Happy Hallowreads

I did my obligatory Halloween partying last night since I have some interviews tomorrow morning, so tonight will be spent in the house, reading scary stories and hopefully watching Casper.

I don't own many terrorizing books so I decided to look some up. I thought "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me" was a really cute twist on fairy-tales and had a nice illustrated cover.

Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life

Todd Oldham's book, Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life, is 424 pages of beautiful.



Although the publisher, AMMO Books, has it listed at $200, you can snag one on Amazon for just under $100. There is also a smaller version available at a much lower price. You know, if you wanted to buy yourself, or someone whose blog you love, an early Christmas gift.

Currently Reading: Hitchcock

 

I was supposed to go to a Halloween party tonight but chose to stay in. At first I was going to browse Netflix instant for a good scary movie to watch, but then I remembered I have this lovely book in my collection: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me.

I wish the cover wasn't torn. The colors are so great, I just hope the content doesn't give me nightmares.

Childhood Gal Pals

I'm seriously considering being Matilda for Halloween (I have the perfect headband for it and everything) and so I've spent a lot of time thinking about how much I loved reading Roald Dahl growing-up.

But she wasn't the only literary gal pal I had in my childhood. When four of the Ramona Quimby books were given to me by an uncle for Christmas one year, I decided Ramona was my long-lost sister. Then, of course, there was Harriet The Spy. Not only did I love this book, the movie was the first I ever saw at a drive-in theater (paired with the Jonathon Taylor Thomas version of Pinocchio, amazing). Harriet inspired me to love tomatoes and put it in my mind that I need to own a typewriter.



I was fortunate enough to come across older, and awesome, copies of these books over the summer. I love the colors used and the fun illustrations. Both are perfect for the girls reading them; girls with a stubborn independence, who's favorite colors aren't pink and purple, and who can be a bit feisty.

I'm still on the search for a great copy of Matilda, but for now, I display Ramona and Harriet proudly on my dresser.

For more pictures of these adorable covers, click through the jump.

FBA for Minotauro

FBA, a graphic design consultancy based in Portugal, has created some beautiful work for publishing company Minotauro.


For more images (I know you want to see them), click through the jump.

Clever Covers: The Mind's Eye

Clever Cover for Oliver Sacks' latest, The Mind's Eye.

Publisher Knopf says about the book:
"In The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world."

This cover is fantastic. It made me curious about the content and now I am interested in reading the book myself, even though I previously had little interest on the subject matter.

Found 1960s Pamphlets

Found this little bit of awesome, originally from iconmaque, on Grain Edit today.


Click through the jump for more images and info.
And for more from iconmaque, visit their website HERE.

UO Sales!

Last week I found both of these books at Urban Outfitters for $2.90, each! Awesome! Pretty excited about both of them.

Cover Story Postcards - Yes Please!!

I like to send mail, a lot. I have numerous collections of cards and postcards and even a wax seal that I absolutely love. I think these are adorable and of course, they are Penguin. They are also found at Anthropologie.

Anthropologie Reads

I love Anthropologie and wish I could afford to shop there, and only there. While browsing the website last night, though, I came across these lovely books. Not only do they have stunning covers, I would really like to own and read them, especially because I really miss good Italian cooking.

 See both at Anthropologie.com in the Books & Journals section.

Mad Men: The Illustrated World

I don't know if I'm more in shock or more depressed that another season of AMC's Mad Men is over. Four seasons over, and Pete Cambell's bitchface still angers me, I am constantly in awe of Don Draper, want Betty to grow up and am finally starting to like Peggy.

If you aren't a fan of the show, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about but maybe you'll at least appreciate a new Penguin release on the series.

Mad Men: The Illustrated World, by Dyna Moe is 96 pages of awesome and only $15.00 USD. I strongly support anyone buying this for me—Christmas is sneaking up on us.

To see inside pages from the book, visit the book's website by CLICKING HERE.

And if you haven't done so already, visit the AMC website to create a Dyna Moe illustrated version of yourself. Go ahead, CLICK HERE. I know whatever else you're doing right now can't possibly be as important.

Change, For the Better

Going along with my last post, if you're interested in the future of reading and the bound book, I recommend checking out the if:book blog.

The blog belongs to The Institute for the Future of the Book, a "New York-based think tank dedicated to inventing new forms of discourse for the network age". Most of the posts contain a lot of text, but it's a lot of text full of interesting ideas and important news regarding the book's printed pages.

I really hate to hear people say print is dying. I think The Institute for the Future of the Book and the video I posted yesterday make it clear that evolution is not death, it is opportunity.

I was pleased to hear a related story on NPR about the journalism industry (CLICK HERE to read and listen to the story). As a recent recipient of a journalism degree, I can almost promise you that not a week has passed since I started in this industry without a person telling me I had joined a dying trade. But in the story, Geneva Overholser, director of journalism at the USC Annenberg School, calls the changes in the industry "a renaissance, a re-creation", not a depression. I've embedded the story below, it's only 5 minutes, and encourage you to take those few moments out of your day to take a listen.




It seems to me the people who say print is dead are the people who had no interest in print, news or good design in the first place. Those who already have those interests will evolve along with the print industry to create even greater materials but I seriously doubt print will ever truly die. I am at least confident I will never see the end of it.

The Future of the Book

This video is a lot of awesome in under five minutes. Watch it either here on the page, or at Vimeo.

Created by IDEO, "The Future of the Book", the video explores the idea that "an increasingly digital context can add to our notion of books, instead of taking away from it."

They propose three ways to read: Nelson, Coupland and Alice. To learn more about them, click to read under the jump. Then, if you have ideas to contribute, check out their Facebook page by CLICKING HERE.

And I'm Back

So my moving hiatus turned into a mega-moving hiatus, and then I spent three weeks in Africa and visited Bowling Green for Homecoming.

It is officially time to settle into living in Chicago. This means job hunting, but it also means blogging again.

And, I have a few covers to upload! Let's start with the horrific. These are from GFT. I have yet to find a used bookstore nearby that I really love.

I'm just too confused by both of these to go on any further. But more updates are coming in the near future, stay posted!