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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[Update] The Book and Bed hotel in Tokyo : an original concept !

Posted on by Team Blookup

Japanese people are known for having crazy ideas, and at BlookUp we love a concept that stands out!

In Tokyo, the owners of this hostel just made every book lover’s dream come true: An accommodation bookshop. Don’t let the name fool you though, the books are not for sale; however you can read as many of them as you want while being comfortably seated on one of the sofas!

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As for the beds, customers can choose between sleeping in bunks if their budget is tight or inside a bookshelf and being surrounded by hundreds of books: The ultimate bookworm’s nest! However, comfort might not be the first words to come to your mind while looking at the mattresses, and the staff is well aware of that.

The staff focused their efforts into providing the most unique experience as they could, the idea behind the accommodation bookshop was to create a space where people would be able to do what they enjoy the most until they ultimately fall asleep. And for those among you that always drink something while reading, well you are sorted because you can get coffee and other drinks at the bar inside the hostel!

beds_photo_1Tokyo is not the only city to have a Book and Bed hotel, Fukuoka and Kyoto also have their own. If you cannot make it all the way to japan, you can check out their Instagram and get a glimpse of the magic of this place!

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20 of abandoned books leading to open a free library in Bogota!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Twenty years ago in Bogota, a man decided to save as many abandoned books as he could. José Alberto Guitierrez, to call him by his full name, drives a Garbage truck around the columbian city and found out that people threw away their books so he decided to save them by taking them to his house, this initiative got him the title of “Lord of the books”.

José Alberto driving his truck in the streets of Bogota. Credits : Guillermo Legaria/AFP

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With the house slowly being filled with abandoned books, José Alberto, along with his wife Luz Mery and their three children turned the ground floor of their house into a free library they called “La Fuerza de las palabras” (The Power of words in English). The library became famous very quickly, to the point that volunteers from all around the country (and even from abroad) came to Bogota in order to help José Alberto and his family. In addition to this library, Luz Mery came up with the idea of opening a “Hospital” for old and damaged books that she would fix with her sewing skills.

José Alberto became so popular in South America that he was invited to the International Book Fairs in Bogota, Monterrey (Mexico) and Santiago (Chile). Shortly after, book donations came from all over the continent to the point that their library now contains more than 25 000 books. With space becoming an issue for the family (The surface of the library being 90m² or almost 108 square yards), the reading sessions they held for the kids of the neighborhood stopped and the library only opened when someone knocked at the door to get a book.

José Alberto reading to the children of the neighborhood. Credits : La Fuerza des las Palabras fundacion

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The news of the Guitierrez’ free library reached one of the disarmament zones of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), who recently signed a peace treaty with the government thus ending 50 years of conflicts. One of the rebels reached out to José Alberto and his family to ask them for books so that they could prepare for their reintegration into the society.

Through “The Power of words” José Alberto wanted to show the world that not only people waste food but also books, and that this loss of intellectual nourishment was almost as deplorable as Food wastage. He also stated: “Books transformed me. So I thought that in places like these, it would be a symbol of hope, a symbol of peace”

If you want to know more about José Alberto and his family’s work, we invite you to visit their website!

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Source

 

Sarah printed the book of her cottage’s every day life!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Sarah of the blog wetandwindycottage.wordpress.com decided to print the book of her blog, where she describes her life between her job and her cosy house surrounded by fields, flowers, and animals.

As we never shared any story of this kind before, we wanted to make you discover this quiet and lovely universe ! Make yourself at home and enjoy the story of her blog and her blook!

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First, tell us about yourself : You, your passions, your hobbies, your projects…

I am a qualified lawyer, I fell into the job really as a means of earning a reasonable wage and being able to live in the lake district where pay is low as the majority of jobs are in the leisure industry.

That said I love my job, I can make a difference to peoples days. I am in civil litigation and education law.

I am married, we haven’t been able to have children, but I have 2 horses, a donkey, 2 cats, a nearly grown up puppy 2 ducks and lots of chickens. I live in a beautiful house in the middle of fields with views all around,

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Aren’t those cutties?

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I know I am so lucky but even when everything is beautiful but sometimes it is still difficult to stay positive.

In winter I am up at 6 to feed muck out horses sort out the chicken, ducks and dog, then be clean and not smelling of poo by 8am to drive off to work, I then get home from work at 6 and start again with the horses etc, in the middle of this is keeping a house a garden reasonably tidy.

We moved into the house 4 years ago, there was a small garden only but we had been able to buy the fields around, we were successful in obtaining planning permission which allowed us to build the barn and stables, extend the garden and convert a small barn into more living accommodation.

We have build the barn and stables, started on the garden but don’t yet have the funds to convert the barn into more living.

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A little glimpse of Sarah’s garden

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What is your blog about and why did you want to address this subject when starting it?
I started my blog as a new years resolution to be more positive and do something for myself. The aim was to treat it like a diary of what was happening in and around me and mainly my home. As one of the aims was to be positive, I don’t really focus on the negatives which can make life look idyllic, but that I admit to that so I think it is ok. I am not pretending life is perfect, I am choosing just to show the good bits.

I made areas I was going to cover such as garden, polytunnel monthly update to keep me focused.

The areas have changed as I have done different things, I make more reference to walks now as I take Ellie my springer spaniel on walks in and around the lakes.

I also cover more cooking that I thought I would, but this again makes me more creative.

Also if I see something, like a birds nest in an artificial Christmas tree (a post from this year), I like to tell myself about it when I re-read when I am sat in a rocking chair in my 80’s trying to remember what I did.

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Yummy chocolate chip coooookieeeees!

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What contents (articles, illustrations) are you the most proud of?

I am not a skilled writer or photographer, my first posts were really just practice runs on what to do, from last December so 12 months in I did a post on starling murmurations, I love the photographs.

To be honest I didn’t think of “proud” of what I had done, I hadn’t advertised, few of my friends or family know about it, it really was just for me.

But I bought myself for Christmas the Blook of my first years blog, and was really chuffed at how it looked; especially as that had not be the aim.

What moment of your blogger life was the most memorable for you so far?

As above, getting my blook through the post and thinking really, I did that!!

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I couldn’t show you Chocolate Chip cookies without showing you their ingredients, could I? Click on the image to see the whole recipe!

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Why did you want to turn your blog into a book?

I didn’t know I did, I saw the advert around Christmas and in previous years I have produced picture books of our progress at the cottage for my husband and thought actually I might like this as a present for me.

 How did you find out about BlookUp?
I think Blookup “liked” one of my posts and as I don’t get many likes I always look to see who they are and realised it was an advertisement.

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What are the positive and negative points of the making of your blook?

It highlights spelling mistakes, which being a lawyer I shouldn’t do, but apart from that is a physical record of the good bits in the year.

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Do you enjoy the final result? What does your family and friends think about your blook?

My husband(!!) has shown it to a few friends and family who have visited, they didn’t know about my blog and are really supportive

Would you recommend BlookUp?

Yes, it is a great physical memento of a lot of hard work, I plan to get one done every January, again it keeps me focused on blogging.

The Parthenon of Books, Art vs Censorship

Posted on by Team Blookup

It has been over two weeks since Documenta 14 officially started in Kassel, Germany. The people visiting the city for this 14th edition will have a chance to see a temple, similar to the Parthenon of Athens except that this one is made out of books!

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Volunteers helping for the construction of the Parthenon of books. Credits John Macdougall – AFP

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The artist behind the Parthenon of books Marta Minujin, famous in the south-american pop-art scene, wanted her creation to be a symbol of resistance against all forms of censorship; which is why only books that have been censored or banned at anytime throughout History have been used for its construction. Students from the University of Kassel helped the artist by picking 170 different books out of 70 000 (You can find the lists here)and asked for people to donate copies of the said books. Moreover, the location of the temple has not been chosen randomly since it is being built at the exact same spot where the nazis burned books of Marxists and Jewish authors in 1933.

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The artist refused to use any book encouraging racial or religious hatred such as Mein Kampft or others. Credits John Macdougall – AFP

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The Parthenon of books required the crazy amount of 100 000 books for its construction and is identical in size to the original one in Athens. Each book is put into a plastic bag in order to protect it from the weather. At the end of the event, the staff will be giving away all the books to whomever wants one. 

– Update – If you want to know more about the books that were used for the Parthenon of books we invite you to visit Documenta 14’s website where you will find the list of banned books.

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Credits – DPA

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Source

5th graders make a blog and turn it into a yearbook!

Posted on by Team Blookup

This week we had the pleasure of meeting with Sylvanie Girault who is a teacher at the elementary school Sainte-Marie de Mérignac in France.

She came up with the idea of starting a blog for her group of fifth graders to maintain and decided later on to turn it into a yearbook that each of them could get as a souvenir (at a very fair price 😉). She accepted to answer our questions and share her experience with us!

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Tell us a little bit about yourself: you, your hobbies, your projects…

My name is Sylvanie Girault, mother of three children and have been teaching at the private elementary school Sainte-Marie de Mérignac for 4 years now. My group of fifth graders is made of 30 pupils, all 11 years old. I came up with the idea of making a blog that they will maintain 4 years ago.  I wanted them to be familiar with computers and writing in general. What I had in mind was a blog in which the children would be the authors so that they’d be more familiar with writing and would also have a public reading them. The content of the blog is written by them and them only. I only interact with them through the comments. This year’s group is the fourth to maintain the blog.

Picture of Sylvanie holding a blook in front of a picture of her group

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What is the blog about?

This blog is about highlighting the major events of the year (a yearbook of some sort), such as school trips like our yearly trip to London or even smaller visits in the region: of the City Hall, the Courthouse, Museums, of the Cathedral Saint-Pierre, and many more. These activities are very important for the pedagogical process because they discover and learn things that they would not if they stayed at school, moreover some of them are not familiar with their surroundings. Our school trips are in keeping with the school program and motivate some students that are usually discouraged by the academic way of learning. But more important than that, they can use these trips as a source of inspiration to write articles on the blog about what they saw, felt or understood. Writing allows them to cultivate their curiosity and awareness to their surroundings, and doing that through a computerized tool motivates them as well. Every single one of my pupils has written at least one article on the blog during the year, each of them with their own writing style; this diversity of styles is what makes this blog stand out from a blog maintained by an individual. Since the blog opened, we have published about 70 articles and more than 6 000 pages have been viewed by the students but also their parents. The blog is entirely accessible to the public and anyone can read about the adventures of the group.

A picture of the 40 blooks ready to be picked up

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What articles are you the most proud of?

The articles about our yearly trip to England last October, without a doubt. Every year the group goes to London for 5 days and discovers the English culture. It is without the doubt the highlight of the year that all the students are looking forward to. During these 5 days they will be immersed in the English culture together, discover the gastronomy, local habits, the lifestyle…that is a strong collective experience!

The fifth grade is very dense in term of things to learn and master before going to middle-school. This school trip allows us to get together and strengthen the group’s dynamic hundreds of kilometers away from home. The articles published at that time are more profound because they crystallize this moment they had together.

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Why did you choose to make a book out of it?

I wanted every student to be able to keep a written record of this moment of their life in England with all their friends. During the making of of the book on BlookUp’s platform, I only kept the articles and pictures of the trip to London in order to have a smaller book that would be entirely dedicated to this trip. Besides it makes sense for my students to have a physical object reminding them of the group because fifth grade is the last step before entering middle-school. Some students have known each other for 7 years, since they were in kindergarten; they grew up together and will, for some of them, be separated from each other once they get to middle-school. Having by their side a book reminiscent of their time in elementary school is something truly unique and precious. A few days away from the end of the school year, every student will go home with a book signed by their classmates. I just received the 40 books and will be signing them as well as writing a personal note, if the pupils and their parents ask me to do so.

An example of a blook signed by the teacher and classmates!

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What are the qualities of the platform? What would you improve?

I found it easy to create a blook, the platform is intuitive. I have one regret however, it is the standardized size of the pictures. Of course you can choose between three different sizes but once you picked one, all the pictures will be of the same size, which sometimes results in blank spaces on the pages. I think it would be nice to give people the opportunity to play around with the spaces between the pictures to reduce these empty spaces. Other than that, the quality of the book is impeccable, and the cover lamination is really good.

(This interview was originally in French, but we loved the idea so much we decided to translate it to English and tried to make it as true to the original as possible.)

Back in the days, we had bookmobiles!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Many of you probably don’t remember that time before Amazon!  Before even the internet was a thing, people still managed to bring books home though. Most of them went to the local bookstore or to the library, but what about the country folks or the people living in the suburbs ? The ones who did not have this chance?

Well just like Pepperidge Farm, BlookUp remembers!  Bookmobiles, were the solution to those who lived too far  away from the city and thus did not (or hardly) have access to the riches and joy that brought books. We have to travel back to the late 1850’s in Warrington (England) to see what is believed to be the first bookmobile, a horse-drawn van full of books. Behind this idea was a philanthropist, called George Moore whose project was to spread the goods of literature to the small villages around the city.

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The Perambulating library of Harrington in 1859, believed to be the first of its kind.

Needless to say people spread the word and the concept continued growing to the point of reaching the United States. Ultimately horses were replaced by cars, more efficient, and allowing the librarian to carry more books. Bookmobiles eventually reached the peak of their popularity in the mid 20th century before slowly disappearing.

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Photo of a bookmobile in the 1920’s. Credits – Numismatic Bibliomania Society

However there still are a few of them out there, their goal remained the same: diffusing good literature and educating those who need it the most. Many libraries like San Francisco Public Library or Toronto Public Library have bookmobiles driving around the city, who knows maybe one day you’ll see one of these mobile libraries too!

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The automated library of the University of Chicago!

Posted on by Team Blookup

Let us continue our little tour of the libraries around the world with something a little bit different from what we have been showing you so far.

We are crossing the Atlantic ocean, off to University of Chicago, Illinois!

The Joa and Rika Mansueto Library, to call it by it’s official name, is unlike any other library you have seen before! Why ? Because it is totally automated! The students of the University of Chicago do not have to walk around some aisles to look for a particular book or to ask the librarian whether the said book is available or not.

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Mansueto Library’s glass dome containing the Grand Reading Room

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How the automated librery works ?

Instead, the students can browse through the online catalogue of the Mansueto library to see if the book they are looking for is available, order it right away, and by the time they walk to the library the book will be waiting for them.

How is this possible you might ask? Well it all comes down to the library’s ingenious design.

The Mansueto library is like an Iceberg, you can merely see a third of it.

On the surface there are no aisles nor shelves. The whole space is dedicated to reading. Everything is happening beneath the surface.

The inside of the Grand Reading Room

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The library has a storage vault buried 20 meters deep into the ground, consisting in 24 000 bins!  Each of them containing up to 100 books. While most (if not all) libraries sort their books by subject or author. The Mansueto library sorts its books by size to optimize the space of their bins.

Every book is marked on the spine with a barcode that is scanned each time the book leaves or comes back to the library.

Meanwhile,  five mechanical cranes move alongside the racks to find and lift the bin containing the book that has been ordered by a student to the surface. The student is notified by email when the book has been scanned. Finally when it is ready to be picked up.

While many will salute the technical prouesse of building an automated library, others will mourn the loss of their good old wooden shelves as well as the feeling of walking and browsing through the aisles. What do you think about the Mansueto automated library? Is it the result of a genius mind’s work ?  Or is it too much of a change?

Source – Photos by Tom Rossiter

Bookroo: children books in a box !

Posted on by Team Blookup

kids-readingDo you have children, nephews, nieces or godchildren?  Do you still have trouble finding what kind of books to offer them?

Our kind always used reading as a communication tool between generations. And as such, we want to transmit values, memories. But we can sometimes be afraid to impose them or to invest too early, to shock, to not be understood.In short, it’s not so easy to choose!

Well, take a deep breath because BlookUp found the perfect solution to offer books all year round without fearing the lack of idea!

Discover Bookroo!

The Bookroo logo Bookroo consists in a 1, 3, 6 or 12-month subscription. During which you will receive at home (within all US territory and also Canada, for an additional $11 per month). 

Each month, a box filled with books chosen for you in accordance with the way you filled out the subscription form!

Customization options are limited to the kids’ age (from 0 to 2 and 2 to 6). The idea is really to send you (or to the kids you are offering the gift to) books “that you don’t already know and are not easy to be found online or in stores”. 

Examples of books available in the Bookroo box
Those books, for example, were the ones sent during the last few months!

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So it’s a whole surprise that is coming in a beautiful cardboard box, and within it, books separately and elegantly wrapped like presents!

Do you like the idea? Well, go to Bookroo now, choose your subscription time and spread culture, values and imagination all around you!