Happy #NationalBookLoversDay everybody! But are you really a book lover, or just a book flirt?
Luckily I have a handy quiz to help you out...
A friend buys you a book 'they know you'll love!' but you already have it. Do you:
a) ask for the receipt
b) accept it, but re-gift it later
c) shout "Woo-Hoo! More books!! MORE BOOKS!!!"
In a bookstore you and another customer both want the last copy of the same book. Do you:
a) let them take it
b) toss a coin for it
c) rip out the last page and scream "You'll never have it! NEVER!!!"
You see an attractive person in a bookshop browsing the Modern Fiction section do you:
a) admire them from afar
b) strike up a conversation with them about modern fiction
c) secretly admonish the books for looking at someone other than yourself
You visit your local public library. How does the librarian greet you?
a) "Hello, can I help you?"
b) "Nice to see you again."
c) "FFS! Do you not know what a COURT ORDER is? Miriam, release the hounds!!"
How do you like to arrange your bookshelves?
a) in alphaberical order
b) by genre
c) by priapic response
Do you consider yourself:
a) a bibliophobe
b) a bibliophile
c) a bibliobimbo, as your most recent tattoo - "613.96" - confirms
So how did you do?
Mostly As: you're a book prude and should stick to watching telly
Mostly Bs: you're a book voyeur at best and probably just like to look at the covers
Mostly Cs: congratulations - you are a book lover and today is your day!
Happy reading...
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Today in pulp, one of the most influential and outrageous illustrators of the Italian Italian fumetti scene: Emanuele Taglietti!
This will be interesting...
Emanuele Taglietti was born in Ferrara in 1943. His father worked as a set designer for director Michaelangelo Antonioni, often taking Emanuele with him on set.
In the 1960s Taglietti moved to Rome, where he studied stage design. He began a successful career as an assistant art director, working for Federico Fellini and Marco Ferreri.
If the spacesuit is the symbol of progress, the gas mask is the sign of the apocalypse. In popular culture it signifies that science has turned against us. It's the face of dystopia.
Today in pulp I look at the culture of the mask!
The first chemical masks were work by Venitian plague doctors: a bird-like affair, the beak stuffed with lavender, matched with full length coat and hat. It was a terrifying sight - the grim reaper come to apply poultices to your tumours.
But it was poison gas, first used at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, that led to the modern gas mask. At first these were cotton masks treated with chemicals. However their protection was limited.
It's now over half a century since 1970, and I'm starting to wonder if we should bring back its concept of gracious modern living...
You see we've grown so used to Swedish-style modernism that we've sort of forgotten that maximalism, rather than minimalism, was once the sign of a cultured abode.
The 1970s in many ways reached back to the rich ideas of Victorian decor: heavy, autumnal and cluttered. Home was meant to be a baroque and sensual experience, rather than a 'machine for living in.'