Category: READ & DISCOVER

All book/library/technologies-related news that we think are intersting to share here!

Sensory fiction suit , the book which was plugged in

Posted on by Team Blookup

After hearing and smelling, books keep dropping physical barriers and surprising us!

Sensory Fiction is a unique book titled “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”, a science-fiction novelette written by James Tiptree (a woman, as her pen name tries to hide)… In 1973!

It resembles any book but its size and thickness are strange: In fact, this book allows to experience the emotions of its main character with a connected jacket to wear before starting the reading session!

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A 1973’s story in a book from the future!

The concept is still at the prototype stage but the technologies used are already advanced! The MIT Media Lab, which developed and delivered a physical form to the whole idea, used nearly 150 programmable LEDs to illuminate the cover of the book, allowing colors to change the atmosphere all around you while the jacket, equipped with a heating device (with the help of a Peltier junction), vibrating plates and a system of compression by airbags, will make you experience with the heroine the power of love and despair, the sensation of freedom and that of confinement…

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Front and back views of the Sensory Fiction suit

By playing on heat transmission, heart rate and the atmosphere of the room, Sensory Fiction transports you beyond words and, if it does not replace your imagination (fortunately!), it allows you to be immersed body and soul in the narrative!

We are excited to know if new stories will be adapted to the concept!

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Source | Images:  F3H3

Christmas 2017 for books lovers!

Posted on by Team Blookup

1. A pocket book turned into a decorative pen

pocket-book-pen-foldedA unique handmade accessory by Papiers et Contes en Herbe, which will elegantly carry your letters, cards, CDs, and will prevent your friends from stacking all these bulky objects on their desk!

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2. A zip-like bookmark

zip-bookmarkHaving a bookmark is cool, but having a bookmark that has style is way cooler! For a reasonable price, offer a always useful, colorful gift that will make all readers envious!

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3. A giant book that transforms into a stool

stool-books-booknitureA magic and effective multiple use-object that will allow you to sit AND decorate your shelves! It can be stored in your personal library or be used as a stool when receiving riends over. A gift that will certainly give all rooms a real style!

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4. The Swear Words Coloring book

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Not a gift made for children! If you know a naturally stressed person or one going through difficult times, this book is the perfect gift! It allows anybody to let their creativity run wild while embellishing the most floral insults of Shakespeare’s tongue (pens and watercolor not provided).

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5. A Blook

pile-books-foregroundWe didn’t mention it last Christmas, so we are allowing ourselves to do so this year ;): Create the book of your blog (WordPress, Overblog, Canalblog, Blogger / Blogspirit, Tumblr, Skyrock, Haut et Fort), your favorite social network (Facebook, Instagram) or PDF file with BlookUp!

Import all of your content in just a few clicks, layout them and adjust all the details of your book (covers, texts, images …) as you please! The creation and customization of the books are unlimited and free, and your order is delivered at home within 15 working days! Okay, maybe it’s too late for this year, but you can still surprise your loved ones with our Gift Cards (or simply get ready for a birthday or next Christmas 😉 )!

Find our personalization guide in our help section, and don’t forget that our customer service is also here to help you create your blook!

Hashtag Shelfie: Sharing your library under the hashtag

Posted on by Team Blookup

We know that internet, blogs and social networks gave or maintained a general taste for writing and creation! It also  gave the world of books a second youth by putting self-publishing at everyone’s reach.

Books and writing are part of the daily life for many of us. And the internet pays them tribute!

@earthscorners

What the shelf?

On Instagram, we find under the hashtag #shelfie a whole lot of inspiring photos featuring shelves and libraries. The word “shelfie” itself sets the tone by combining the words “shelf” with the word “selfie” (the famous self-portraits photographed in the 21st century, for those sleeping at the bottom).

Many of the photos feature furnitures arranged like they’re almost taken straight out of an IKEA magazine. But, and this is what interests us here, we can also find books!

@culturetripbooks

#Shelfie indeed is the occasion to make your personal library a star while the hashtag lasts ! It’s also the moment to share your reading taste or your  storage foibles to your friends and followers… Or even to discover what composes the tastes of others and how people organizes and surrounds one’s readings!

@bluestockingbookhelf

@bluestockingbookshelf

No boasting of elitist readings or endless rows of books here (even if we recognize that a full library is always pretty to picture 😉 ), only the joy of seeing beautiful book-related photos and starting exchanging about your favorite books!

After all, the contents of a library are often indicative of the personality of its owner(s): It is with this idea that the newspaper The Guardian launched the concept of the Shelfie in December 2013.

@shelfjoy

More than 820 000 publications are now classified under the hashtag #shelfie and more are coming everyday, so it’s always time to get involved and show what you have and love!

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Article source (French) | Images:  @earthscorners, @culturetripbooks, @bluestockingbookshelf and @shelfjoy

Books portage, when reading comes at home!

Posted on by Team Blookup

In France, the media library of Poitiers (named “Médiathèque François Mitterrand” as an hommage to one of France’s former Presidents who is said to be fond of arts and culture) has found a great solution to bring company and entertainment to the elderly, handicapped or isolated people. Books portage!

Poitiers’ inhabitants are thus given the possibility of being delivered of their books for free ! With all the books directly coming from the collections of the media library.

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Dominique Delbor receives her new audio books from Carine Chollet and Isabelle Brillanceau’s hands, from the media library staff

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The delivery is “included” in the price of their annual subscription to the library (costing from €6 to €16) ! Thus offering an invaluable service without any extra cost. The people that are delivered are visited by the Media Library’s staff and can exchange a few words as well as their books! Which they give back (of course;)) while borrowing again.

Every 24 days, a new arrival of audiobooks arrives at the tables of the beneficiaries. It allows them, thanks to the quantity and diversity of content available, to find their happiness for several years!

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The multimedia library makes nearly 2,300 texts available to read and has also signed a partnership with the Valentin Haüy association (located in Paris). It allows visually impaired subscribers to obtain access to an additional fund of 200 texts engraved in “Daisy” format. Subscribers can also freely download 20,000 titles from the Éole online library.

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Source (French only) | Photos credits: Bm-poitiers.fr et Marie-Laure Aveline

Seeing and hearing Iceland with HVISL!

Posted on by Team Blookup

A book you can smell already exists ! Now check out the book that you can listen to?

Hear for yourselves!

Audiobooks, those kind of books one person will read aloud and record so that others can listen to them, are a growing part of books sales nowadays. They mainly prove their practicality for visualy impaired people.

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For those who can afford it, there are some book concepts that combine vision and hearing to enjoy together as a global experience: This is the concept of Hvisl – Whispers of Iceland, both a photo album and sound guide taking you on a trip around Iceland!

The project was created by Chloé Curé and Bertrand Lanthiez, based on their shared experience of Iceland during a 2-weeks trip. Sounds effects were brought by Johannes Mandorfer.

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Their collaboration allows you to appreciate breathtaking pictures of beautiful landscapes and warm interiors, accompanied, as you flip the pages, by the sound of the wind and the waves, a conversation in Icelandic, the cracking of the ice or the bubbling of the geysers…

While you enjoy the atmosphere through your headphones, you will also learn everything you need to know about landscapes formation, local language, climate, mythology… Truly an immersive experience!

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Source | Images: Bertrand Lanthiez 

Books and videos: Who are the Booktubers?

Posted on by Team Blookup

When it comes to reading, profiles and behaviors are very diverse! More or less assiduous readers, young or not so young, with three tons of books on their hands or without any idea of what to read next…

Whatever the situation, navigating on the ocean of books that is literature can quickly become a real challenge. What are the trends? A title teases you, but you’re not sure you want to buy it  because you’re afraid of being disappointed? Which genre will truly move you or are which book will get you out of your comfort zone?

Well, as usual, to answer those questions, you have to look up for information. You may go to the nearest library, bookshop or on an online store… Or on Youtube.

A trend that actually began a few years ago

Booktubers appeared in the United States and in Mexico around the years 2010-2011. PolandbananasBOOKS, the most famous channel in America created in 2010, has currently 361,000 subscribers while Raiza Revelles, the most famous channel in Mexico and created in 2011, has 1,196,000 subscribers!

By comparison, Les Lectures de NiNe, a French channel, counts only 58,000 subscribers!

Many articles have been devoted to Booktubers since 2011, many channels have been created and have disappeared. The phenomenon is now generally well-known and followed by the english-speaking and spanish-speaking countries.

A French “Ipsos” study of 2016 made for the National Book Center (Centre National du Livre) linked the omnipresence of Internet and screens with new reading habits, not with a disinterest in reading! Booktubers, which attracted only 5% of young people according to the study at the time, are the expression of these changes!

Young people talk to young people

Their profile? Mostly female Booktubers under 30, whose audience also includes young female readers. The books presented come from all genres and lovers of great classics or more specific styles can find what they want between two fantasy or science fiction novelties!

A variety of speeches and formats form the wide range of videos made by Booktubers, like “In my Mailbox” (IMM), “Bookhauls” and “Wrap-Up”. for example.

Some of these formats already existed on Youtube for a while, such as the unboxing, which consists of opening a package (sent by a brand) in front of the camera in order to discover its contents with the subscribers. Like other Youtubers, Booktubers often initially order objects themselves, privately: When the channel becomes more famous, publishing houses send them gifts for them to talk about.

The key here is to find a form of book club 2.0: Booktubers talk to people with whom they share the same love of reading (or sometimes convert those who were not interested!) and organize Challenges and Events in order to animate and unite them.

No wonder why publishers are trying to forge partnerships directly with these video makers who are now invited in trade shows and literary debates! But even when they are part of a network, very few Booktubers make book sharing their main activity. Each of them deserves to be viewed though, and of course to be followed!

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Article Source | Crédits Vidéos :A Clockwork Reader, jennaclarek, PolandbananasBOOKS,Little Book Owl, jessethereader 

Building skyscrapers inside giant sequoias

Posted on by Team Blookup

Since 2006 the architecture magazine eVolo organizes the Skyscraper competition, a contest during which teams of architects from all over the world come up with ambitious (sometimes crazy) projects that not only challenge the limits of construction working but also rethink the way man-made buildings interact with the environment.

This year more than 400 projects have been examined by the jury, only 3 won the competition and 22 received honorable mentions, the project we are introducing today received one of these.

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Credits: Evolo

At the very heart of this team of South-Korean architects, the Giant sequoia is one of many numerous victims of human activities and although it is now protected, its life span has shortened due to climate change. In addition, the roots of this giant are very small in comparison to its height and do not grow deep in the ground; so when the core starts to rot the sequoia collapses under its own weight.

The project intends to reconcile mankind and nature with a more respectful approach of architecture by replacing the empty and/or rotting space inside the said giant in order to build skyscrapers inside that will neither harm the trees nor drastically change the landscape. The new structure build inside the sequoia acts like a new backbone that will prevent the tree from collapsing. The working space inside the “sequoiascraper” (Yup, I just made it up) should be dedicated to arts and research. A bold project that, if it ever sees the light of day, will prove that there are alternatives to bending nature to our own will and deforming the landscape. Hats off to them!

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Credits: Evolo

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Credits: Evolo

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Credits: Evolo

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Textolife turns your SMS into books!

Posted on by Team Blookup

If you regularly visit this blog (and if you have just arrived, welcome to you!), you must know that since 2011, BlookUp is the platform that transforms your blogs and social networks into books and is compatible with a little more than 10 different blogging platforms!

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These are not blooks, as you will discover in this article!

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A single question was the origin of the creation of BlookUp: “What if all my digital contents disappeared suddenly?”. The answer seemed obvious: Go back to the book, the physical object. To the compilation, the collection, the immortalization of our work and our moments spent together on the Web!

Our virtual contents and exchanges can be frail and ephemeral, like our SMS, MMS, chat messages and other short, instant conversations tools. Textolife understood that, and that’s why this online platform offers you (since 2013) to print all your SMS / MMS, WhatsApp or Messenger conversations!

logo-textolife

Sending SMS is a harmless, daily activity, and sometimes the conversations are so long that even your phone can have a hard time going back in history! It is easy to neglect these odinary exchanges, however, small forgotten treasures, sweet words, funny or moving photos are hidden inside them!

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It’s also this idea of sharing good moments and memories that started Textolife, when Yasmine wanted to offer to her family (including her sister Laura, who will also be at the origin of the concept) a collection of all their group conversations! This first book was very tedious to “handmake”, with a lot of screenshots and using Word for layout…

Be assured that today, you just have to back up your conversations using the help provided for Android, IPhone, WhatsApp and Messenger, sign in and start creating your book via a mobile app or directly from the online tool!

create-book-textolife

A book of 40 pages costs about €15, and if you only want the PDF version, it will cost you €3.90 (downloadable from your personal account at anytime!).

Sounds great, right? Go ahead, and revive your SMS with Textolife!

Turning a cookbook into lasagna (yummy)!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Do you like lasagna made with fresh pasta? You do, but you don’t know the recipe and don’t always have all the ingredients at hand’s reach?

Stop everything you’re doing right now! You’ll have no more excuses preventing you from cooking succulent homemade lasagnas!

German design agency Korefe created for the publishing house Gerstenberg a unique recipe book, a special edition subtly titled “The Real Cookbook” (“Das Echte Und Einzige Kochbuch”)!

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Anybody here to eat the pages, or can I have them just for me ? *_*

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This unusual piece is entirely composed of fresh pasta and each page is engraved with instructions on how to cook your lasagna. Once you’ve followed the recipe, you’ll just have to use the pages as layers for the dish, slipping them between two good ladles of Bolognese sauce, grated Gruyère, onions and ground meat.

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Littéraly no waste, every page will have its use!

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History does not tell us what the garnish is made of, but you will always be able to improvise if you prefer salmon or if you want to try a vegetarian version; Be careful with the recipe though because once the pages are soaked in sauce, you may won’t be able to read them again and check that you have not forgotten an ingredient!

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Once you’re done, put it in the oven…

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Alas, it seems that this limited edition has been drawn only to a single copy for the publishing house (probably the one used for the photos), and that we are far from finding the concept of an edible book in our neighborhood bookshops, shopping malls or online libraries…

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And here’s the final result! Quite teasing!

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What do you think? Real concept to develop or just a marketing thing? in any case, we are are now HUNGRY.

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Source  | Images credits : Korefe

Growing trees out of books!

Posted on by Team Blookup

A small publishing house in Argentina recently made a totally organic book that gives back to nature what it took from it by growing into a tree (Which might remind you of our previous article about the Japanese blooming newspapers). What’s their secret? Well first, unlike the majority of books, this one is made using organic ink along with acid-free pages that allow it to be planted without harming the soils. Seeds are put inside the paper during the making process and will wait until their time comes to grow into a magnificent tree!

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This book tells the story of a man wandering inside the equatorial jungle as seen through the eyes of his son.

 

Pequeño Editor, the publishing house specialized in books for children,  wanted to deliver a message to their young readers: “Books come from trees. Today, a tree comes from a book.”

Even though changing the way we make books on a global scale seems difficult (If not impossible), we have to salute the effort made by the people of this publishing house who do not only show us an eco friendly alternative but also educate children in the process!

“If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children” – Confucius

If you want to know more about Pequeño Editor and their work, be sure to check out their Facebook and Twitter page!

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