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norwegian coastal steamer

Great big thanks to Jessica for providing today’s eye candy:

There’s the jacket  (above), and the actual book cover, front and back (below).

    

Not to mention the inside cover…

This was an awesome surprise gift to get in the mail!  I love it.

grad school

americana

Again in honor of gift-giving times, here’s a book that was given to me by the lovely Africia H. Before I even got to reading the film history inside, I was struck by the layouts of its pages:

  

    

 

Thanks again, Africia! There are some great stills in the book, little works of art in themselves.

Everett Aison, its designer, was also a screenwriter and director, an author, a designer of title sequences and film posters, and co-founder of the School of Visual Arts Film School.  That’s just the kind of multifaceted involvement in media, and film in particular, that I admire…

double d

Perhaps my favorite find ever at Strand. A two-volume set of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot (in German). This is almost actual size:

  

If only I wasn’t foolish enough not to pick up the other books in the set because I had already read them…  Dumb broke college kid!

thrift gift

This is my suggestion for those of you who are in similarly dire financial straits. It’s nothing new to me, but it may be to you, and thus, you may not know how to shop on a budget.  Here is afforable art at its best: independent, educational, accessible, and, yes, affordable.

I’m not normally a fan of semi-ironic celebrity portraiture, but I’ve been laughing over Aiyana Udesen’s “Drawing” book for years. This is why:

The artist’s website, complete with examples of other books, is here.  The challenge comes in finding the book to purchase! I found it at both a local comic-book store, and a local bookstore.  So get away from the Internet for a moment and go look… it will make your gift more meaningful.

Of course, there’s also 20×200 for other affordable art, if you’re a bit lazy.

grrr

Another bright, patterned German book cover to enjoy.

         

insel

Even with the dollar as weak as it is, books are more expensive for Germans.  Maybe that’s why they seem to put more effort into the design?  This series of small hardcovers from Insel Verlag makes me want to collect books I don’t even want to read.  Although the Böll one on the right is quite good, actually.

content

These small, simply designed pocket books by one of the strongest writers of the past century were impossible to resist.  Perfect inside and out.  Even if one of them may have suffered a bit of wear inside a bag toted around NYC last month.