Atlas of Remote Islands

Over at the National Post book blog, Philip Marchand has an enjoyable and thoughtful piece about books vs e-books. My feeling is that e-books might be useful for some titles but can't replace having traditional books for the authors I love most. And for some reason I love that books are low-tech. During a power failure, all you'd need is enough candlelight to read. Fixed in time, they also can't be updated and can become artifacts. My 1946 edition of Animal Farm has a bio for Orwell that speaks in the present tense: "George Orwell is an English critic, essayist, and novelist who writes regularly for The London Observer, The New Statesman and Nation…"

Speaking of books that make e-books seem like a pale imitation, The Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will is the prettiest damn book I've seen in quite some time, and came to my attention while being passed around and admired on Christmas day. As explained in this review, not only are the meticulously drawn maps quite beautiful, there's also background information on each of the islands.