How Novel

We’re living in an age of rich cross-media content, were it seems that every image is clickable, every page is searchable, and every thought is commentable. The paperback may seem increasingly obsolete in comparison. However, in terms of content, the humble novel wins the race in my… er, book. During Boicozine’s down time, I gave my mouse finger and ’screen weary’ eyes a break by reading the following novels. It’s great that these can often be uncovered at op/charity shops, for under one unit of your local currency.

The Fountainhead
Jane Austin meets Roland Barthes, in a slightly wacky story of two ‘great’ architects in the early 20th Century [Wikipedia]. Has lofty ideals that you may take or leave. Eerily true to today’s design world, and absolutely unputdownable. If you really can’t leave the screen, there’s a film version [iMDB]. Get a vintage copy online here [www.abebooks.com].

The Guttenberg Revolution
The story of Johan Guttenberg, inventor of the moveable type printing press that lead to all of this. You can see his amazing Bible online here [bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg] and find yourself a copy of the story of The Story here [abebooks.com].

Of course, if you’d prefer to just look at the covers, and let’s face it, as a designer it’s hard not to, there’s always Penguin by Design [penguin.com.au] and Seven Hundred Penguins [penguin.com.au]. Or if you fancy becoming a proper Penguinophile you could delve into any number of the publications produced by The Penguin Collectors’ Society [penguincollectorssociety.org].