Maybe its because I've been working on making books lately, but I've been in a real book-buying mood. There was a long stretch where I was just completely not interested in getting new books, though the desire to look and read and know about things did not diminish. But nowadays I'm buying books with abandon (books within a certain price range, of course). Here are some favorites that I've acquired in the past 2 or 3 months.
Clockwise from top left:
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain Boton: Only halfway through but already one of the best books I've ever read. He knows how to put together words beautifully and his ideas hit close to home.
Bunker Archeology by Paul Virilio: Centered around WWII German Bunkers on the French coast, it is an architectural, philosophical and existential take on war and war spaces. Not the sort of thing I would usually buy but the topic and angle seemed compelling, and the pictures seemed really cool too of course.
Alex Katz - A short and sweet exhibition catalog of his show of recent work at the Marlborough Gallery NYC back in 1986. Sympathetic portraits of people and things in the 80's.
Growth & Forgetting by Bryce Wilner - A beautifully put together book of text and illustrations about Earth after human existence. A lovely otherworldly, calm and sad feeling.
The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book - A cool book of charts, graphs and cloud pictures. It teaches you how to predict the weather based on cloud formations. Neat find from John K King's Books in Detroit.
La Martona's Yogurt - Originally a text by Jose Luis Borges & Adolfo Bioy Casares, reproduced by Bryce Wilner (translation by Brandon Wilner). Its a "semi-scientific, semi-commercial pamphlet about yogurt." Free + shipping fee. Get it.
It Still Hurts to Take Deep Breaths in Cold Weather by Chelsee Ivan - An intimate, little photozine documenting the last breaths of a turbulent relationship. Printed with a risograph, the images are lovely, quiet, and disintegrating.
Ayako by Osamu Tezuka - A thick manga about a post world war II Japan and a family trying to reconcile tradition with changing times. I admit, I really liked the cover and that was the driving force in buying it, but the story turned out to be quite unusual and somewhat gripping.
What are you reading?
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