More covetable covers from Penguin UK in the form of the English Journeys series – published in the UK this month and coming to a bookstore near you (presuming you’re in Australia) in June. Beyond Henry James, William Wordsworth and Vita Sackville-West I don’t know any of the authors, but then again, I’ve never been on an English journey (and have spent a grand total of one week in the slightly grim capital of the country).

These are only four of the twenty titles available.

:: Arwen ::

GalleyCat just taught me about We Tell Stories, a digital fiction project from Penguin UK.  It just won Best in Show and the Experimental prize at the SXSW Festival Web Awards.  

Because GalleyCat described the endeavor so well, and because I was just slapped with a six hour layover in Las Vegas and I’m going crazy from all the whistles and dings! from the slot machines, I’m going to quote their article instead of paragirizing (that is not a typo, that is a combination of plagiarizing and paraphrasing) or trying to write something original.

“We Tell Stories featured six storytelling experiments, each utilizing a different kind of webby tool. For instance, “Fairy Tale” was a story co-written by the reader and “The 21 Steps” was written using Google Maps.”

It’s very choose-your–own-adventure-y and it’s very cool.  Go.  Click!

I was sure that I wrote a blog post about Penguin UK’s Spinebreakers website when it was launched, but a quick search of the archives reveals I only dreamed I did. Nevertheless, I’ve been meaning to write another (first) post for a while. The site has been operating for more than a year now and it has really grown into the lively online space for young readers that it always promised to be.

Here’s what I love and admire about Spinebreakers:

• it’s an online book community for teenagers… run by teenagers. The editorial team is aged between 13 and 18 years and clearly changes and refreshes regularly. I’ve seen at least one call out for new contributors and editors since I’ve been following the site.
• Spinebreakers welcomes your content, instead of just talking at you about books. The site is chock full of opportunities to contribute content, whether it be writing book reviews, submitting video poems, making book trailers,  or writing an alternative chapter for your favourite book.
• The editorial team are fantastic curators. This not a my Space-style social network. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we have plenty of them already!) The Spinebreakers Crew of more than 30 teenagers keep up a constant stream of quality author interviews, writing tips, book info, short stories and, yes, commentary. I have the RSS feed in Google Reader and would probably get more than a dozen items a day from Spinebreakers. It’s fresh.
• Spinebeakers is an experience not just a website. The best part of all (except for me living in Australia) is that Spinebreakers have branched out into live events such as author talks and writing workshops. The first Spinebreakers Live, on July 25th, was a muster of more than 50 teenagers who worked with mentors on film creation, music production and creative writing. (As I so often do these days, I found myself whingeing “they didn’t have anything that cool when I was a teenager!”)

I wrote a while back about deep niches and the potential for publisher-driven sites to realise the value of vertical channels. Spinebreakers, along with the new Tor.com website, are examples of exciting initiatives in this direction. Of course, I can’t know if or how Spinebreakers has impacted on Penguin’s book sales of YA fiction but I do know they have attracted a loyal and active audience, including me!

Penguin U.K. has teamed up with Match.com for anyone who has “ever wished real life could be as romantic as a novel.” PenguinDating is a new site where singles can connect over a love of books. Perhaps not the same books (how many guys do you know who read romance novels?), but books can at least start a discussion. I love it! Apparently “reading is sexy.” I couldn’t agree more.

Now we don’t want to get too snobby here, because one woman’s Vampire Encyclopaedia is another’s love at first bite. A young buck reading a history of Goldman Sachs might be exactly what you’re after even though you’re busy stockpiling Marian for a week in the Balearics. Sometimes it’s enough to provoke curiosity when a person’s reading taste jars with your mental image of what they should be reading. That guy who looks like he’s just clocked-off from a building site, surely he can’t be clutching the collected works of Jane Austen?

Reminds me of the movie “The Jane Austen Book Club,” where the sci-fi/fantasy geek tries to get the gorgeous Austen-lover to read Ursula LeGuin. If I were single, I’d hop the nearest plane to Britain.

I don’t know how I managed to miss this . . . Shepard Fairy redesigned the covers for George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984. Looking nice.

Buy them at Penguin UK.