BOOKS AREN'T JUST FOR READING

Books becoming other forms of art...so meta.
By Melissa Presti

It's the little things that remind you why you pursue the career you've chosen for yourself, and I love discovering when someone has reinvented a book, in any form of art. I must credit the first part of this week's post of brilliant artwork to Neil Patrick Harris, obviously. Last week he tweeted a link to some of the craziest pieces of art made entirely out of books.

Guy Laramie creates his work in 3D and uses thick tomes of literature to sculpt topographical landscapes into the pages:

Incredible. Literature and sculpture intertwining their artistic forces blows my mind.

Part two of the wonders of art-turned-into-more-art is simply a photography blog devoted to posting images of New Yorkers reading in public: the Underground New York Public Library. It's fascinating when you glance around your subway car to see the amount of people reading, whether it's a book, newspaper, magazine, or new-fangled e-reader thingy. And if you say you've never leaned over someone to see what they're reading, you're probably lying. The photos on this blog cater to those reading physical books rather than e-books to satisfy your curiosity.

Photographer Ourit Ben-Haim documents the reading-riders daily and posts the title and author when possible. She describes the project as this: "I’m fascinated by how we apply ourselves to stories and discourse. In so doing, we shape who we understand ourselves to be."

Now will you ever see me reading a book on the subway? Probably not. I like to tune out the world with my music while I'm enduring the hell that is mass transit, and sometimes after spending all day working with and talking about books I don't want to read a damn book, ok?

MELISSA PRESTI works in book publishing at Penguin Group (USA). www.us.penguingroup.com
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Comments

[Tania]

I believe that group work has great pedgaogical value, but I've realized (primarily through discussions with Karen Thompson, to give credit where credit is due) that I haven't been teaching my students HOW to do group work; I've just been giving them a project and assuming they'll figure out the group work elements probably the worst kind of teaching. This has led to all the complaints that students have about group work I have to do everything because nobody else cares, Person X won't let anybody else do anything, etc. So I'm moving toward teaching about group roles and interaction as the groundwork for group projects. Karen has used a good text that is focused on collaborative writing, but the information can be transferred to other kinds of joint labor. What is the title of that book, Karen?Victoria