bookcamping

Pictures from Saturday's BookCamp, a thoroughly enjoyable gathering of booky people geeky people and booky geeky publishy people. I talked too much but learnt lots and met and re-met some fascinating people.

It'll be blogged and documented widely I'm sure but here are some pictures and thoughts from the sessions I attended.

Children's Publishing
Libraries
Penguin Book Design
Sociable Books
Making a new kind of writing centre for London children
The New Orality

Sessions tended to leap from the specific to the cosmic:
how can public libraries best display and distribute digital fiction - and what is a library for when every laptop offers access to a world of knowledge?
What's the potential for digital children's books - and don't we need a whole new way of measuring the literacy needs of children that includes all media, print and screen, oral and written? Penguin books are producing beautiful print books, collectable art objects - which got me thinking more about other kinds of art objects that could act as souvenirs of reading experiences.

The session on how to design the sociable book was peculiarly inspiring; struggling to find ways to create printed books that replicated the benefits of online reading only led us to realise how many benefits there are. Oh, and the idea of setting up a writing space for children in London, based on Dave Eggar's work in the States, is brilliant. More of all of this soon, meanwhile thanks to James and Jeremy for making Bookcamp happen.