Category: Books

About books

Categories
Books Writing

Group editing

J.D. Lasica is doing a brave thing: he’s put his new book, Darknet: Remixing the Future of Movies, Music, and Television online at both a wiki and a weblog, and then has invited all of us to join him in editing it.

He writes:

Goal: In the spirit of open media and participatory journalism, I’d like to use this wiki to publish drafts of each chapter in the book. I hope you’ll participate in this effort by contributing feedback, edits, criticism, corrections, and additional anecdotes, either through the comments field below or by sending me email. Feel free to be as detailed as you like or to insert comments or questions. After all, you’re the editor. (And remember, this is for a book manuscript, not a finished online document.) If you make a couple of helpful edits, I’ll mention your name in the book’s Acknowledgments (and buy you a drink next time we meet up).

Request: This is an experiment in trust. Feel free to dive in and make all the changes you think are warranted. I’ve opened this up as a public wiki, rather than a private space. Feel free to link to this main page from your blog, though I’ll also ask at this early stage that people not excerpt material or dissect any of the material in detail because we’re not at the public discussion point yet.

If you’re going to allow group editing, a wiki is the way to do it–have the people merge their own efforts, rather than having to do it yourself. However, I would hesitate before I approached any form of group edit, and it was my experiences with Practical RDF that led to this.

During the review of the book, I posted my chapters online and asked for edits and suggestions from the RDF community. I did receive a great number of suggestions and corrections, for which I was and still am grateful. However, a few weeks into the effort and I began to regret taking this approach, and I won’t do this again. Why? Because people bring with them different expectations about what they want to see in a book on specific topics, and trying to merge these expectations is virtually impossible.

For instance, the semantic web folks wanted the Practical RDF book to focus more on the esoteric aspects of RDF: less on RDF/XML, more on OWL, and more on the underlying theory, and the glorious new future of semantic web goodness. In fact, some of the RDF community was distinctly unhappy at my attempts at opening the technology up for everyday use.The applied folks, though, felt that I spent too much time on the specifications, and not enough on the practical applications. Even within the sections on practical application functionality, some felt I spent too much time on language coverage of RDF and not enough on actual applications based on RDF. Or, conversely, too much on applications, and not enough on language implementations.

All of these people had good suggestions, and I appreciated the time they invested in helping me. However, there was no way to converge these different outlooks into something feasible, workable, and especially readable. All that happened is that I became overwhelmed, and quickly burned out.

There’s also the challenge of receiving critical feedback from dozens of people, all at once. Most book companies only provide feedback from a few people, and this usually gets filtered through the editor. They know that authors can become either discouraged or defensive about writing if they’re hit with too many criticisms of their work in a short period of time. Remember that most people when they review something from an editorial perspective–be it book, music, or food–tend to focus on what’s wrong in the work, rather than what’s right. It’s the nature of what we are.

Now, in some ways, J.D.’s approach works through these difficulties because rather than provide feedback, you provide direct annotation or edits on the work. In other words, you walk the talk. This has the advantage of forcing the person to come up with a solution to go with their criticism. You don’t like the way a paragraph is worded? Then re-word it.

Still, I know for myself that I have a real ownership of my writing, and it’s difficult enough for me to go through the editing process with a trusted editor, much less an unknown, but experienced, reviewer. To do so with just anyone who wants to participate, regardless of ability, judgement, experience, or level of humility–especially level of humility–strikes me as a rather scary proposition.

Regardless of my own personal foibles, I am going to be extremely curious how this works out for J.D.

Categories
Books Diversity

Passing on the torch

Julie Lerman is doing a phenomenal job of taking on the discussion about women and technology. She has a web site with references, and also brought this up in a recent article where she was honored as .NET Rock Star

(It’s funny, but Julie was also angry when Microsoft came out with .NET. She got over her anger. I turned to open source. You win one, you lose one.)

I did my turn at this for three years. It’s nice to turn the torch over to someone else.

Personally, I think I’m going to disconnect from the Internet, sell my computers, and just bind books from now on. That’s a nice traditional female occupation, and one where I don’t have to worry about other people telling me how hostile I am, or how sensitive I am, or how hot-headed I am, or how rude I am, or any variety of the above.

(Ooops, I gave away the topic of the next Art of Book posting. But then, if I’m disconnecting, who will write it?)

Categories
Art Books

The Art of Book, Volume One

A month or two ago, Steve at LanguageHat pointed out a New York show consisting of Art Deco book bindings by Pierre Legrain and Rose Adler. I was mesmerized at the beauty of the bindings, and the concept that book binding could actually be considered an art form.

I’m not an arts and crafts type of person. I don’t knit or sew, embroider, build things out of wood, make things out of straw or glass or sculpt out of clay or rock. I did try jewelry making in San Francisco, but unless I create a forge and build a press in my kitchen, it’s not necessarily the type of craft one can pursue in an apartment. Frankly, I have little patience for most crafts.

But the concept of bookbinding was different. I started researching it and found several books at the library on the subject, as well as resources online. The more I researched, the more fascinated I became.

For instance, pages in a book are not just stacked and glued at the end. They are usually folded into groupings called signatures and most hard cover books consist of several of these signatures sewed together, usually through the use of tapes. You can actually see these groupings if you look closely at the spine of most of your books. The term itself was from a time when a small signature was placed at the bottom of the first page of the grouping to assist in the collation of the book.

Single Sheet Tunnel Book

As for the binding itself, there are so many varieties, that I’m still researching some of the more esoteric, such as the dos a dos, and the complicated star tunnel book. The ‘book’ above is a training exercise in folding and cutting (decent folds, lousy cuts), and is a single page tunnel book. The ones most familiar to us, which is the stack of pages and a cover, usually with writing, are known as codex, a word from ancient Roman times used to describe tablets joined together on edge. This style is not to be confused with pamphlet binding or album binding, though all three look similar.

Bookbinding is now usually referred to as book art, and some universities, including Washington University here in Missouri offer Fine Arts degrees in the book arts. One of the more well known artists who specializes in bookbinding is Richard Minsky, one of the guiding lights behind the Center for Book Arts in New York. His Bill of Rights exhibition is both an inspiration and intimidation for a newly interested practitioner of this old, old art.

However, I think I will pass on incorporating live explosives in any of my work, though the use of book art as message has definite appeal.

I don’t think it’s surprising that many of those who practice book arts also like to write, which adds to the personal appeal of this beautiful craft. At this site that covers ancient Japanese bookbinding techniques, the artist, Graeme, recounts his early introduction to hand bookbinding:

One evening my father came home from work and held something out to me. It looked a little like a book. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a school geography text book, bound in green cloth and with erratic gold lettering on the spine. Perhaps it had been in a traffic accident at the mobile library.

‘Lionel at the office did it at his book binding evening class. It’s not bad is it?’
I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be kindest to take it to a qualified librarian? He could give it a lethal injection and put it out of its misery?’ No, I didn’t really say that, what I said was, ‘Mmmm, yes. Mmmm.’

It was important to sound neutral. My father could be unpredictable, and any trace of enthusiasm in my voice might encourage him to take up book binding himself. Without warning, all my school text books might suddenly be transformed into green-bound grotesques like the one in my father’s hand. I was responsible for those school books – I might still be in detention when I was thirty.

As said earlier, my libraries have several books on book arts and bookbindings and I’ve checked most of them out, including an old one from turn of the century, when bookbinding was considered a useful skill to teach in schools. Another of the books focuses on increasing your own self-sufficiency by creating your own paper and books, including excellent demonstrations of some of the equipment used by bookbinders, which I’ll get into more at a later time.

One can spend a lot of money starting this hobby, but you can also start small, with a minimum of equipment such as an awl for punching holes in paper, tapestry needles, linen thread, greyboard for covers, a bone folder, used for folding pages, and, of course paper. Luckily the art store near where I live not only has bookbinding supplies, but it usually runs a special on paper every week. I’ve spent three days there this week picking through the bins to match end papers to signature sheets to cover papers, and then on to the fabric store to get complementary thread. I never get tired of going through the papers and fabrics. Or the satisfaction of creating something unique with my hands–something that’s not wired to the Net, or plugged into the wall.

Books aren’t just thrown together. You have to have a basic idea in mind, and then you carefully find the material to create the book. I currently have five book projects in the works, including a codex, two Japanese stab binding books, and two star tunnel books, one of which is going to feature some interesting and perhaps even hauntingly familiar photographs.

I am now in the midst of finishing my first significant work, a journal bound using the Japanese stab binding technique, one of my favorites, and consisting of several sheets of handmade ‘weed’ paper printed with photos, with five sheets of bond paper in-between each to act as blank journal pages. The weed paper is a light golden green with flecks of plant material, which does an amazing job with the photographs. The cover is a rich tomato red, nicely textured on one side, and flecked with gold silk threads on the other. I’ll use the textured side as the outside cover, and the flecked side for the end papers. All I need to do is find the right combination of gold/green threads for the binding and I’ll be finished.

One thing that makes this journal stand out is the last page contains instructions on how to remove the binding, take out the white bond journal paper, use it as pulp for new homemade paper, and then put the book back together again with the homemade paper sheets in addition to the existing photographic sheets. A journal in perpetuity, unless one wants to keep the writing; a statement about the ecology of bookbinding in addition to the beauty. Every book tells a story, and it isn’t always to be found in the writing.

This book is a present for a dear friend, for his 60th birthday (there, the cat’s out of the bag). It’s not an expensive gift nor a glamorous one, and it probably won’t even be all that polished, I imagine–I am new at this. But it is a gift from my hands and my heart.

Makings for Japanese Stab binding journal

Categories
Books

Extreme O’Reilly

Last of the O’Reilly book review, and I’m going to cover three different brands: the traditional ‘animal’ books, the Missing Manual series, and the Head First series.

The RELAX NG book from the animal series is what you’d expect for one of these books. It is a comprehensive coverage of the topic, with relevant examples, lots of text, and few graphics. Animal books get to the point and are, for the most part, geared to the geeks – or the geek at heart.

This isn’t to say that the coverage of the topic is cryptic or difficult to follow, or dry. After all, I’ve written a few animal books myself and I hope my books don’t fit that description. But they aren’t fluffy books, and make little use of graphics as an aid to understanding. The aid in these books tends to be the examples.

The Head First series is completely the opposite, and about as far as you can get from the animal books. There is still comprehensive coverage of the material, but how it’s covered is completely different. If the animal books are text, the Head First books rely on graphics. A great deal of graphics.

I’ve looked at both members of the series, Head First Java and Head First EJB, and my initial reaction to the Java book, was lukewarm. Part of that can be that I’m used to more traditional computer books to learn a programming language; part of it could be that, like many people, I prefer learning programming languages by example.

The Head First into EJB book, though was different. EJB – Enterprise Java Beans – is a framework and a set of related behaviors, and the graphic nature of the book captured this very nicely. In fact, it was the first time I’ve ever enjoyed reading a book on EJBs. I didn’t think it was possible to be entertained by a book on EJBs, but this book did.

(I think what won me over was the two page behind the EJB scenes graphics on pages 8 and 9. Any book that make me laugh about EJB is some kind of miracle.)

It could be me, but I see a Head First book being better suited toa framework than a programming language; the former is hard to get your head around sometimes, but the latter is easily broken into sample code and with some text to explain what’s happening, you get what’s going on without having to rely on the pictures.

However, if you’re a heavily visual person, you’re going to like this series.

missing.gifThe last book is the Mac OS X Missing Manual (Panther Edition), and this book fits about right in the middle between the animal books and the Head First series, in the ratio between use of graphics and text.

These purpose of this series is to provide more comprehensive information about a specific product than usually comes with the manuals (if any manuals are even provided). Visually, the Missing Manual makes more use of graphics and graphical breaks in the text than the animal series, but far, far less use of graphics than the Head First series. This makes for a book that’s less intense than the animal books, and more comfortable to read, especially if you don’t see yourself as particularly ‘geek like’. Additionally, it is more business like than the Head First series, though again, that doesn’t mean that the writing is dull or uninteresting – it’s just not quite as otherwordly.

I found the Mac OS X one to be very helpful, and I discovered all sorts of new and intersting things about the Mac OS X environment that I hadn’t taken the time, previously, to learn. And since Mac OS X manuals are not what one would call particularly helpful, I can definitely recommend this book for new or intermediate Mac OS X users.

Now the question: Would I write a book in these series

Well, I have written books in the animal series, and would do so again. However, my emphasis lately has been directed more to the non-geeks than the geeks, and that’s not necessarily a good fit for an animal book.

I would not do a Head First book. I wouldn’t know how to do a Head First book. Having to incorporate all those graphics in and around the text, and having to find the appropriate graphics – it would drive me nuts. It would take a special person to do a Head First book.

I would be comfortable doing a Missing Manual style of book. It fits the direction I’m going, which is more towards the interested or engaged or adventurous person rather than intensely directed towards the geek.

You know: someone who drinks lattes rather than Mountain Dew.

Categories
Books

Pocket this

Brand: O’Reilly Pocket References and Guides

Concept (from the site):

O’Reilly’s Pocket References and Pocket Guides are comprehensive, inexpensive, compact, and easy to use. Our Pocket References provide you with quick lookup of the hard-to-remember details of programming and web syntax, while our Pocket Guides are short, focused tutorials that explain the basics of new technology, as well as valuable power user tips.

Books reviewed:

Derrick Story’s Digital Photography Pocket Guide and Digital Video Pocket Guide

Google Pocket Guide by Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest, and DJ Adams

In a word: Brilliant

Slightly longer word:

Of all the O’Reilly brands, I think the Pocket Guide and Reference series is the one with the most potential for explosive growth. Inexpensive books that focus on either syntax (for the references) or on quick in-the-field how-tos (for the pocket guide) that can easily fit into a purse or camera or computer bag–how can they go wrong?

For instance the Digital Photography Pocket Guide by Derrick Story (caveat: one of my favorite O’Reilly people) contains these little tutorials about finding yourself in a specific photographic situation, such as taking a photo of a tall building under certain conditions, and then provides quick, easy to apply advice that encompasses the photographic concepts that apply in this situation (issues of perspective and changing camera angle) and what you can do with your digital camera to make the shot work.

Have a digital camera and want to do a panoramic? Have a particular photograph you want to capture but part of it is overexposed? Want to take a closeup of a flower? The premise of this book is that these are specific questions people have when taking pictures, and Derrick provides simple and easy to follow instructions that suit most digital camera types. Rather than provide a book that covers the basics of photography, it provides how-tos, and to be honest, most people buying a digital camera today don’t want to know the history of photography–they just want to take nice pictures of their grandkids.

By keeping the books focused, they’re small enough to carry with you, and inexpensive enough that by the time you’ve mastered the little tips and tricks, you’ve gotten your money’s worth.

O’Reilly can and should look at going beyond just the digital world with this series. There’s potential in them little bitty books.

Now, returning to my question of writing this type of book: would I be interested?

Answer: oh yes, indeedy.

From a writer’s viewpoint, what I like about the series is that you can write a book in a month, two at the most, and be done. After working on 15 books that are several hundred pages each, it would be nice to do a book that was finished simply and quickly; one you don’t have to worry about covering every little nuance of the topic. Writing computer books can be very tiring, as you try to balance the production needs of keeping books to a specific brand and number of pages, but still provide enough material to cover any number of reader’s interests in the future. When you have a book that’s at about 100 small pages (probably about 50 pages in a regular computer book), you can’t meet everyone’s needs, so you can focus on one particular aspect, and just go to town.

In addition, there are some topics that really fit a smaller book. The Google Pocket Guide strikes me as this type of book, with its focus on how to maximize your use of Google’s services.

The only thing holding me back would be the fact that most of the topics I’d be interested in doing a Pocket Guide or Reference on, have already been done. This includes MySQL (by George Reese, whom I know from long ago early JDBC days, and there’s none better when it comes to databases), SQL (by Jonathan Gennick, O’Reilly’s DB Man, so SQL’s been thoroughly covered), Linux (darn, I didn’t see this one at first and thought ‘Ah Ha!’, and then saw it in the list), and various assorted other topics.

However, given a week or two, I think I could come up with some fresh topic ideas. And if O’Reilly starts dabbling its toes in ponds outside of the digital genre, there’s a world of possibilities.

You can get most of these books for about 10.00US on Amazon. I imagine there might also be a time when O’Reilly will package related books into a nice DVD boxed set type of package, and you could save even more, but that’s only conjecture on my part.