Book after Book

What do you do with your books when they're obsolete? I don't mean just that you've read them and no longer want them – in that case you give them to a friend or a charity shop, a hospital or a B&B. No I mean the books that you know no-one will want – out of date textbooks for example. One answer is to make them into art! Altered Books are quite popular and there's a good introduction to them on the Karen's Whimsy website . The idea is to use old books and to paint over them, make collages, cut pages and hide items in them. There are all kinds of creative things you can do and blogs devoted to how to do it! The French Canadian artist Guy Laramee goes a stage further and makes amazingly complex 3D sculptures out of old vintage books. I first came across his work via this article on Treehugger . Book art recently hit the headlines in Edinburgh, where I live, when an unknown artist left a series of intricate book carvings at literary venues across the city. You ca...

Welcome to the fourth post in my series about green books! It's one of the hot topics for many people who love reading – to buy an e-reader or not. In this post I'll attempt to pull together some information on the environmental aspect of this debate. I admit - I love books. Real books with paper pages. Plus I'm not a gadget person, to the extent that I don't even have a mobile phone. I can't imagine using an e-reader but I do want to find out whether my old fashioned attitude is environmentally damaging or not! Comparing the environmental impact of e-readers and books is a tricky business. Most companies aren't exactly transparent about the environmental impact of their e-readers for a start! Measuring the carbon footprint at the consumer end is relatively easy, though statistics I've read vary from 10 – 100 books being the number you need to read on an e-reader to reduce its carbon footprint to below that of new paperback books. So, if you read a lot it yo...

Welcome to the third post in my series about Green Books! In my last post about Green Books , I looked at how individuals can share books and so cut down on the carbon footprint of their reading habits. In this post, I'll briefly look at what the publishing industry is doing. Books are made of paper which is made from trees. More than 30 million trees are cut down every year to make books in the USA. Currently under 10% of the paper used in the US book publishing industry comes from recycled sources*. These statistics are quite sobering when you consider them! Eco-Libris is an online campaign aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of reading. You can read a lot about the publishing industry's attempts to become greener on their website here . The Eco-Libris blog is full of useful information about taking a greener approach to printing and publishing. The great thing about Eco-Libris is that they work on so many different levels. They collaborate with book clubs , book shops , ...

Welcome back to the second in my series of blog posts about Green Books. Anyone who reads a lot must be aware of the amount of paper that is used in making books! Whole forests (or more usually plantations) are cut down to produce our reading materials! Surely an issue of concern for anyone even remotely interested in the environment? So how can we reduce this environmental impact? In this post I'll talk about sharing books and in the next post I'll look at what the publishing industry can do. The public library is perhaps the best known form of large scale book sharing. The future of UK Public Libraries is currently threatened (details here ) and they need our support! Libraries offer access to books for people who otherwise couldn't afford them and are a great way to find new writers. Writers whose books are borrowed through public libraries are supported through the Public Lending Rights Scheme . Bookcrossing is a fun way to share books. This international website and r...

Reading and the environment are two of my greatest interests, so I was delighted when Silvia invited me to write a series of monthly blog-posts here on green issues and reading. Even in these days of the internet, books are often the best way to learn about nature and environmental issues, so I'll share some of my favourite books on these topics. Many a nature-lover must mourn the number of trees cut down to make books so I'll write about ways in which the publishing industry is trying to become greener. I'll also compare books and electronic reading devices to investigate their relative carbon footprints. And what happens when books become literally unreadable? I'll look at some examples of book art, including the mysterious book sculptures that have been delighting literary Edinburgh for the past year or so. I'll also share some ideas for how to find inspiration if you want to write about nature and environmental issues. So, here's looking forward to the next ...