This is waaaay closer to the kind of book trailers I’d love to see more of. I really appreciate one stark difference between this trailer and nearly all other book trailers. There is obvious thought put into this video. The content of the video actually compliments that of the book. Perhaps the non-fiction, autobiographical nature of the book makes this slightly easier since real people doing the interesting things they wrote about doing is something I ‘d like to watch. Even at that, you can clearly tell that care was taken to make a compelling trailer. A renown “outdoor-adventuring” film company was hired to do all the shooting of the author and her daughters climbing. This was probably a considerable expense and it also proves that a bit of time and effort was put into finding the best people to film this very short piece. 

The author’s interjected interviews are not entirely fascinating and take away from the more beautiful and stark tone that is established by the opening shots of the daughters in the woods talking to the camera. But I guess having the author explain what the book is about is one hermeneutical approach. I would have been ever more compelled to explore the contents of the books if the whole thing had only been the happy, little girls marching up and down the mountains and then the closing quote by the author: “It’s beautiful up there; up’s a good place to be.” 

Anyway, it’s a very well shot and quite thoughtful trailer; a rare treat.

Some of the most creatively realistic book and magazine covers ever devised. Much like Wes Anderson’s films they are all so strategically ubiquitous that they work as a very precise satire. They are mimicking the sorts of books I would want to use as decoration, or perhaps just take joy in the knowledge of their existence. Geez, I could look at these forever.

(via mcnallyjackson)

Books have trailers. Any industrious publisher worth its salt will make a short-form video to promote a book release. Ninety-eight percent of the time these are horrid and unwatchable. They are characterized almost uniformly by sappy quips from book covers floating across the most amateurish graphic backgrounds and/or awkward interviews with the author that usually excoriate all thrill from even mildly exciting books.

I want to provide a little access to some of the better book trailers that I come across. I watch a lot of book trailers because I am interested in all manner of books, when they are being released, by whom and so on. Most readers could not possibly care less about all of that and therefore do not seek out the not-so-readily-available book trailers that are actually worth watching and do what they were designed to do, entice you to read the book. I, however, do come across some of these in my perusals. I want to share them. I want people to realize that books are often more deserving of the fan-phoric enthusiasm often reserved for movies and their trailers. 

I’m going to curate a tag on this site of all book trailers that I believe do a decent job promoting a book. I probably haven’t read these books and the trailer might not be superb but there are so few even tolerable book trailers in existence that I feel exposing folks to the upper echelon is in some small way doing my part.

This first one I’ve chosen is for a book about teachers and the value they offer our children. Unlike most book trailers it actually utilizes actors. They are clearly not very good actors but they are acting with conviction and they have an endearing quality. The pace of this trailer is far more energetic than almost any other book trailer I’ve ever seen. There is no cinematic quality to this, it smacks much more closely to a sad little PSA seen on late-night TV; but the reason I wanted to lead off with this one is that it at least attempts to be more than a disturbingly boring, cliche and creatively impoverished thing merely filling up space on YouTube with no other discernable purpose. I don’t even know why most publishers create book trailers since they are not readily available to see (you can hardly find them on the publisher’s site) and I cannot imagine most of them are in any way effective. In this there is a clear belief in the book and its contents, which is sadly refreshing. So watch the short trailer and laugh because it is goofy but also think about how much worse this would be if it was merely a soft-focus, chalkboard background with uninspired blurbs from the actual cover written in an obvious chalk font floating across the screen to some lousy version of Pomp and Circumstance. Because that is what I wade through to find even a not-so-shimmering diamond in the rough as this.

I found this written in a small notebook of mine today. I don’t know what inspired it, perhaps I overheard it. I don’t know what I was going to use it for. Perhaps a role playing scenario for the future? Who knows. All punctuation and capitalization is straight off the page.

Oh, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t like it as much as the first month’s issue.

yeah.

yeah. I mean the articles are cohesive, there’s a nice flow. I mean, it’s the art issue, or whatever. But they seem to be less about art than, like, art.

huh, yeah

And I find it lacking in, you know, words, so, I mean, it’s nice. It’s got a lot of good stuff it’s just that I can’t read it. Or rather I’m not going to. More like that sorta thing.

yeah

How bizarre. I am somewhat fond of it though.

bakeanddestroy:

seibei:

youmightfindyourself:

Haruki Murakami Bingo

I feel like you could knock out almost all of these with a couple of the right chapters. 

This gives me a reason to re-read his whole catalog besides the fact that it’s all amazing!

(via spx)