Marc Schultz

Book to the Future

If, like me, the newly-unveiled Espresso Book Machine has you thinking, This is progress?, here's two book-tech blogs that should provide the future-shocks you're looking for: Booktwo.org and if:book.

NEWS FLASH: Giant Book Printer Prints Books

Booktwo is an independent site, run by a young UK publishing type-turned-creative design type named James Bridle; he has a fun, casual take on bleeding-edge book trends and a fine eye for what's out there. If:book  is a more serious, technically-minded blog, attached to New York-based think tank The Institute for the Future of the Book. I've found so much interesting stuff that winnowing down the highlights would be kind of pointless--just check the top entry at either and I'm sure you'll be hooked as quick as I was.*

I will point to what I think is much more likely the future of books than the Espresso: this amateur's video proposal for an iPod-docking ebook reader. Despite my qualms about the videogaming of books, this reader's got a perfectly elegant two-screen design that mimics a book's facing pages. You'll note the creator asks for suggestions; mine is for someone to get this guy a genius grant.

In the meantime, let's see if the Espresso folks find some way to pimp their printing press; my (in-no-way-authoritative) guess is that it's about 10 years too late for a giant, book-binding xerox to make much of a splash.

*As of this posting, Twobook features some great quotes from "the latest online literary microtrend," Google ficiton; meanwhile, If:book points to a fascinating site called QuickMuse, which gives you real-time on-screen recordings of writers writing.

Posted by Marc Schultz on June 25, 2007 | Comments (2)