You discover the Theseus text to be heavily annotated by two people-and soon realize you’ve become a part of it all as the third reader. Inside S., the fully integrated design work tells the story. (Which, as PaperSpecs revealed in a fascinating piece about the production of the book was no small feat-from aligning the printed texture with the true texture of the book to getting the color to print correctly.) It resembles 1940s-era book design in both look and feel, complemented by a debossed cover, period typeface and the fact that a false texture was printed on artificial linen to give the presentation a realistic surface. The slipcover contains what appears to be a battered, handsome library book titled Ship of Theseus, by an author named V.M. Once you break the seal of S., the magnitude of what they, design firm Headcase Design, book packager Melcher Media and Mulholland Books have accomplished immediately begins to become clear. Abrams’ imagination went to work on the concept of what would become S., and he later connected with award-winning author Doug Dorst, who accepted the challenge of fleshing out the idea. It had a note inside informing the finder to read the book, and then leave it for someone else. when he found an abandoned novel at the airport. And as it turns out, that’s the point.Ībrams came up with the idea for S. It’s a brilliant design move: You must make a conscious physical action to enter the book. The slipcover has a beautiful, odd, heavy seal, and it must be broken to get in. In S., you literally discover a book within a book-a black slipcover branded with the title houses what looks to be a linen-covered vintage tome bearing a Dewey-Decimal call number. It really is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It seems like a cheap trick-until you hold a copy of S.

Abramsīlurbs aren’t meant to be given by a book’s own authors-especially when one of those authors is, in this case, a major Hollywood creative known more for directing and producing his series (Lost) and films (Cloverfield, Super 8, Star Trek) than his strictly writerly endeavors (say, that script for Armageddon). Frankly, I’m amazed it was even possible to do this project at all.” -J.J. might seem odd, over-the-top, a lazy misuse of celebrity: At first, the quote at the top of the press release for the book

Ship of theseus book