Krzywinski developed Circos, an open source visualization tool that arranges tabular data in circular form. It was a simple idea, but transformative: It’s since been used for thousands of visualizations, and its distinctive aesthetic is synonymous with the informational richness of our moment.
Read: Circle of Life: The Beautiful New Way to Visualize Biological Data | Wired Science
For more on Martin Krzywinski’s science art take a look at his website.
Never one to resist an opportunity to fantasize about making our home libraries more beautiful, we searched for innovative, stylish, and cozy library chairs that we’d love to lounge in with a great book. See if you can envision any of these pieces earning a spot in your literary abode. See: Beautiful Library Chairs for Literary Abodes | Flavorwire.
You may also like: Oxford’s Library Chooses Its First New Chair Design Since 1936 | Gizmodo
Let’s celebrate October with The 50 Scariest Books of All Time | Flavorwire.
This story suggests The Great Library at Alexandria was destroyed by budget cuts, not fire @ ion.com.
Want to learn How to Be A Better Reader | HuffPost Books? This story give 14 tips.
Take a look at The Art of Famous Book Covers | Publisher’s Weekly.
Although this presentation is mainly visual images it really makes you think about what books are and what they represent.
The art of stop-motion animation has left viewers in awe for decades. Yet, such a simple pleasure requires a lot of planning for perfect execution.
As part of the PBS Digital Studios series Off Book, a few highly skilled stop-motion artists reveal a little bit of the magic behind their creations.
via The Magic Behind Stop-Motion Animation Revealed [VIDEO] | Mashable
Colleen Theisen, a librarian at University of Iowa’s Special Collections and University Archives, recently found these awesome fore-edge paintings on a series of books from the 19th century.
The books are a four volume series by Robert Mudie, one volume for each season of the year, and the paintings reflect each of those seasons. The artist of these mini paintings is unknown.
The full story: Stunning, Tiny Paintings Found On Vintage Books | HuffPost Books.
Checking in at Little Free Library’s Facebook page is always fun, but a post yesterday was so mesmerizing that even the LFL folks couldn’t resist exclaiming: “Is this the most amazing, stupendously clever, epic, mechanically excellent (?!) and stunningly cool Little Free Library ever? It’s a kinetic sculpture! A neighborhood art piece! Destined for the Museum of Modern Art? The Walker? The Guggenheim? Have you ever seen anything this fab?”
A perennial topic of conversation among people who debate literature on the Internet is the relative importance of books as physical objects. Foremost among defenders of the printed book are those who extol the sensual pleasures of reading—the feel of the pages, the heft of the object, the smell of the paper—and maintain that it is impossible to experience those pleasures digitally.
In a related, but separate, camp are those attracted not to the tactile pleasures of books but to their beauty as objects.
via Internet Book Fetishists Versus Anti-Fetishists | The New Yorker.
The Voynich Manuscript has eluded every attempt at deciphering. But new computerized statistical analysis suggests it has a genuine message and is not a hoax.
via Medieval book in unknown language contains message | Crave – CNET.
Amsterdam’s famed Rijksmuseum recently emerged triumphant from a decade-long renovation project. In addition to the extensive on-site overhaul that transformed the 125-year-old institution into an LED-lit, chronologically arranged journey through art history IRL, the reopening also marked the debut of the Rijksstudio, an incredible online resource that allows virtual visitors to explore hi-res versions of a staggering 125,000 works.
The Rijksstudio has a cool discovery tool called Master Matcher. You answer 5 questions which match you with items from the archive of 125.000 masterpieces in the Rijksmuseum.
infophile 