Fantastic Metropolis

Intro · Likes · Rituals · Necessity
Examples · Memories · Bios

Luís Rodrigues

In short? Portable universe.

Mary Doria Russell

I appreciate a well-designed cover. Robin Locke Monda has done the cover art for my novels, and I know for a fact that they’ve attracted a readership that ordinarily avoids science fiction. People do, in fact, judge a book by its cover, and I think Paul Di Filippo was right when he said a few years ago that science fiction would be more respected as a genre if the books had been packaged like generic groceries used to be: in a plain white wrapper with plain black print.

Lucius Shepard

I’m not all that concerned with books as objects. Most books I buy I end up spilling stuff on, scribbling notes in them, etc. I particularly don’t like having copies of my own books about. I generally chuck them in a closet and only dig them out if somebody wants a copy. Many times, when I get author’s copies, I don’t even open the box.

Delia Sherman

I like the way it feels in my hands. I like the weight of it, whether it’s the feather weight of a mass market paperback, or the solid heft of a hard-bound tome. I like the texture of cloth covers, the slickness of dust jackets and shiny paper covers. Leather, of course, is best of all, although I can remember a silk-bound volume of Christina Rossetti’s poems that I loved to stroke. Carefully, of course.

Mike Simanoff

I like how books accumulate their own history. They also reflect the virtuosic decay of the world. The lingo of the antiquarian and used book trade is a lexicon of decadence: brittle, chipped, cracked, damaged, doctored, dog-eared, foxing, mildew, rubbed, warping, worming.

Brian Stableford

It’s a masterpiece of design: a great deal of information, perfectly ordered and contained.

Peter Straub

I like the ease of access afforded by a book, also its well-nigh effortless transportability.

Anna Tambour

Its noble qualities: friendliness, stoicism, accessibility at all hours (with no need to be humored and no fits of indisposition), and its dignified vulnerability.

Jeffrey Thomas

One might transport a laptop and read from that, but there is still something more transportable about a book; it can be read in the tub, on the train… but more than that, a book becomes an extension of the reader in a way that a computer does not. A paperback curves to the hands that cup it. A hardback rests its covers upon the thighs. Books conform to our bodies as our minds mold to their words. It’s an almost sensual, surely corporeal, intimacy.

Scott Thomas

I like a book’s portability, its weight and how it is a container of goodies much as a box of chocolates is. The book as a whole functions as an artwork.

William Thompson

It’s physicality as history. My greatest interest in the book as object is its manner of binding, paper quality, and presentation of the text, especially if illustrative matter is included (sadly, not often in today’s world), and their relationship to the history of book binding and publishing. Unfortunately, little today of note, as most books are printed and bound in the cheapest manner possible, with little prospect either for longevity or quality or originality of presentation. Unfortunately, the history of publication has been one of steady degradation, reaching its nadir within our own lifetimes.