Twilight...

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Mayer has swept America, the series consists of four books, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. The first has already been released as a film with New Moon due to be released in cinemas later this year. I decided to see what all the fuss about what as far as I could see was simply the same story reproduced in a new way, could this really take over from Harry Potter, the book which got the nation reading again? I read the first book, I watched the film. And then I was hooked, I devoured the other three books, easily caught up in the narrative. Though perhaps it was such an easy read because subconsciously I had heard the story, the saga follows the plot of a basic love story, with a few vampirey twists. I also found interesting the way in which the authors religious beliefs (Meyer is a Mormon) filtered into the book, where perhaps they weren’t necessary in the development in the story. I am, sorry to say, a Twilight convert and now looking forward to the next film.

From a design point of view however, I think the covers are stunning and really capture the essence of the books, the dark and the delicate, the hope against the balckness and the fragility of life. They have been reporduced in a hundered diffeent ways from rubixs cubes to posters, however my favorite is the special addition books with red tipped pages, very poinant.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, which you read and somehow feel enlightened and though it is fictional, more knowledgeable about the world as you read the closing pages. The book, first published in 2005 is set in the midst of Nazi Germany and focuses on a young girl named Lisel, who is sent to live with foster parents by her mother. Lisel learns to cope with her new terrifying environment through the comfort of books and escapes into the written word. As expected form a WW2 book there is tradgedy is a main theme, and the story of Lisel is aptly told by death.

Death is sent to pick up the souls destroyed by the war, and interestingly describes each soul as being assosiated with a  certain colour of the sky. Death is compassionate and a new understanding is given to life when told through the eyes of the grim reaper. What most struck me in this story however was the book a Jewish man makes.

Hiding for months in Lisel's basement Max Vandenburg occupies his time by painting over the pages of Mein Kampf to tell his own story. The images of these pages are featured in the book and are striking. It is perhaps these images more than the words which fill the rest of the book which best tell the story of  the loss and love which the book thief has to come to terms with. The emotion that is evoked by Mein Kampf being painted over by a Jew to tell his story is incredibly emotive. These images are strikingly powerful. Graphically I feel that is the emotion behind a piece of work which gives it power. Though these are simple rough sketches on paper which words can still be seen, there is a clear message. I urge you to read this book.

Awful Books

This is a Blog started by librarians in order to encourage other libraries to weed out such out dated and often useless possibly offensive books. An admirable cause, educating populations with up to date literature. However I find this blog far more about cultural shifts, what was acceptable and no longer is. The graphics are also really interesting paired with the comical titles, it is an amusing reminder about how much design and culture has evolved.http://http//awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/ I urge you to view this blog an pick your best title. Mine is ' Problems of Death', surley as the blog points out, the main and most obvious problem with death is that you are dead.