cloth-bound hard-cover, the cloth having an
image of a stand of dead trees on it (which holds some significance to
the story). The paper is think, manila in colour, and slightly
glossy. The panels themselves are inked in a pure black, and shades of
blue-gray. The book jacket is adorned with portraits of the two
brothers, Abe (front) and Simon (back). The copyright dates, National
Library of Canada Catalogue information, and related information is
all hand-printed by Seth; it is a very nice touch.