The Mind-Altering Book Award Medallions
New Psychedelic Book Medallions by Michelle Kosak and Charlotte Dune
Today, I’m delighted to introduce a fun and funky addition to The Lagoon.
Mind-Altering Book Award Medallions
(MABAM for short, also a palindrome)
The Mind-Altering Book Award Medallions are a psychedelic, non-hierarchal visual book rating system I’ve designed in partnership with artist Michelle Kosak.
Instead of ranking books with stars like Amazon, Goodreads, and others, Michelle and I created a new, more descriptive, and fluid award system using 10 unique medallions. I’ll explain what each medallion means in more detail below.
1-5 stars have always felt inadequate, punitive, and non-descriptive to me, so I’ve designed these medallions to be less hierarchal, and more reflective of personal taste, more about how the books alter the mind and body of the reader, because, at the end of the day, that’s what we’re looking for when we pick up a book—we want our emotions and senses tingled and titillated. We want our feelings changed.
Books can win multiple or single awards.
For example, I might award the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson like this:
The Mind Behind The Mind-Altering Book Awards.
To illustrate these awards, I worked with Toronto-based artist, author, and educator, Michelle Kosak. I love Michelle’s art and her self-help book, F*ck Yes/F*ck No: A Quick Guide to Decision Making.
Michelle also teaches art to neurodivergent kids and helps neurodivergent teens prepare art portfolios for college applications. She’s a talented saint. I highly recommend her if you have an artistic, neurodivergent child.
An Open System
The Mind-Altering Book Award Medallions are “open-source,” so anyone can use them.
To use them yourself, copy the images from this post/email, or access the PNGs from this dropbox link. Just tag or give credit to Michelle and me when you can.
Once a year, I hope to pick a few top winners of MABAM, and then send the award medallion(s) to the authors.
The Award System
Here is a little more about the ten different MABAM.
Heroic Dose
A book that rattles you to your core, transforms you, a masterpiece.
Solid Dose
A solid, satisfying read that nails its genre and delivers on the premise.
Heart Opener
A feel-good, easy, leisurely read that warms your heart. Perhaps the beach book you need…
Hits Fast
The page-turner. The non-stop fast read you can speed through.
Cheek Hurter
The book that makes you laugh out loud, chortle, spit out your drink, or giggle. Tee Hee Hee.
MindFluk
This one messes with you, leaves you spiraling, has deeply disturbing elements.
Cry It Out
You’re sobbing; I’m sobbing––the book that brings tears to your eyes. A guaranteed cry.
Body High
High steam, NSFW, hot peppers, horny book you’ll need a cigarette after reading.
Not My Drug of Choice
I see the quality. Many may love it, but it wasn’t for me. Interesting experience, but just not to my taste.
Oops, the Cops are Here
Uh oh, we’ve got issues... Some may find the work offensive, or it’s a jagged reading experience–with some sections stronger than others. It may contain controversial elements or viewpoints you strongly disagree with. In the case of a novel, perhaps there was a character you hated or an ending you couldn’t stand.
That’s all 10. I’m excited to start using them and to incorporate them into future book reviews and bookish essays.
And a big thanks to you for making this project possible.
When I decided to offer a paid level for this newsletter, I also decided to put the proceeds back into the publication, and specifically into paying other creatives like Michelle to contribute. For now, I’m reinvesting 100% into the Lagoon. I don’t make much money on this platform, but I believe strongly that creative people should be paid for their work.
If you agree, I invite you to subscribe, upgrade your subscription, or share this publication with your network.
Now You
Let me know what you think about our new Mind-Altering Book Award Medallions.
Which MABAM is your favorite?
Should I add an outer banner to them with their names written?
What would you add if you could add a medallion?
I'm bookmarking this post to refer back to the medallions- I think it's a clever way to reveal more about a book than just stars, though for an overall rating stars are the way to go. I saw you already rated a movie using these medallions and it immediately gave me a better idea of what the movie was like instantly. The medallion artwork is excellent as well, trippy yet gets to the point.
This needs to spread, it's great!