Leo

Earlier this year, following the closure of my publisher, <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/reacquired/">I reacquired the rights to my three books</a>. And as of last night, you can read the first two books — <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/books/responsive-web-design/">the second edition of <cite>Responsive Web Design</cite></a>, and <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/books/responsive-design-patterns-and-principles/"><cite>Responsive Design: Patterns & Principles</cite></a> — online, right here on this very website. For free. I have a lot of emotions about my publisher’s sudden closure, but I’m just thrilled I was able to rescue these books, and make them publicly available. And there are two people in particular who helped make it happen. First, <a href="https://eaton.fyi/">Jeff Eaton</a>’s <a href="https://github.com/eaton/dq">Dancing Queen library</a> made it possible for me to export my books’ contents into Markdown. Second, <a href="https://hire.wil.to/">Mat Marquis</a>’s <a href="https://github.com/Wilto/a-book-departs/">book site builder</a> was a helpful reference for me, <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/eleventy/">an Eleventy naïf</a>, in figuring out how to build these two little mini-sites. I’m deeply grateful to both Jeff and Mat for their work, and for making it possible for all of us authors to preserve our books. Because I’m me, a few caveats. First, these books are old. If you see any code, I hope you’ll remember it is extremely Of Its Time. These books were written when Internet Explorer was still a going concern, when flexbox support was relatively minimal, and CSS Grid was still but a glint in the W3C’s eye. The books’ principles are, I think, still incredibly sound, but I can recommend skimming the implementation details. Somewhat related to that, the images aren’t currently retina-friendly. I might go diving into some old files at some point, and see if I can export sharper versions of that artwork. But with everything [gestures around] going on, that’s pretty low on my list of priorities. Now, with that out of the way: because I’m me, a few emotions. The process of getting these books online was, overall, tinged with melancholy. It always feels a bit weird to revisit old writing; doubly so when I think about how much easier things felt back then. And the books — those lovely yellow and orange paperbacks — don’t exist any more. It’s hard for me not to feel like putting the books online is a kind of lessening. That the books are, like, gone. <div class="comparison"> <figure> <img srcset="https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/rwd-unboxing.jpg, https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/rwd-unboxing@2x.jpg 2x" src="https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/rwd-unboxing.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="A freshly-opened cardboard box containing several dozen copies of my book, “Responsive Web Design.” (Taken in 2011.)" /> </figure> <figure> <img srcset="https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/rdpp-unboxing.jpg, https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/rdpp-unboxing@2x.jpg 2x" src="https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/rdpp-unboxing.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="A freshly-opened cardboard box containing several dozen copies of my book, “Responsive Design: Patterns and Principles.” (Taken in 2015.)" /> </figure> </div> Of course, the books aren’t gone, not really. After all, I still have the memories associated with them: pecking away on my phone at the first draft of <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/books/responsive-web-design/"><cite>Responsive Web Design</cite></a> while I was riding the train to <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-boston-globe/"><cite>The Boston Globe</cite></a>’s offices; working with Jason, David, and Mandy on <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/hello-editorially/">Editorially</a>, which sparked all sorts of thoughts on seams and modularity in responsive design; getting a chance to work with editors the likes of Dan, Anna, Mandy, and Erin, and watching both books become so, so much better for it. And of course, I have memories of all the people and places those books brought into my life. Chances are good you and I might’ve even chatted about your design work, and talked through a thorny design problem together. I’ll always be grateful to these little books for bringing those moments into my life. I’ll always be grateful to you for picking up a copy of one of these books, getting ideas from it, and making this whole “responsive design” thing real simply by making something with it. So here I stand, considerably older than I was when I first wrote <a href="https://alistapart.com/article/responsive-web-design/">an article</a>, and the two books that followed it. I’ll miss those days, but I’m just glad these books are still here. They’re just different than they used to be. I suppose I am too. <figure> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonsantamaria/6418662807"> <img srcset="https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/2023-aba-six.jpg 1400w, https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/2023-aba-six.jpg 700w" src="https://ethanmarcotte.com/media/2023-aba-six.jpg" sizes="(min-width: 50em) 30vw, 100vw" alt="Luke Wroblewski, Aarron Walter, Ethan Marcotte, Erin Kissane, Dan Cederholm, and Jeremy Keith sit on a gray fabric couch together, each of them using one hand to forming the number of their respective A Book Apart books." loading="lazy" /> </a> <figcaption>“<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonsantamaria/6418662807">A Book Apart authors, 1–6</a>”, by <a href="https://www.jasonsantamaria.com/">Jason Santa Maria</a></figcaption> </figure> Thank you, as always, for reading.

<hr /> This has been “<a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/books-no-longer-apart/">Two books, no longer apart.</a>” a post from <a href="https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/">Ethan’s journal.</a> <a href="mailto:listener+rss@ethanmarcotte.com?subject=Reply%20to:%20“Two books, no longer apart.”">Reply via email</a>