May 29, 2009
Contest: The May Digital Book Collection
Welcome back, or perhaps just welcome if you’re new to this. It is the last Friday of the month, and that means community building time here at Inklings!
What’s this? For a full explanation, check out this post. Or, try to divine the gist of it from the following:
One per month Inklings hosts 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. No limit to the number of entries, either – go wild!
Next Friday I will compile all the submissions and present a virtual exhibition of our collection. The person who submits the “best” contribution will get a prize – this month I have a lovely upcycled lined journal from Cover Stories on the offer. Please have your entries to me by bedtime on Thursday, June 4th 2009.
Need some inspiration? Check out our past exhibits:
Travel: The Poetry of Motion (April)
Diversions, Distractions and Diabolical Deeds: Entertainments for a Darkened Room (March)
This month’s theme is Like Minds: The Triumphs and Trials of Collaboration. I have to say that collaboration is something I have a weakness for, as I am almost always convinced that the marriage of two artists I love can only result in a product twice as good as either could have produced independently. Of course, history has proven me horribly wrong (Dancing in the Street *coff*) – but epic failures always make the best collectibles! In any case, here are a few ideas:
What? Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Corgi, 1991
Where? On my husband’s bookshelf.
Why? This is an utterly uncollectible edition, but the work itself is one of the best collaborations in speculative fiction. One of the cases where two heads really are better than one!
What? Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, illustrated by Edward Gorey, Faber & Faber, 1982
Where? My diningroom
Why? Old Possum’s was always a cute book, but the addition of qurky Gorey illustrations made this a hit outside the usual poetry crowd.
What? The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer, Kent State University Press, 2007
Where? The Bob Miller Book Room
Why? This is my meta entry: Glyer uses the Oxford literary group known as the Inklings as a case study in writers who have worked in community. Know your subject!
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Note I have extended the deadline this month – you have a week to enter rather than the usual three days. Good hunting!