The books that were passed around today, especially _The Humument_ were gorgeous. I definately consider them works of art more than literature, but I guess thats only because it deviates from the norm so much. Im sure the choose your own adventure books were considered much more or a novelty when they first appeared, but now we're reading them for a College English class.

Either way, great concept for the books.
~jb

another note on that>>
in "the book as machine" i loved how they kept giving examples of what they were talking about (ie copying the crinkled page, copying the page with the thumbs on it, etc). its also interesting how as the passage progresses, the structure begins to break down...part of it is stream of consciousness-like and they stop using capital letters at the beginning of sentences. I love it when literature is iconic, and thats a great example of it.
~jb

jumping off what jenna said:
it took me a little while to realize the authors were using the type of non-traditional book tricks they were talking about. to risk sounding like i actually read, i definitely felt the stress of 'reading reading' to cause self-consciousness. (printed pg.66, right hand column) i re-read a few paragraphs a few times until i realized what was going on. being tired while reading didn’t help i’m sure.

Glad you liked the books, Jenna. For those who are interested in the book as art, a wonderful resource in our own area is the Pyramid Atlantic studio in downtown Silver Spring:

http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/

They offer workshops, exhibitions, talks and demos, and more.

I agree with jb that the books in class are not even close to the norm.

One might mistake the first book passed around for a disaster at the printing press, if you didn't know what it really was about.

This whole thing about book machines is great! I admit, the reading for this class was a bit tough; it might just be me. But after all, it was to make a point!

I GOT LOST, initially. But now I see the point of the reading.