Comments for CABINET OF WONDERS http://cabinetofwonders.today.com an exploration of books & culture Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:44:35 +0000 http://www.today.com/version-2.3.1 Comment on book review: 84, charing cross road by Kyra http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/14/book-review-84-charing-cross-road/#comment-19 Kyra Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:21:43 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/14/book-review-84-charing-cross-road/#comment-19 I should really look into this, if for no other reason than because it has a UK mailbox on the cover. :p Re. your comment on my blog: haha, yeah. To be perfectly honest, although I'd wanted to visit Vienna for quite a while, it was...uh, I don't entirely remember which vampire book, actually, that made me even more interested, and I think it was The Historian that made me want to visit Budapest in the first place. Hadn't really thought about it one way or another before. I should really look into this, if for no other reason than because it has a UK mailbox on the cover. :p

Re. your comment on my blog: haha, yeah. To be perfectly honest, although I’d wanted to visit Vienna for quite a while, it was…uh, I don’t entirely remember which vampire book, actually, that made me even more interested, and I think it was The Historian that made me want to visit Budapest in the first place. Hadn’t really thought about it one way or another before.

]]> Comment on book review: 84, charing cross road by Ren http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/14/book-review-84-charing-cross-road/#comment-18 Ren Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:43:52 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/14/book-review-84-charing-cross-road/#comment-18 Oh, this sounds marvelous! Only my library doesn't have it. :o I never thought I would see the day that it would fail me. Oh, this sounds marvelous! Only my library doesn’t have it. :o I never thought I would see the day that it would fail me.

]]> Comment on book review: 84, charing cross road by barefoottomboy http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/14/book-review-84-charing-cross-road/#comment-17 barefoottomboy Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:45:37 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/14/book-review-84-charing-cross-road/#comment-17 Oh, does your edition also include "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street"? It's completely marvellous, and I can't imagine the first book without its sequel. Oh, does your edition also include “The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street”? It’s completely marvellous, and I can’t imagine the first book without its sequel.

]]> Comment on bookasmagoria: the art of su blackwell by 100indecisions http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-16 100indecisions Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:45:16 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-16 Also, Sheffield FTW, if for no other reason than because it was near enough to Norwich that I heard it mentioned all the time. (Also Ipswich, which never failed to crack me up, solely because of a solitary mention of it in the DW ep "The End of the World.") Also, Sheffield FTW, if for no other reason than because it was near enough to Norwich that I heard it mentioned all the time. (Also Ipswich, which never failed to crack me up, solely because of a solitary mention of it in the DW ep “The End of the World.”)

]]> Comment on book review: a countess below stairs by 100indecisions http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/03/book-review-a-countess-below-stairs/#comment-15 100indecisions Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:51:19 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/03/book-review-a-countess-below-stairs/#comment-15 Yeah, editors who change perfectly good titles to something sensationalistic, stupid, and flat-out inaccurate drive me crazy. I read this book years ago set in WWII Poland, about these kids trying to find their father and also not get captured by Germans or Russians. It was very good, as I remember (of course, I read it when I was 13 or something and don't know where it is, so I can't re-read it to see), but it had been reprinted with a new cover from a much older edition, and I discovered that the original title was <i>The Silver Sword</i>. Not very evocative of WWII Poland, maybe, but it actually meant something and had to do with the entire plot of the book. So what did the editors change it to when Scholastic (I think that was it) published it? <i>Escape from Warsaw</i>, something that does happen in the book...and takes all of <i>maybe</i> two chapters. But it sounds oh so much more dramatic. And yeah...I suppose I will have to read this now. :p I picked up <i>The Secret of Platform 13</i> on the everything-50%-off day at Value Village, because I'd thought it sounded interesting <i>ages</i> ago in the Scholastic catalogs we used to get and never looked it up; I had no idea it was Eva Ibbotson until I found it at Value Village. At which point of course I went "Oh...I used to think this sounded cool...and Jolene loves Eva Ibbotson and I've never read her...what the heck." No idea how her adult and YA novels compare, though. Yeah, editors who change perfectly good titles to something sensationalistic, stupid, and flat-out inaccurate drive me crazy. I read this book years ago set in WWII Poland, about these kids trying to find their father and also not get captured by Germans or Russians. It was very good, as I remember (of course, I read it when I was 13 or something and don’t know where it is, so I can’t re-read it to see), but it had been reprinted with a new cover from a much older edition, and I discovered that the original title was The Silver Sword. Not very evocative of WWII Poland, maybe, but it actually meant something and had to do with the entire plot of the book. So what did the editors change it to when Scholastic (I think that was it) published it? Escape from Warsaw, something that does happen in the book…and takes all of maybe two chapters. But it sounds oh so much more dramatic.

And yeah…I suppose I will have to read this now. :p I picked up The Secret of Platform 13 on the everything-50%-off day at Value Village, because I’d thought it sounded interesting ages ago in the Scholastic catalogs we used to get and never looked it up; I had no idea it was Eva Ibbotson until I found it at Value Village. At which point of course I went “Oh…I used to think this sounded cool…and Jolene loves Eva Ibbotson and I’ve never read her…what the heck.” No idea how her adult and YA novels compare, though.

]]> Comment on bookasmagoria: the art of su blackwell by ontologie http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-14 ontologie Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:35:31 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-14 Rita, YES. Thomas Wharton was HIGHLY influential in my fascination with a book as an object; I am <i>constantly</i> flashing back to things in <i>Salamander</i> and <i>The Logogryph</i> (which I really need to buy; I miss them). I understand books and libraries in a wholly new way. One of the bits that always haunted me was the idea of the people with an entire book tattooed into their skin, and how it would be handed down from person to person; also, some of Flood's book designs, both the pun-laden concepts and the more metaphysical. I find that some of these ideas of books + metaphysics is seeping into the Evangeline story... Rita, YES. Thomas Wharton was HIGHLY influential in my fascination with a book as an object; I am constantly flashing back to things in Salamander and The Logogryph (which I really need to buy; I miss them). I understand books and libraries in a wholly new way. One of the bits that always haunted me was the idea of the people with an entire book tattooed into their skin, and how it would be handed down from person to person; also, some of Flood’s book designs, both the pun-laden concepts and the more metaphysical. I find that some of these ideas of books + metaphysics is seeping into the Evangeline story…

]]> Comment on bookasmagoria: the art of su blackwell by Rita http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-13 Rita Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:22:48 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-13 AAAH, lovely. Thank you for sharing! I love the idea of the book as a object -- how it can be transformed, manipulated, loved. My obsession probably started a long time ago, but I think Thomas Wharton's descriptions in <i>The Logogryph</i> were what really sparked it ... AAAH, lovely. Thank you for sharing!
I love the idea of the book as a object — how it can be transformed, manipulated, loved. My obsession probably started a long time ago, but I think Thomas Wharton’s descriptions in The Logogryph were what really sparked it …

]]> Comment on bookasmagoria: the art of su blackwell by 100indecisions http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-12 100indecisions Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:09:56 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-12 Ooh, <i>shiny</i>. WANT. And oh oh I have one! I actually got to look at a copy of <a href="http://humument.com/" rel="nofollow">The Humument</a>, of which there are...I dunno, not many. This one wasn't the original, but it was still pretty cool. This was at UEA, actually, in my Frontiers of Writing class, which was on different kinds of translation, basically; we did an exercise after this where we did something similar, although none of ours were as good. Ooh, shiny. WANT.

And oh oh I have one! I actually got to look at a copy of The Humument, of which there are…I dunno, not many. This one wasn’t the original, but it was still pretty cool. This was at UEA, actually, in my Frontiers of Writing class, which was on different kinds of translation, basically; we did an exercise after this where we did something similar, although none of ours were as good.

]]> Comment on bookasmagoria: the art of su blackwell by ontologie http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-11 ontologie Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:40:38 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-11 Sarah, the Mad Hatter Tea Party made me think of you and Hannah in particular. :D I almost posted a different Alice one instead, but no, it had to be the Tea Party. Sarah, the Mad Hatter Tea Party made me think of you and Hannah in particular. :D I almost posted a different Alice one instead, but no, it had to be the Tea Party.

]]> Comment on bookasmagoria: the art of su blackwell by barefoottomboy http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-9 barefoottomboy Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:33:58 +0000 http://cabinetofwonders.today.com/2009/06/04/bookasmagoria-the-art-of-su-blackwell/#comment-9 These are completely amazing & wonderful - thank you so much for sharing! These are completely amazing & wonderful - thank you so much for sharing!

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