Two of my all time favorite blogs have now been transmogrified into a version of themselves as old media (i.e., books). The first was BibliOdyssey: Amazing Archival Images from the Internet, compiled by my friend and master archivist, the inimitable PK from his very popular site of the same name. Published at the end of 2007, PK’s book brought together his extraordinary gleaning of images from web image coffers all over the world. The book was a venture undertaken by British small publisher/design company Fuel where BibliOdyssey shares a book berth with other Fuel titles such as Home-Made, a compendium of objects made by Russians when the Soviet Union’s demise made access to manufactured goods difficult, and Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia (Volumes I, II and III).
A second conversion from new to old is Strange Maps. Frank Jacobs thought his love of weird and eccentric cartographic imaging was something only he and his map geeky friends were interested in. So the success of his blog—10 million hits as of March of last year—came as a surprise to him. His Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities was published late in 2009 and combines both maps and commentary. His categories range from cartographic misconceptions to zoomorphic maps to a great catch all, watchamacallit.
Each media has its advantages. The random access quality of stopping by either of these sites and never knowing what will pop up is engaging, but the organizational advantages of the book form has its place as well. I just love the panoply of images that PK and Jacobs have gathered for our general enlightenment and delight. More, more.
Really wonderful, and they are both available through Amazon.