Five Fun Finds via Offbeat Earth


Alison Morris - June 25, 2010

Those of you who read last week’s announcement of my impending NYC move might’ve thought you’d seen the last of me on ShelfTalker, but that is not the case! (Sorry if I confused you.) I will attempt to put together at least one missive a week from now until September 1st, in between apartment hunting, packing, and moving (oy).  A Paris report is still forthcoming. Plus some fun discoveries I made at BEA. AND a birdhouse extravaganza! In the meantime, here’s a fun distraction for you…
Sales rep Bill Palizzolo sent me an e-mail recently with incredible photos of artwork made from books. Physical books, that is. As Bill notes, “You can’t do this with ebooks!” (So true! And you can’t make birdhouses either.)
The source of the photos in Bill’s forwarded message turns out to be a post on a rather eclectic blog called Offbeat Earth. Wondering what other fare I’d find there, I went digging and came up with these five fun book-themed things. In each case I’m giving you one photo as a sneak preview, as I can’t just repost the full content of their blog here, but if you visit the actual posts on Offbeat Earth you’ll find a LOT more, and they’re definitely worth seeing!
Post Number 1: “Don’t like reading? Read on…
This is the source of the book art photos that Bill sent to me — the theme being “other uses for books.”

one of three beautiful images created for an ad campaign of Prague's Anagram Books


Post Number 2: “Paper Art Makes a Statement
More book art here + newspaper art and art made from paper in general.

Su Blackwell's clever take on the rabbit hole


Post Number 3: “33 of the World’s Strangest Buildings
Of book-related note in this post: the Kansas City (Missouri) Public Library (how clever!), a “low impact woodland house” that is RIGHT out of Tolkien, and the Basket Building in Ohio that positively screams Little Red Riding Hood to me.

The Kansas City Public Library


Post Number 4: “Quiet at the Library
Blimey! The smallest library in the world might ALSO be the most charming.

phone booth library in Somerset, England


Post Number 5: “This Is Asking for Too Much
What happens when the rule-makers get their hands on a thesaurus… (There’s only one photo in this post, so I’m sending you over to Offbeat Earth to take a look.)
What do you think? Do have a favorite image from these Offbeat posts? I’m still shaking my head over the beauty (and absurdity!) of some of those buildings… What will they think of next?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *