Just Kids
Patti Smith
A memoir for anyone who gets a little romantic about New York City in the 1960s and 1970s, Smith sketches out her early years in the city and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Early on they were lovers, but for most of their time together (and up until Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989), they had what could be called an artistic partnership. They shared their early, struggling years, both knowing they wanted to be artists but not knowing exactly how to go about it.
—Read more…HTML5 for Web Designers
Jeremy Keith
I don't read many books concerning web design since the web is always changing and often I can find out what I need to know straight from the source, which seems more appropriate anyway. But A List Apart is one of the best (and most attractive) resources I refer to online, and this is their first printed piece, published under the moniker A Book Apart.
—Read more…
Ways of Seeing
John Berger
Kind of the Camera Lucida on fine art, this book is based on the BBC documentary of the same name. Seven essays, three composed entirely of images and four primarily of text that aren't too heavy with the theory. Of those that are textual, they look at the mystification of art —
—Read more…
Elegy for Iris
John Bayley
I never saw the movie version of Bayley's recollections of his life with Iris Murdoch. Just like Strange Big Moon, I got halfway through this book before I just didn't want to pick it up again. In this case, I think only have read Murdoch's novel The Sea, The Sea so got lost in talk about specific works, many of which was not about that one that I've read.
—Read more…
Strange Big Moon
Joanne Kyger
I got really excited when I first got this book and read this on the first page:
—Read more…Confession merely enables you to go on acting like a coward, behavior does not change. As self awareness then condones further actions of the same sort.
The Sweet Life in Paris
David Lebovitz
Only recently did I get with the program and start reading David Lebovitz's blog — I've tried to make up for lost time by making his butterscotch pudding several times in the last few weeks. I assumed this book would basically be a printed "best of" the blog (which would further help me catch up on what I've been missing), but actually the essays are original to the book, though many of the topics were probably mentioned..
—Read more…
Art and Fear
Paul Virilio
It's a little ridiculous how long I've been reading this book, considering it's less than 100 pages long. It doesn't even feel so dense but running at such a blistering pace that it's a difficult to continually put it down and pick it back up again, as it becomes necessary to constantly backtrack to get back up to speed. I still wound up feeling like I barely maintained the thread throughout and should have done my best to read it in one sitting.
—Read more…
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Michael Pollan
I read The Botany of Desire years ago and since then it seems like Pollan has been popping up everywhere, both due to this book and last year's In Defense of Food.
—Read more…
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Azar Nafisi
An intriguing concept, pairing a memoir about living through the Iranian Revolution and the resulting totalitarian regime with literary criticism of Western literature as an attempt to put it all into perspective. Unfortunately Nafisi's effort fell flat to me, mostly because the writing feels too weak for the task.
—Read more…
Here is New York
E.B. White
It was a little funny to read this slim little book directly after Play it as it Lays, as they are both wrapped so much in hot weather and it's been colder and colder lately.
—Read more…
