Infographic Guide to Literature

by Joanna Eliot

Fascinating, insightful, clever and stunning, these infographic diagrams will help you see literature in a whole new light.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Literature, Reference, Picture Books, History, Pop Culture

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2014

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess reading both the Doctor who Infographic followed by the Super Hero one (though really its the comic version but have already been there) I discovered there is a whole series of similar books, this being one of them.

Now the style is very similar- the idea is that they author conveys a lot of literature trivia in the form of varying and eye catching (and sometimes utterly confusing infographics).

Now this book I will admit follows no real logic so the guide at the front is invaluable - especially when it is literally a trivial pursuit goldmine of information. The book is literally a series of infographics - of totally random information (how many degrees of separation from Stephen King).

However once you get in to the randomness of this book it starts to become more fun - you read the heading, decipher what on earth they are trying convey and then you settle down to reading what they have to say and in the process possibly learn something you can impress your fellow readers.

This is a great book if you have immense concentration skills otherwise its a book to dip in and out of - however its a very quick read - I think my brain would have exploded if it was longer. So a fascinating book with so much information in there - if you have the patience and a certain way of mental working to dig it out.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the spreads are brilliant, or insightful, or amusing, or useful or some combination thereof. Some aren't just unhelpful, they're actively confusing. Truly, there are a few that are mind-bogglingly unsuccessful, such that I would expect to see them discussed in Bad Chart Thursdays on Skepchick.Nonetheless, exactly the sort of thing that makes every bookworm in the house pick up, flip through, and then fall into like a rabbit hole. Amusingly, every member of the family was appalled by a different one. Perhaps that's just the nature of the beast, like a list of greats, there will always be some contention.

Library copy.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Литература хоть и штука разнообразная, но её тоже можно систематизировать! Авторы этой книги сделали это при помощи популярного в наши дни метода -- инфографике.

"Инфографика" - одна из форм графического и коммуникационного дизайна. Говоря простым языком, это способ преподнести информацию не просто грудой текста, а при помощи графиков, диаграмм, блок-схем, таблиц, карт, списков. Сейчас даже многие резюме и объявления о работе оформляются в таком виде. Современному читателю сложно концентрироваться на километрах текста, а инфографика позволяет передать много данных в сжатом виде.

Многие спрашивали, чем "Мировая литература в инфографике" (изд. @piterbooks) отличается от популярной сейчас "Booklover" от Бомборы. Именно подачей информации! Здесь нет длинных параграфов и описаний. Каждый разворот посвящен какой-то теме в литературе, писателю, книге и т.п. Можете полистать несколько страничек в карусельке, чтобы понять, о чём речь.

Такая книга - кладезь для любого буклавера: тут море полезной информации, списков и необычных фактов на всевозможные темы.

Чтобы не быть голословной, вот несколько вопросов, ответы на которые вы узнаете из книги:

1) Сколько книг можно настругать из одного дерева?
2) Появление каких технологий предсказали писатели в своих книгах до их реального появления?
3) Через какие предметы "обихода" можно попасть в волшебные миры?
4) В каких (в т.ч. современных) произведениях встречаются монстры из мифов?
5) Список литературных коктейлей (после этого разворота захотелось открыть свой бар :D)

В книге также есть несколько разворотов с загадками, где вы можете попытаться угадать авторов по силуэтам, писателей по их бороде или жанр книги по дизайну обложки. Проверить себя было интересно!

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting, some pages I'd like to reread after I read some books, some pages I'll return to for recommendations.

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

** Books 216 - 2016 **

4 of 5 stars!

Ahh i just love this books is! It is very cute, and give some amusing literature facts for me!
Especially i'm dying laughly when i read in every libraries there are some books being stolen and especially in world libraries i wanna giggling so much when Fifty Shades of Grey series and also The Kamasutra are in the top 5 books being stolen by visitor! LMFAO

It is also give me some new information that don't you know between Bronte and Austen that Bronte is more focusing to love storyline than Austen? Hhaha this books also clearly give me some family tree from Wuthering Heights and One Hundred Years of Solitude . I haven't read OHYoS and yeah it became spoiler for me aaakkk! This books also written what happen with the family member. Is he/she died or alive? =___=a

Another amusing facts that this pieces writes about how the popular author died? Okay I doesn't know that Sylvia Plath suicides herself by taking some pills or i am forgot the name of author is that suicides drowning himself into the sea.

Overall i just love how the books very well describes about literature world creatively! It is seriously taken into my favorite books for this months! >___<

*Yess! Timbunan Big Bad Wolf kembali berkurang*

[Kim Tyo-Dickerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Infographic collection that is fabulous for class entry points, discussions, general fun for almost any subject to do with writing, reading, books and libraries. All my favorite things in one!:

Austen vs. Brontë: tracks references to "Bonnet" "Ball" "Dress" "Heart" "Darkness" "Marriage" "Tears" "Engagement" "Love"

Steal This Book: The list of books stolen from a bunch of cities, because stealing certain books, like anything by Michel Foucault or about Wicca and Witchcraft is a thing

Banned Books: reasons book have been banned from the 8th to the 21st centuries, from Homosexual Content by the likes of Sappho to Offensive to Islam re: Harry Potter series

The Bloomsbury Network: tracks inter-group romantic relationships, artistic collaborations, cousins and siblings

Degrees of Gothic: *love* overview of the 13 key ingredients of any true Gothic novel including: "Virginal female victims" "Storms, fog or fire" "Cruel, brooding male villain" "Madness" among other sinister categories

Death by Shakespeare: an overview of stabbings, poisonings, suicides, beheadings and the ultimate death, "Dies of shame!" By play.

Dulce Et Decorum Est: Poets, playwrights and novelist who died in trenches of WWI.

This book is an awesome adventure for inquiring minds.

[Nazmi Yaakub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dengan paparan grafik yang menarik, buku ini memaparkan info mengenai sastera khususnya Barat yang menyenangkan untuk dibelek. Ada maklumat yang berguna tetapi ada juga yang kurang bermanfaat kepada pembaca umum. Ada juga grafik yang agak rumit hingga menafikan maksud sebenar sesuatu info dalam bentuk grafik yang sepatutnya memudahkan.

[Rebecca Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous tool for the classroom to introduce texts, seek patterns, and think deeply about design and how it enhances meaning/message. Gorgeous.

[Suica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely and beautiful book about books! I will return to it many more times for sure!

[Jean-Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly beautiful book for its infographics and data presentations about literature and its strange characters throughout history (both fictional and factual). Would make a great gift for someone studying English and American Literature.

However, not for the literary faint of heart- you kinda have to know, or at least be familiar with, your stuff from Shakespeare and Austen, Edgar Allen Poe and Keats- to Joyce and Proust- to get the most out of this book. For that, I loved it. Along the same vein, this book is white/European writer centric, so don't come here looking for Maya Angelou, James Baldwin or Chinua Achebe.

[Vonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literary Infographics. Some are a lot of fun. Some are confusing. Some have relevant data. Some have random data. Some have useless data.

A lot have data that is highly difficult to interpret, like following excessively thin lines in a maze like fashion to figure out what year various science fiction novels are meant to take place in.

----------

Mere trivia, Mostly useless information (But who cares whether or is applicable in real life or not!:

How many hours the world spend reading versus browsing the internets in the average week global average is 6.5 / 8.9, the United States is 828 / 5.7, Canada with 8.3 - 5.8, Mexico with 6.3 - 5.5, The United Kingdom is 8.8 vs 5.3, Australia has 7 - 6.3, Brazil with 10.5 vs 5.2, Italy is 6.3 vs 5.6 Sweden is 8 vs 6.9, Egypt with 10.3 - 7.5, South Africa is 9 vs 6.3. Of course, the Asian countries have the highest reading:browsing ratio with China at 10.8 vs 8, Hong Kong at 10.7 - 6.7, the Philippines at 9.8 - 7.6, 6.9 versus b4 from Japan, 10.7 - 7.94 India. The exceptions are Taiwan at 12.6 to 5 and South Korea with 9.6 to 3.)

The Thriller Starter Kit (Uses an algorithm/table with which you insert personal information that corresponds to the answers). Here are my results:
Title: Blind Song
Protagonist: Cordelia, Average Citizen
Villain: Helen, PTSD Sufferer
Publisher: Pink Swan Library

Judging a book by it's cover (Which, by the way, I find inevitable despite how bad it might be. Blasphemy for some, I have an intuition that typically does not lead me astray. In fact, I have an unorthodox love for specific book covers.) (To prove that what I am saying has basis, the fact is that nowadays, with so many books sold online rather than in store, it has to be able to convey content at a glance. Which is why they typically look the same, with only the author's name immediately recognizable. The style rules for the right best-selling genres: Chick-Lit has light, pastel colors, flowers real or drawn, female legs, hands arms, and no face. Classics have old-fashioned artwork, in the style of the original era of publication. Erotica Fiction has dark grey or black with semi-naked male or a couple, in silhouette. Historical Fiction has a section of a painting of a woman from the era of the novel's setting, script font title. Mysteries have the author's name on the top two third of the image, the title of the bottom third, a solid color background with an indeterminate photo image, possibly with a figure in a long shot. Romance Novels have the author's name in silver or gold foil on the top two thirds of the page, the title on the lower third, and the background of a painted landscape. Teen Horrors have a monochrome photo of a girl, dressed in Victorian or early 20th century clothes, or of an angel or graveyard, and shaky handwritten font. Vampire Stories have the title in silver or gold foil, larger than the author, blood red, purple, or midnight blue colors, the male or female face on the cover, partially veiled.)

Books for Cooks (Not all books with recipes are written by celebrities. These are by the greatest novelist and playwrights, featured in their work.)

Weather as a metaphor in books : storms, snow, sun, rain, and fog, with information on how it contributed to and affected the story, quite often as important as a main character )

A couple silhouette guessing games that depict famous writers

Alcohol statistics for 007 (1.5 glasses of wine a day, and actual analysts conclude, on average, four times the recommended maximum intake level)

How many great writers, centuries ago and today, are only six degrees of separation from Stephen King

----------_

Informational:

The step-by-step process of publishing a book

Best-selling books of all time (Don Quixote (Which is, by far, the most with 500 million, the next being only 120 million. This is, of course, understandable, due to its inherent greatness. It is, after all, my favorite book of all time. One out of thousands. Dream of the Red Chamber, The American Spelling Book, A Take of Two Cities, War and Peace. In the 21st century, the best selling ones are, of course, the Harry Potter series, at around 60 million per copy. The Sorcerer's Stone sold 107 million)

What authors were censored for over the years around the world

Most expensive first editions (Ulysses, The Great Gatsby, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Hound of Baskervilles, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Hobbit, The Tale of Peter Rabbit: From $460,000 (Ulysses by far; the next one is only $163,000) to $98,000 respectively)

Umberto Eco's "In The Name Of The Rose" character guide and map; A guide for themes in Terry McMillan's science fiction, etcetera

[Ariel Hudnall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Infographics come to hardbacks in bold, beautiful ways.

In an increasingly rare example of a book better appreciated on paper instead of digital format, Infographic Guide to Literature, by Octopus Books, sports eighty unique and intricately-designed infographics for the literature buff.

Octopus’s guide is printed on high quality paper stock and uses intense color swatches. Although the book draws more on information from the Western literary world, a few smatterings of Indian and Chinese novelists offer a little diversity in amongst the graphs depicting the various deaths of Shakespeare’s characters, noir detectives, and crazy, fictional family trees. The amalgamated information is not limited to the literature itself; there are quite a few interesting graphs that depict the environmental impact of the book industry (645 million trees each year), guessing authors based purely on their facial hair, the most frequently stolen books from libraries and book stores (spoiler alert: one of them is titled Steal This Book), and the many odd ways in which authors have died.

There are even a few infographics for the writer himself: The Shapes of Stories According to Kurt Vonnegut, how to design your book cover based on genre, How an Idea Becomes a Book (tongue-in-cheek), A Brief History of the Big Five Publishing Companies, and a sampling of authors who have written under pen names of the opposite sex (though, according to this chart, Poppy Z. Brite died in 1876, even though he is still alive and well today….)

Overall, the Infographic Guide to Literature is a fun, playful book that can be perused in about a day – however, some of the graphs are hard to read, with odd points of reference for their x and y axises, or color combos that might be painful (or impossible) to read for the colorblind. (For example, in the infographic Austen VS. Bronte, small light green/red/yellow x’s are placed over a dotted gray background.) While I can’t say the book is exhaustive in its research, the unique way in which it presents that information is a delight, and easily recalled when needed.

[Yan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and attractive

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

У меня скорее претензии к полиграфии - очень мелкий шрифт! Плюс в некоторых местах я так и не разобралась, что именно мне хотят сказать, в чем суть этих графических упражнений. Хотя, надо признать, что инфографика довольно занимательная штука для читателя, и не менее захватывающая для автора и дизайнера.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book of interesting facts about the world of literature - from the life of poets to the birth of book binding, it has a massive amount of interesting info presented in an easy to read, easily digested way. I love how they're illustrated and they're all excellent pieces of graphic design (and they're incredibly inspiring too!) and I am thoroughly smitten with this one - it's going to be a good one to keep referring back to for facts. I'm massively impressed with this for the facts themselves right down to the way they're presented and laid out; it's really phenomenal. I loved it.

I'd definitely recommend you pick this one up; it's a really good book for the literature lover.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

INFOGRAPHIC GUIDE TO LITERATURE
2014; 160 Pages
Genre: books, literature, authors, guide

★★★★

I picked this book up while wondering in the books about books section at my library. It is a fun look at books and authors through charts and graphs. I read it in one sitting as I am nerdy like that, but it is more of a coffee table or reference book. I am not a fan of math but do enjoy charts so I highly recommend this book to readers.

k (My Novelesque Life)

[Deb Jacobs · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a book to dip into - and definitely one for when you have good light! For a book which is supposed to graphically represent various themes in literature there is often a poor choice of font or text colour rendering some parts illegible.

It has made me consider reading some books and rather put me off others. I might also be inclined to read some biographies as a result.

An odd book - or unique, if I'm being charitable.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, colorful, and informative!

[RumBelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading infographic books. The wide range of topics discussed, the colorful graphics and the humorous, yet informative text make them highly enjoyable.

There were so many topics discussed in this book, it was amazing. Some of my favorites included the graphic that talked about greek monsters, and the books which feature them at their best. Then there was the one that showed various literary cats and dogs, and whether they were evil, faithful or somewhere in between. Another one that caught my eye was one that discussed author's mysterious deaths.

Popular books, famous books, classic books and obscure books all found a home, and had their moment in the spotlight in this book. It was a well rounded collection of literature, and authors that were discussed.

I will say, there was some nudity, not explicit, but obvious. As an FYI for readers.

An enjoyable book if you enjoy literature on any level.

[Lynda]

This is a bright and beautiful book for bibliophiles everywhere. Hundreds of amazing books are selected to compare and contrast or delve further into, and the infographics are clever and visually attractive. There is lots of food for thought as one contemplates old favourites, and is introduced to new horizons.
Some of my favourite pages were:
War and Peace (family trees of the characters!) p 38
Shakespeare Eternal (versions, across many genres, based on Shakespeare's plays)
Portal to another world (children's books) p70 & 71
Judging a Book by Its Cover (intriguing!) p 84
From Stone Tablet to Digital Tablet p88
How an Idea Becomes a Book (funny!) p 102
Dulce et Decorum Est (soldier war poets, playwrights, authors) p112
The Hours (mean hours spent reading or on computer, by country. None of us is reading books enough, except perhaps India!) p 132
Wordy Cocktails (authors' favourite cocktail recipes, revealed in their books) p 156

[Shennety · Rating 5 out of 5]

Отличная книга всем книголюбам, ибо здесь нет банальной информации о биографии писателей и их творчестве. Более того, я уверена, что о многих фактах вы и не знали, поэтому книга станет настоящем открытием. Помимо просто интересной сводки, есть нестандартная информации: например, в каких странах чаще всего воруют книги из библиотек и какие авторы пользуются популярностью у воришек.
Довольно сложно говорить о книге, не рассказывая о ней в подробностях, потому что так и хочется поведать обо всем и сразу. Поэтому, дабы не портить впечатления, просто добавлю, что книга - великолепна, а группа авторов, придумавших этот проект, - гении!!!

[Sammy Osmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating array of different spreads. Many of them were about ancient books that no one knew, but you received a in depth analysis of their family trees and relationships. The ones that were about well known classics or interesting topics were fascinating. From banned books to how many times the Bronte sisters used words such as bonnet, ball, and love, it was a wonderful book. I would recommend it for ages 13 and up, since it does talk about reasons certain banned books were banned and has some vague content about adult matter. Overall a great read and would recommend it especially for people who love classic books and/or reading in general.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great bright images in this book with interesting facts and figures about many great works. Some of the graphics took me a minute to figure out and wouldn’t be friendly to those that are colorblind or with such issues. I don’t have any and still had some trouble distinguishing between some colors. Only one page about publishing that came off kind of bitter, but I have no prior knowledge so I don’t know how true it is. Other than that it’s a great little book with fun information about books.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for data nerds, or to loan HS or college junior/ senior to add substance to their English assignments. A well thought out, designed and planned work that takes topics you weren’t really ever curious about and boils them down to categories such as: # of deaths, worth, # of times a word is used etc. The stars are for the time and research that went into this.

[Meghannf · Rating 5 out of 5]

That is a book that I really enjoy and took my time discovering it. The infographie is delightful! I feel like I can use a lot of pages in my class to give my teaching a twist!

I loved it! I recommend this book as a gift to someone who loves literature

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

So clever...Lit made visual. Facts and figures. Unusual and unexpected.

[Donny · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a bibliophile I liked it. As a stats nerd I often thought about how form was selected over function for some of the graphics.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good idea and a fun way to look at literature if different kinds. creative and definitely a great gift for a book lover

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got this for Christmas from the one who knows me best. I didn't even know this was a thing. But it was fascinating. And I recommend it to anyone who is a total Lit. nerd.

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

FUN! Lots of great graphics that compare literary works (primarily European and North American, sigh) in a plethora (hah) of ways.