A Leisure Reading Suggestion

Above: Pigeon Study #3, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen sketch with gouache on Nideggen paper. Another of my “Deconstructing the State Fair” series; and my third pigeon sketch last night.

It’s day three of a holiday weekend for many folks in the U.S. today. You might find yourselves needing something to do to work off some of the turkey’s tryptophan effects. I suggest you go over to Bonefolder and check out some past issues. This e-journal is a fabulous record of bookbinding as a craft, pleasure, pastime, and art. There are detailed articles on various book structures. Maybe you’ll want to capture your holiday adventures and make an artist’s book using one of the featured structures? Perhaps you’re wondering what form your next visual journal should take? It might be that movie reruns and Law and Order marathons* have put you in the mood to read about the history of binding or book conservation?

When they first started posting this magazine I learned about it, read some, then I forgot. There is simply too much on the internet for me to retain with my already slipping memory! Happily my friend Frank reminds me about Bonefolder every so often, mostly because he likes to call my attention to some new lush photo that it contains of a “dream structure.” (Thank goodness Frank likes to “window shop.”)

The internet has a lot of good and bad qualities, but one of the best qualities is the ability of users to post quality stuff (text and images) without covering any printing costs. They can get their information out to their readers in a timely and lovely fashion. Bonefolder is a great example of this positive internet trait.

Go draw something, or make a book right now! Then you can have a snack.

*Apologies to Law and Order, which I love: the Chris Noth–Jerry Orbach episodes especially. NBC’s sibling networks may not even have had a marathon of episodes today, but it seems most holidays this show and its clones turn viral on the TV—channel flipping yields a blur of storylines and characters. (Perhaps the subject of a You-tube spoof?) Sometimes you just have to go for Murder She Wrote and the warm fuzzy vibe.