April 24, 2009
Contest: The April Digital Book Collection
Well here we are again, on the last Friday of the month. And as promised, I have another virtual scavenger hunt on the offer!
What’s this? For a full explanation, check out last month’s post. But here’s the 50 cent spiel:
One per month Inklings will host a virtual book collecting contest. The object will be to build, virtually, a collection on a theme of my choosing. Our collective task will be to bring together images of books that we think belong in the collection. In order to submit a book to the collection you need only take a picture of it. You don’t have to own it but you do have to be able to take a picture of it – no Googled images allowed! Go out and look around; check bookstores, libraries, garage sales, museums, friends’ houses – anywhere! If you see a book that belongs in the collection, snap a photo of it and send it in to charlotte@once-and-future.com along with a short description of the book (title, author, publication date; that kind of thing) as well as a note on where you found the book and why you think it belongs in the collection.
On Monday I will compile all the submissions and present a virtual exhibition of our collection. The person who submits the “best” addition to the collection will receive a prize – this month, the prize is a book bag and bookmark from the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books. Please have your entries in to me by 6am on Monday, April 27th – in time for me to make my post on Monday!
The collection this month will be on the theme “Travel: The Poetry of Motion“. Why? For the entirely selfish reason that I have just obtained a new book for my own collection, below:
What? From Paris to Cadiz by Alexandre Dumas, Peter Owen Ltd., London, 1958
Found? At Contact Edition in Toronto, Ontario – though now it lives in my library.
Why? This is the first English translation of Alexandre Dumas’ voyages to Spain, considered the “high water mark” of his “Impressions de Voyages”. Dumas’ travel books are colourful, exciting and almost entirely non-fiction.
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But be creative! There are many ways to approach the theme and I am partial to thinking outside the box. Here is a second example:
What? The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, Expanded Edition, by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi, Lester & Orpen Dennys, Toronto, 1987
Found? In my dining room.
Why? The perfect atlas to all the places that never existed. The Dictionary includes extensive maps of fictional worlds as diverse as Tolkien’s Middle Earth and the Swiss Family Robinson’s New Switzerland. Plan your flights of imagination with this meticulous resource.
So good hunting! I will see you on Monday!