Bookstore finds

On a hunt to find my wallet today, I came across a sidewalk sale at The Book Table, a small bookshop in the town I work in. I picked up "The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight" for $4.

As usual, the cover caught my attention first and the content made me commit to a purchase. The jacket is by Tamaya Perry and I think it works really well for the subject here. I just finished "Eat the City" (review coming soon!) and am on a non-fiction kick now so another journalism book was just what I was looking for.

I also found two covers with lettering by Jessica Hische: Augusten Burroughs' "This Is How" and Dave Eggers' "A Hologram for the King". I have to say both of these were a lot more impressive in person, likely because of the mirror treatment on "This Is How" and the gold shine on "Hologram".

Great work from Jessica as usual. And it's always nice to see designs in person that you liked online. PRINT4LIFE.

Sidenote: a police officer just returned the contents of my wallet to my apartment, minus the actual wallet itself. Super grateful to have everything back though.

(not-so-fancy photos courtesy my iPhone / Hologram & How covers courtesy Jessica Hische)

Augusten Lovin'

I've mentioned before how much I love Augusten Burroughs work. It's hard to pick a favorite book of his, mostly because they are each about such different phases of his life, but "Magical Thinking" is always a book I recommend. "Magical Thinking" is a collection of stories and one of my favorites is about his partner, Dennis.

"I watch him in the kitchen, and I think of how much it hurts to love somebody. How deep the hurt is, how almost unbearable. It’s not the love that hurts, it’s the possibility of anything happening to the object of your love. Like, I would not want Dennis to lose his mind. But I’d be much more fearful of me losing my mind, because then he’d be the one left alone.

Just like I want him to die first, so that he doesn’t have to lose me and then be alone. Or if I do have to die first, I want him to find another boyfriend beforehand, I want to hand-pick somebody and then get to know this person and make sure he’s up the task. I imagine there would be paperwork involved, with serious consequences if he breached the contract in any way. Love, unconditional. Or else you will lose your 401(k) plan, and your credit report will be forever destroyed, and there will be prison time."

Just a little bit of lovin' to celebrate Valentine's Day. 

Dysfunctional (literary) Families

Last week, Flavorwire published a list of 5 Literary Families More Dysfunctional Than Yours. I love the list and agree with their choices, especially the Bundren family from William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying". But one family jumped to mind immediately and wasn't one of Flavorwire's 5: The Finch family from "Running With Scissors".

The real Finch family is the Turcotte family, who had a few problems with "Scissors". To read more about that, check out a Vanity Fair article by CLICKING HERE.

Technically, Augusten Burroughs' "Running With Scissors" is a memoir, so I like thinking the Finch family is mostly real. If you haven't read "Running With Scissors" or seen the movie, I suggest you do both.

Autobiographies and Biographies

I love reading about people. Autobiographies and biographies are always so interesting to me. Given the choice, I tend to gravitate towards autobios though. No matter how accurately a biography can report a story, a person's life is their own. Their perspective completes the story and usually makes for a much more entertaining read.

One problem that always arises with these types of books though, is cover design. They tend to be pretty bland and uniform across the board. The default design seems to be a large, awkward photo of the subject, the title and author.

And, sometimes pretty creepy. For example, Laura Bush's new book, "Spoken from the Heart".



I kind of get a Vanity Fair vibe from this, but Laura is creeping me out.

Luckily, not every book has to be a Laura.

One of my favorite authors, Augusten Burroughs, has written a series of memoirs, all bound in fantastic covers.  Each book tackles a different phase of his life; childhood, career, alcoholism, relationships, etc. And each cover manages to tell you what you're getting yourself into as a reader. His memoirs are perfect examples of how successful a creative cover can be, even on a non-fiction work.

His most famous book is probably Running With Scissors, which was recently made into a movie.



 My favorite Burroughs works, though, are probably Dry and Magical Thinking.






To see more Burroughs covers, I recommend visiting his website, augusten.com.

Do you have a favorite bio or autobio that has a clever cover and not just a subject headshot? Let me know, I'd love to see it.