It’s publication day again! Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji is published today in the UK and other non-US territories.
You can order a copy from Norton, Amazon, Waterstones, Bookshop.org, Blackwell’s or Topping & Company. (If you’re ever in Linlithgow, Scotland, drop into my local bookshop, Far From the Madding Crowd — I’ll try to sign a few copies for them.)
First: can I interest you in a periodic table of emoji? As I wrote last time, I had a lot of fun putting one together and I hope you’ll get a kick out of it too. If you scroll past the table itself, you’ll find copious details on what it is, how it works, and why I put together.
I have made a thing! Head over to emoji.shadycharacters.co.uk to peruse the Shady Characters Periodic Table of Emoji.
What do I mean by a periodic table of emoji? Well, I answer that question in some detail in the notes under the table itself, but briefly, I wanted to see if I could use a table to tell us something about how emoji are perceived. Which emoji are positive? Which are negative? Which ones convey sentiments that match their appearances, and which deviate from them?
I’ve always really enjoyed 99% Invisible, Roman Mars’ long-running podcast about design, which makes it all the more special to have appeared on three different episode in the past — on the octothorpe (#), the interrobang (‽), and pocket calculators respectively. Now, to mark the publication of Face with Tears of Joy, I’m pleased to say that I’m on it again!
Please allow me to introduce the cover of my next book, Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji!
‘😂’ will be published in July this year, and you can pre-order the paperback in the USA from Norton, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson, Powell’s, or Walmart. In the rest of the world, order from Amazon.co.uk, Bookshop.org or Waterstones.