Nicholas Jones is an artist and “book sculptor” working in Melbourne, Australia. According to the personal testimonial on his website, Jones claims his art is an extension of the book’s life cycle, from wood pulp to paper to books, then elevated to some sort of higher plane and then to dust.

From the website:

Books are capsules; vessels designed to hold information, borne of investigation or of personal expression. These objects are often venerated, held aloft as are amulets, as the source of reasoned knowledge, the fecund field awaiting the harvest. Sequestered away in dusty libraries, spines anticipating the eye of the beholder, these books’ tactility remain at arms length. The physical act of folding, tearing and sewing book leaves, may be considered iconoclastic (extinguishing the fire of reason, perhaps). Although sometimes iconised for their content or historical importance, more often than not, books are discarded as cultural detritus. These transformed books aim to highlight the poetic nature of the book as form. As historical phenomena, books have reflected the evolution of mankind, and although beseiged by new technologies, the book remains steadfastly both the solver of the riddle and the creator of the labyrinth.

Earnest artistic credo aside, Jones’s books are quite beautiful. See MacBeth folded, Intermediate English dissected, and works in progress. See his new boots as well…

The second annual London Literature Festival is in full swing this week, and to celebrate, the Guardian created an online quiz to test readers knowledge of literary London. Guardian calls it “a stroll through the fictional nooks and crannies of the capital.” (Apparently this Quillblogger is more the romping type, as her score was embarrassingly low).

Test your knowledge here.

The London Literature Festival is in its second year. Its mandate is to showcase the “dynamism and globalism” of the city by featuring writers and performers from myriad backgrounds working in a variety of mediums. The LLF is doing a series called “Tales of the City” and Toronto is featured this Thursday, July 10. Rawi Hage, Priscilla Uppal, Vincent Lam, and indie electro-breakbeat artists LAL will be on hand to represent.

A reminder to Toronto readers that this year’s Scream Literary Festival is now in full swing. It culminates with a dozen authors reading at High Park on July 14 (with a lineup that includes What Happened Later author Ray Robertson and Stunt author Claudia Dey), and there are smaller readings and receptions along the way. The full lineup is here.

Vincent Bugliosi, the L.A. prosecutor who tried Charles Manson and wrote about the case in Helter Skelter, has a new book that accuses President Bush of the murder of American soldiers who die in Iraq. The book is a bestseller, but has received very little mainstream attention so far.

From The New York Times:

Mr. Bugliosi, in a recent telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles, said he had expected some resistance from the mainstream media because of the subject matter — the book lays a legal case for holding President Bush “criminally responsible” for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq — but not a virtual blackout.

His publisher and publicist said they had expected that Mr. Bugliosi’s credentials would ensure coverage — he is, after all, fairly mainstream. His last book, a 1,612-page volume on the Kennedy assassination, Reclaiming History, which was published last year, sought to debunk the conspiracy theorists. It is being made into a 10-hour miniseries by HBO and the actor Tom Hanks.

Mr. Bugliosi said bookers for cable television, where he has made regular appearances to promote books, have ignored his latest offering. MSNBC and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” were two outlets Mr. Bugliosi had thought would show interest, but neither did.

“They are not responding at all,” he said. “I think it all goes back to fear. If the liberal media would put me on national television, I think they’d fear that they would be savaged by the right wing. The left wing fears the right, but the right does not fear the left.”

Some book-related links:

• Sean Connery backs out of memoir contract (Scotsman.com)
• Will “Chinglish” outstrip English? (Wired)
• Amanda Foreman accused of “devaluing the biographer’s skill” after posing nude in magazine (Times Online)
• Book lover/garbage picker (The Globe and Mail)
• University of Michigan cuts ties with London-based publisher over Israel book (MLive.com)
• New Ottawa library gets funding plan (The Ottawa Citizen)
• Sci-fi writer Thomas Disch commits suicide (BoingBoing.net)
• Edgar Allen Poe’s cottage closed for renovations (CBC.ca)
• David Gilmour’s The Film Club reviewed in the NYT (The New York Times)

There’s a new online bookselling venture in the U.S. called the Progressive Book Club, and though it doesn’t ship to Canada at the moment, it’s still worth a look. The month-old PBC is, as the name implies, a sort of book club for lefties, which offers a small, juried selection of titles chosen by an editorial board made up of authors like Bill McKibben, Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Barbara Kingsolver, Hendrik Hertzberg, Gail Sheehy, and many others. The PBC website claims it currently has “200+” titles available, including Canadian Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine.

According to the U.S. book blog Book Publishing News, which has just posted a piece about PBC:

More than two dozen of the country’s leading progressive organizations have signed on as [PBC] partners to help extend the Club’s reach and mobilize the broader community, including Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress, Kos Media, Media Matters for America, Mother Jones, The Nation, and the Service Employees International Union. With nearly every book purchase by its members, Progressive Book Club will donate $2 to support a progressive organization of the member’s choosing dealing with such issues as environmental stewardship, public education, domestic violence and media reform.

A teacher in Indiana has been suspended without pay for 18 months for using The Freedom Writers Diary, a widely lauded collection of biographical stories written by inner-city teenagers, as part of her curriculum. For some reason, the two most detailed reports on this story are from U.K. newspapers, The Guardian and The Telegraph. According to The Guardian:

Connie Heermann, a teacher for 27 years, sought permission to introduce the book to her students last autumn after attending a training workshop held by the Freedom Writers Foundation. […] Her head agreed and Heermann got written permission from nearly 150 parents, but the Perry Meridian high school board urged her to wait for its decision. Teachers’ union officials say that a single board member objected to swearing in the book. The school board member allegedly persuaded the other six officials to ban Heermann from teaching the book.

Having got wind of the story, Hollywood screenwriter Richard Lagravenese – who wrote and directed an adaptation of the book starring Hilary Swank – has written a piece for The Huffington Post defending Heermann. It’s a good defense, and in it, he relates this particularly damning anecdote, which sheds light on the school board’s real concerns:

When CNN reporter Gary Tuchman remarked to School Board President Barbara Thompson how he couldn’t believe that the students would be worse off for reading the book – and questioned, is it possible the book could actually make them better for reading it, Thompson responded: “What worries me is that Connie Heermann […] sent a poor message to our children. If you’re told no, do it […] it if feels good, do it anyway.” She gave no response to the question of the book’s value to a student’s education.

Some book-related links:

• Indiana bookstore won’t have to register to sell dirty books (Courier-Journal)
• Speaking of which, shy and retiring Gene Simmons to launch new book on prostitution (Blabbermouth.net)
• New Halifax library should go big (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)
• Should books be more disposable? (Washington Post)
• Wrong winner announced at Wales Book of the Year award (The Guardian)
• Manga publisher opens U.S. branch (About.com)

There is nothing – aside from the sight of paint drying, perhaps – quite like the creation of fantasy CanLit canons.

On Canada Day, The Globe and Mail had a number of people – mostly professors – propose new additions to the list of the 10 best Canadian novels drawn up at a conference in 1978. The newly proposed books don’t exactly shock with their left-fieldness – though there are a few less-expected nominees such as Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach, Rawi Hage’s IMPAC-winning De Niro’s Game, and Elizabeth Hay’s A Student of Weather. But then, canon-building is really about being counter-counter-intuitive, anyway. Read the Globe piece here.

BTW: Back in November, 2001, Q&Q took a close look at the evolving nature of the CanLit canon. Read Stephen Smith’s feature article here.

As a further post-Canada Day distraction, LWOT (”Lies With Occasional Truth”) magazine is hosting a contest entitled The Most Mediocre Canadian, created “to honour Canada’s glorious historical celebration of all things lackluster and second-rate.” You can vote for your choice here.

The Economist’s blog takes a look at how the same market forces that led to the digitization – and ensuing fragmentation – of the music industry could eventually come to bear on the book biz. Writer Daniel Hall suggests that technology has shifted the balance for both books and music, with music consumption becoming increasingly individualistic (given the advent of the iPod), while book consumption is heading towards a more collective experience, given the rise of book blogs and other online promotions. He notes that the fragmentation caused by technology can often lead to more choice for consumers of art and media:

If this is so, it is interesting to consider the likely impacts on other cultural forms. For movies, while it is hard to imagine the summer blockbuster ever entirely disappearing, I think the net effect is likely to be increasing fragmentation. Museum art is harder to predict. Will global branding allow a few artists to attain rock star status? Or will niche artists flourish by using the internet to raise awareness and create alternative art experiences? I find myself hoping it’s the latter. In my experience the areas where technology is causing significant fragmentation—not only music but areas like news media—have become far richer and more interesting to me as a result.