Not Rupert Murdoch

You’d think there was nothing else going on in the world but the News of the World. I suppose I should be paying closer attention to the grim display of moral impoverishment playing out in the media at the moment, but all I can think of when I see Rupert Murdoch is that he looks like a Spitting Image character. Of course…I had to google it, and wouldn’t you know…he IS a Spitting Image character…amongst other things. Happily, the bits and pieces pasted together for this post were obtained via legitimate and highly respectable sources. No hacking, no bribes or backdoor dealmaking, just the usual I should be working but I’m reading blogs and following links on Twitter, as I am inclined to do on a rainy afternoon…

And speaking of tweets~

enguins! From the Guardian, the incredibly talented illustrator Oliver Jeffers gives a Penguin Drawing 101. As cute as penguins are in real life, and they are really, really cute, they cannot compete with an Oliver Jeffers illustration. Sorry penguins. Following the publication of this article, some very talented folks contributed their own penguinart.

From the Atlantic (via Brainpicker): How medieval manuscripts were made. Yeah? Well they didn’t have TV, what else was there to do but scrape flesh off animal hides and grind seeds into pigment? Seriously though, what an amazing enterprise. Makes e-books seem shameful.

From The Guardian: Six leading illustrators choose their favourite living graphic novelist. I’m not an expert in this field by any stretch, but I have yet to see anything that rivals Harvey, by Quebec illustrator Janice Nadeau. One of my favourite books ever, graphic or otherwise. Also from the Guardian, How would you illustrate Camus’ The Outsider? I think they should hire whomever it is that illustrated the ‘sorrow bath’ for Keanu Reeve’s picture book (see previous Picks & Tweets.) Thanks to the ever resourceful Zoe from Playing By the Book for directing me to these articles.

A fantastic, in-depth interview by Jules from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast~as she visits with Canadian illustrator Geneviève Côté. Also from Seven Imp, the great Kady MacDonald Denton.

Upcoming from Taschen, the publisher who brought us Japanese Hole,  The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm~as reviewed by the extremely witty Caustic Cover Critic. Gotta love the…um…scope of Taschen’s list. I will be adding this one to my collection. Grimm, not Japanese Hole.

More Grimm news: Neil Gaiman tweeted a link to a ‘wonderful NYT op-ed about the relevance of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. And all I can say is, yes.’ Turns out, 2011 is a very Grimm year indeed.

Very interesting thoughts from The Age of Uncertainty blog on saving Waterstone’s~and by extension, all bookshops.

BiblioOdyssey’s gruesomely good post on the Monstrorum Historia

Feeling down? Have a look at Christopher Walken reading “The Three Little Pigs” (via Open Culture.) Mr Walken can read me a bedtime story anytime. He rings my cowbell.

How Harry Potter saved reading: (via HarperCollins.) Lots of articles like this over the years, but this one is particularly good. I’m ever so grateful that my years as a bookseller overlapped with the publication of the Harry Potter books. It was a fantastic ride.

The Daily Heller~DJ Spooky’s Book of Ice: A manifesto of the people’s republic of Antarctica in words, images, and music. Really cool! Heh. Corporate branding of the fakest sort.

50 Creative Business Card Designs from the Inspiration Blog.

Dig those chickens!  Unrecorded Arthur Rackham illustration surface (via Booktryst.)

Three Robbers illustrator Tomi Ungerer’s short trailer for Far Out Isn’t Far Enough – a movie about his life. Wow. Not quite sure what to say. Love the art…but the man? Hmm…I dunno. Love the cigarette hanging from his mouth at all times. Documentary should be very interesting.

Messing with Scarry. Kinda scary. It makes me very uncomfortable when publishers ‘update’ old books. By pandering to contemporary tastes, the words and images lose their cultural context.

Weird and wonderful book art. The cut pages are beautiful, but haven’t these people heard of bookmarks?

And embarrassingly relevant post from 11 Points: “The 11 Secrets of Creating a Successful Blog (Almost All of Which I Did Wrong.)” Me too 11 Points! And I still continue to do them. Bad Donna, but great blog-writing tips.

Next Post~The Fox is back in the Hen House, and I couldn’t be happier!