I've mentioned Craig Mod and his books and walking before and over the last couple days have been enjoying his two lengthy conversations with Tim Ferris. Craig is an American who’s been living in Japan for ages, writing and publishing — creating his own books to his own high standards, and living a life dedicated to his art.
When he goes on his lengthy walks (1000s of kilometres so far), he walks for 8 hours a day, stopping to talk to locals, have lunch, take photos, and understand where he is and where he’s going, and then he writes 4 hours per day. He’ll do this every day for his weeks- / month-long journeys. He does this by paring down his device use with Freedom and understanding Sister Corita’s 7th rule: The only rule is work. (I’m putting words in his mouth here.)
You can find the podcast in the usual places by searching for the Tim Ferris Show and then looking for Craig Mod, or you can stream them via YouTube:
In November, I received copies of two books by writer and walker Craig Mod. I've been a fan of his for many years, but these are the first of his books I've purchased. Shipping from Japan to Canada, on top of the cost of the books, was what had always stopped me in the past, but I do my best to support artists directly when I can so decided now was the time.
Kissy by Kissa and Things Become Other Things, hand-wrapped in specialty paper
If you're not familiar with Mod, he's mostly known for his work in the book world. He also has a wonderful podcast on bookmaking called On Margins, though he might have killed that as it's been a long time since he's put out an episode. It's well worth listening to if you're into creating things.
Since Craig is a walker and a writer, these books are about walking.
Craig's books are gorgeous. Cloth-bound with debossed covers. The paper is lovely to touch and the photos and essays are wonderful:
Covers of Kissa by KissaSpread from Kissa by KissaPhoto spread from Kissa by Kissa
Things Become Other Things is Craig's latest book. He describes it as "a 30 day walk in Japan. A memoir. Fishermen, foul-mouthed kids, and terrible miserable wonderful coffee."
Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod
You can purchase the fifth edition of Kissa by Kissahere. The first edition of TBOT is here. Both titles are cheaper for members of Craig's Special Projects. Those memberships are how Craig makes his living.
If you'd like a better overview of Craig's work, you can find it here.
Custom shipping box
Anecdote Alert
These books are the kinds of things I used to bring in for customers of my shop, Volver — beautiful items that I personally own and can recommend — before I stopped carrying non-records. This was an effort to spread awareness and get better prices for my customers by eliminating the cost of shipping.
I did this most successfully, book-wise, with Wendy Erskine's Dance Move, a brilliant collection of short stories which still hasn't been published in Canada. I can't recall how many copies I brought in (20 or so), but they all sold out and still no other shop in the city took it upon themselves to import copies.
I have no idea if Craig would be into this (offering me bulk, wholesale pricing), but I'd consider approaching him if enough Bell Ringers wanted me to try.
Volume is crowdfunding a book about Type Archive: Type Archived: "The definitive account of the legendary Type Archive provides a stunning visual tour of traditional typefounding, tracing the origins of typography and the printed word."
Rebind claims to be a "mindfulness app for deep reading, guided by the world's most interesting people. Rebind challenges you to engage with a book in a whole new way."
Huh?
Yeah, so it appears to be a site that at the moment has a limited library of titles, each "hosted" by experts on that title. While you read the ebook, their notes and commentary are available. In addition to just annotation, there's an AI interface that connects you with the notes of that expert, so you can, at any time, ask specific questions and have them answered by the AI which uses the well of information that the expert provided.
It's certainly an interesting idea, and if I had an extra $120 lying around I'd try the annual membership. I'll check back in the future to see how the library expands. It's certainly an interesting approach to AI.
Aussie Greg Neville shows and discusses his Penguin Books collection, with an emphasis on Series Design. For instance, here are some from the Modern Classics series, and Neville's thoughts on them.
Nothing gets me opening Libby faster than The Millions Previews.
This time, it's their Summer 2024 Preview, obvs, which highlights a new biography of genius filmmaker Agnes Varda, and titles from Rachel Kushner, Joy Williams, Yoko Tawada, Honor Moore, Sarah Manguso, Virginie Despentes, Jo Hamya, László Krasznahorkai, and many more.
There are also two from authors I'm not familiar with that sound right up my alley, both due in August:
The Italy Letters by Vi Khi Nao
"This epistolary novel by Nao, an emerging queer Vietnamese American writer who Garielle Lutz once called “an unstoppable genius,” sounds like an incredible read: an unnamed narrator in Las Vegas writes sensual stream-of-consciousness letters to their lover in Italy. Perfect leisure reading on a sultry summer’s afternoon while sipping a glass of prosecco."
