Books are not dead! The newest thing in the digital age are solid paper books. Not all books deserve to be printed on paper, but some books do, and these are the books that Wink celebrates. Every weekday Wink reviews one remarkable book that demonstrates what paper books can do. This might be an attractive oversized book that wows your coffee table, a craft book that includes materials to get you started, or a how-to book sporting an unusually handy binding. It could be a pop-up book, an atlas with pull-out maps, a stunning picture book for children, an unusual tome printed on exquisite paper. Or it could be a hardback graphic novel whose illustrations pop better in ink than in pixels.
Wink scours bookstores, libraries, flea markets, and online retailers looking for books that you must experience; books that are sensual, three dimensional, robust. We seek out artifacts that you must hold in your hands or unfold in your lap. Wink collects books that optimize what books do best on paper: open up new worlds. Our test for Winkdom is simple: would this book work as an ebook? If yes, we ignore it.
Rather we gather for you the best books that work on paper. Wink books will never go obsolete – they can still be enjoyed in a hundred years. As much as possible, we go out of our way to find paper books that are little known treasures, that are uncommon and unconventional, and yet are still available (that is, we don’t feature “rare” books).
Wink reviews are written by paper-book enthusiasts Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Carla Sinclair, and a select team of book aficionados.
Wink: remarkable books on paper