I was happy to see that top shelf pictured at the Junkudo book store in Ikebukuro, bringing together that great little collection of Japanese pop culture books from Kodansha International. I remember that when Arcade Mania came out, because we were the first, it was actually challenging for bookstores to place the book, as it wasn’t obvious where it should go. But with the addition of all those other books that ended up using the same format — Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda’s Yokai Attack and Ninja Attack, Brian’s Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential, and Patrick W. Galbraith’s The Otaku Encyclopedia — it now makes sense to display them together. I think the next step is the creation of a box set — how great a Christmas gift would that be!

Now this is a very cool idea for an iPad book-related app:

In 1966 British artist Tom Phillips set himself a task: to find a second-hand book for threepence and alter every page by painting, collage and cut-up techniques thereby creating an entirely new version. He titled his altered book A Humument. The first version of all 367 treated pages was published in 1973 since when it has been continuously revised and there have been three new editions. The Humument App has just been developed for the iPad by Tom Phillips, it combines the most recent 367 full-colour pages with an entirely novel interactive feature, The Oracle.

The Humument App was released today on the iTunes App Store, and sells for $8. (via @craigmod)

The Kindle app for iPad has just received an update, and it adds a feature I’ve long wanted: When you read in landscape mode, it now shows up as two columns. So far, it’s one of the main reasons I preferred reading books in iBooks, because having two columns like that (or two paperback-like pages) is the width I like to deal with. Reading in portrait mode (for both), I find that the column width is just too wide to make for a comfortable read.

Some more interesting musings by Warren Ellis in regards to digital comics, this time using the success of his free-to-read online web comic FREAKANGELS as an example. Now combine this with iPad delivery, and you have a strong case for comic creators making the move to digital-mostly, with maybe the additions of printed collections for those who still prefer their books that way.

In a later post, we also learn that new issues of the Walking Dead comic series — the one that will debut next month on TV as a Frank Darabont-produced series on AMC — are now available for sale on iPad (through the Image Comics and Comixology apps) the same day they show up in shops. This is something I’ve found to be a big problem with digital comic sales — so far you can’t buy the latest issues of a series, which doesn’t make much sense if you want to reach your core comic reading audience. The one downer is that the digital issue is now priced same as in print, $3, versus the $2 they were charging for previous digital issues.

If you haven’t watched it yet, do take the time to take a look at the conceptual video IDEO has put together, presenting three possible experiences that digital books on a tablet could offer. It’s pretty interesting stuff, and although most comments seem to be excited about the first example (“Nelson”) — which is sort of what some of the magazines apps have been offering, but on steroids — but I quite liked what I saw with the third example (“Alice”), which suggests new ways of presenting a narrative, pumping up the interactive angle to a level that almost resembles a game. I know that Tim Kring, the creator of the Heroes TV series, is exploring similar types of narrative — what he calls “transmedia” — with his Conspiracy for Good project.

I rather like Nick Bilton‘s tech coverage for The New York Times — he runs the Bits blog — and this week he has a new book out called I Live in the Future & Here’s How It Works. I quite want to read the book, but the reason I bring it up here is that Bilton has also released a free iPhone/iPad app to help with the promotion.

While it’s not particularly pretty, it’s a neat way of letting people explore the book before buying, as well as getting them engaged. The app includes long-ish excerpts of every chapter, including links of interest at the end, ways of sharing that content online (through email, Facebook, and Twitter), and at least one video that I found (an intro by Bilton).

There are also sections that let you access Bilton’s own blog, as well as his Twitter feed — nothing I’d like to use on a permanent basis, but nice in that it gives you one place to not only explore the book, but learn more about the author and what he’s all about.

It’s a nice start, and something I’m betting we’re going to see more of, with maybe even more engaging content (interactive elements, community features).

Good news for those of us who can’t afford the beautiful — but $80 — Designing Obama book by Scott Thomas, which covers how design was brilliantly used during the Obama campaign (Thomas was the campaign’s design director). The project was funded through Kickstarter earlier this year, and with the print version now shipping, we also get an iPad version, priced at $5 — note that it’s listed as an “introductory price.”

The app is bare bones — it’s pretty much a PDF viewer — but the pages are beautifully rendered, and very readable when you zoom in (the only annoyance is that each page takes a second or two to load up). I haven’t finished reading it yet, but I’m absolutely loving it so far, and you can’t pass it up at that price.

It does feel like creating cheap iPad app versions of beautiful — and expensive — books is a great way of not only selling people on the real thing (try before you buy), but also lets everyone enjoy the book, even if they can’t afford the pricier option.

I just posted something about the new book Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential on SNOW Magazine, but wanted to mention it here too. It’s Brian Ashcraft’s follow-up to Arcade Mania, to which I contributed, and I can assure you that fans of AM will absolutely love Confidential too. It’s done in the same style and was edited by Andrew Lee, who had a hand in all of the recent “pop culture” guides from Kodansha International, including AM, The Otaku Encyclopedia, and Matt Alt‘s Yokai Attack and Ninja Attack.

The book is now out everywhere — here are links to Amazon US and Amazon Japan. Oh, and the contributor of the book, Shoko Ueda? That’s Brian’s wife who, you know, was an actual schoolgirl, so you know it’s legit.

I’m pretty sure I hate Craig Mod, and the reason is because he keeps writing awesome essays and is doing plenty of things — like starting a “publishing think tank” called PRE/POST — that make me jealous. You really do need to go read his latest journal entry, “Kickstartup,” which tells the story of how he used Kickstarter to successfully fund the new edition of Art Space Tokyo, sharing everything he learned from the process. And even though it’s long, don’t Instapaper it, because you’ll miss out on the beautiful layout.

Pictured, Art Space Tokyo covers drying, after they’ve been hand-printed.

Rush is a cool new iPhone game based on the terrific Arkedo series of games (especially the third one, Pixel!) that came out on Microsoft’s Indie Games service for the Xbox 360. Why do I bring it up here? Well, the company behind it, Pix’n Love, is also the publisher of the French edition of Arcade Mania, which is pretty damn neat.

Some great news today: as of an hour ago, the Art Space Tokyo team reached their goal of raising $15,000 to reprint/update the book, as well as produce a free iPad version. Keep supporting the project though, because I know they low-balled the amount (if you don’t reach your goal on Kickstarter you get nothing) and so every bit more will help make sure Craig and Ashley can both devote the amount of time necessary to making this as awesome as it deserves to be.

My friends Craig Mod and Ashley Rawlings produced this terrific book a couple of years ago called Art Space Tokyo, you may have heard of it — I’ve certainly plugged it and recommended it countless times to anyone I talk to when it comes to the art scene in Tokyo. It has unfortunately been out of print for quite a while now, but Craig and Ashley recently got the rights back (as Craig is no longer involved with Chin Music Press), and they’ve launched a Kickstarter project to not only get an updated version of the book back in print, but to also produce a free iPad version. So go, and support what will undoubtedly be an awesome pair of products.

Some very good news: Arcade Mania is getting a 3rd print run! Huge thanks to everyone who has picked up the book so far — hoping you’ve enjoyed it — and here’s an invitation to everyone who hasn’t done so yet. The book is available in bookstores, but of course on Amazons worldwide too (Amazon US, Amazon Japan).

As 2009 comes to an end, I’m very happy to report that one of the projects that will be keeping me busy during the start of 2010 will be work on the upcoming fifth editions of The Rough Guide to Tokyo and The Rough Guide to Japan (due for release in 2011). I’ll be contributing to both, but mostly on the Tokyo guide — joining author Simon Richmond — with contributions to the Japan guide limited to Tokyo and surrounding areas. For more on the Rough Guides series, check out the official site.

If you followed the link in my last post about next year’s Web Trend Map Atlas, you’ll find Oliver mention that the project will be done in collaboration with “Books We Make.” Visiting the website, I see that it’s a new project by Craig Mod, and I’m quite upset that I don’t know anything about it.