I am so tickled by the announcement today of this new website by my old cohort at Boing Boing, Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair, and Kevin Kelly, formerly of Wired and now running the Cool Tools site (with Mark). Wink is being produced under the auspices of Cool Tool. The premise is why-didn’t-I-think-of-that brilliant. Every day, one book will be reviewed. But not just any book. The site will focus on books that really NEED to be in print, books that exploit the medium in some special way, books that are arguably a better experience in physical form, books that are pieces of art in and of themselves — from pop-up books, to coffee table tomes, to lay-flat/get dirty benchtop how-to guides — those are what Wink will be covering. The design of the site is smart, too. They launched with a mosaic of 15 titles on their home page. Every weekday, a new title will bump a book over one. So each book will get 15 days of front page real estate.
The moment I saw the announcement this morning, I immediately thought of 5-6 books suitable for “Winkdom.” It’s a fun game to play, thinking about what books really need to be in print to be fully appreciated. Can’t wait to see how this site evolves. Being someone who’ll forever be a fan of books and book art, I’m all for celebrating the unique expressions of the medium.
Kudos to Carla, Mark, and Kevin!
Mind Bone: Gareth Branwyn's Blog 