(This is a shameless advertisement for Apple iPhoto books.  You have been warned.)

I got to make my first iPhoto book for the fine arts class I took this semester and was instantly hooked.  The book-assembly process is kind of frustrating - iPhoto is set up to be a no-brainer, which means that if you have brains and want to change any of the pre-sets they make it as difficult as possible to figure out where to do that.  BUT, once you fiddle with the layout and the text and then the layout again ’cause that thing you did on the first page knocked everything else out of whack, it’s fine.  You punch in your credit card numbers and address and wait an agonizing week until a stylishly thin cardboard mailer arrives in your mailbox.  And then, after admiring Apple’s nod to minimalism, you rip it open and pull out your new iPhoto book.  And then you gently caress the pages with your eyes, hold it to your nose to smell the fresh printing inks, run your fingers down the perfect binding, and smile.

You have just published a book.

You see, the clever people at Apple figured out that, deep in their heart of hearts, lots of people want to publish a book.  They want that book to have their own photographs and (maybe) text and to look as much as possible like something you’d pick up at Barnes & Noble for your coffee table.  The thrill of opening that first tiny book with my photographs printed on perfect, machine cut, glue bound pages was amazing. 

The book/brochure I just received has its share of small disappointments - the text is a little pixelated, the layout is a little “off”.  But I love it so much more than anything I could ever get from Kinko’s that I’m perfectly happy to forgive its minor faults. 

Apple, I forgive you for messing up my text.  You published a book for me.