Blog spotting
Book chat in cyberspace
Hot Springs
www.hotspringsnovel.com
Hot Springs is an iNovel by Steve Zio. For those of you who are unfamiliar
with the concept an iNovel is, simply put, a novel (the kind with
pages and a cover that you can buy in a book shop) plus a thematically
linked companion website. You don't need to actually go to the website
to enjoy the book, however. But if you want to, the different links
are intended to add meaning, depth and colour to the story, characters
and settings
Hot Springs is the story of Jason, a young web developer frustrated
by the role of technology in his life. Recanting his lifestyle, job
and the urban experience, he returns to bucolic Hot Springs Island
and the small hotel run by his eccentric father. Once there, Jason
is confronted by past events that send him on a personal odyssey to
hot springs in England and Japan. That's the premise. The website
is beautifully crafted and well worth a visit.
Apollinaire's Bookshoppe
www.bookthug.ca
Perhaps the most unusual site I have stumbled across this month is
Apollinaire's Bookshoppe, specializing in 20th century literature.
This rather offbeat bookshop gives emphasis to poetry, smallpress,
the experimental and the ephemeral.
The site's founder, MillAr (yes it is spelt with a capital 'A') describes
Apollinaire's Bookshoppe as "imaginary" not just because
it's an online-only operation, but also because "it's the kind
of bookstore that has been in my imagination for a long time because
I could never actually find it. I think it exists in other people's
imaginations as well." Together, MillAr's enterprises are helping
to secure a place for poetry in the 21st century. Intrigued yet? You
should be.
