happy holidays!

i'll be back in the new year with some great new (well, new to me) books to post...until then i wish everyone the merriest of seasons...merry christmas, happy hannukah, and a joyous kwanzaa.
see you in 2009!

until then...

books covered...all about 'outerwear for books'...clever and good resource.

which is where i found dutch book covers from 1810-1950...fantastic! or should i say lekker? this is one of my favorites...my mother lives in holland and i must ask her to keep her eye out for such gems for my library.

fiction in translation via la times...the commenters remark that it is an overwhelmingly european pool...i agree. there are so many wonderful australian, latin, indian and asian writers that more could not be found outside europe?

the coolville kids' library is a fantastic flickr set of vintage children's book scans

travel brochure graphics from the '20s and '30s a fabulous representation of the genre...via things magazine

google book search now has magazines...this is a rabbit hole i could jump into for hours at a time.

jan tschichold: titan of typography as reported by richard hollis for the guardian...he is the genius behind many of penguin's book covers via automatism

my favorite book covers of 2008 according to the book design review via design is mine.

josie and the snow

this is such a simply beautiful book, i love the illustrations by evaline ness and the limited amount of color used...it really lends an atmosphere to the book.

josie and the snow by helen e. buckley
scott, foresman personal reading program, 1964, lothrop, lee and shepard co., new york
illustrated by evaline ness

yogi bear: a christmas visit

"hey boo boo!"

yogi bear: a christmas visit by s. quentin hyatt
hanna-barbera productions, 1961, golden press, new york
pictures by sylvia and burnett mattinson

miss piggy's guide to life

i cannot resist the nostalgic qualities of this book...the muppets was a weekly event in my childhood...miss piggy was a favorite, of course...i loved her karate chop.

miss piggy's guide to life by Miss Piggy as told to Henry Beard
1981, Muppet Press / Alfred A. Knopf, New York

finally...

i had no intentions of neglecting this poor blog for so long...once the holiday hit life went from 0-60 and i've been stuck in the quagmire ever since. i haven't forgotten about rad library, however, and have collected some wonderful internet gems.

sorted books project by nina katchadourian...an interesting project using book titles/spines as literary art and found/created text...i love this idea of using already formed titles as text. along the same vein as surrealist, cubist, dadaist thinking...via things magazine.

which are the best books that never existed?...a question and answer posed by the guardian...makes me think back to beloved characters and how i wish i knew more about the totality of their existenses...also via things magazine.

book mooch this point-driven book exchange is a wonderful way to recycle books and spend less on your reading materials.

planet ebook offers tons of classics available for free download...if you subscribe to their newsletter they'll alert you to newly available works.

100 noteable books of 2008 as picked by the new york times...fiction and non-fiction, and i have not read even one of these books.

a collection of millie the model comics and lots more too at i'm learning to share via automatism.

read print...a free online library...listed by author, also with some great historical information on each.

wings

apparently something called the literary guild review had a publication called wings back in the fifties. my guess is that the literary guild was is a book club of sorts. each issue has excerpts from books and a short paragraph by the author about their inspiration in writing the story. they're actually quite lovely. the illustrations are a plus. i had to stop myself from tearing each one apart and framing them all, they are that good. the issues i found are: august 1954, january 1955, april 1955, may 1955, and september 1955. the back pages are ads, and are interesting in their own right. neat issues, i'll certainly have my eye out for more.

randy's dandy lions

i'm a sucker for a dandy lion...come to think of it, lions can even resemble dandelions, or maybe that's the other way around. this book is just adorable. even though no dandelions are mentioned. let me just warn you...this book rhymes. i know it's not for everyone, and normally i would find it irritating, but with this book it somehow works. the moral of the story is about confidence and overcoming fear...it's a nice lesson to teach kids (or even grown ups for that matter.) also, the illustrations are enjoyable.

randy's dandy lions
written and illustrated by bill peet
a children's choice book club edition, 1964, houghton mifflin, boston

enchanted isles

i want to travel to an enchanted isle...this child's treasury of literature holds many classics like "the elephant's child" by rudyard kipling. it's colorfully illustrated, has fantastic endpapers and is an all around wonderful resource for kids or grown-ups. it's book 3 in a series of 4 'readtext series' published by merrill books. also, all lithos...my favorite. this edition is perhaps the nicest former library edition ever, sadly it was never checked out, which explains it all. a hidden gem.

enchanted isles selected and edited by eleanor m. johnson and leland b. jacobs
readtext series treasury of literature, 1954, charles e. merrill books, new york
illustrated by mel crawford, grace dalles clarke, gertrude elliott, hugh lofting, kurt wiese, robert magnusen, decie merwin, and wiliam de j. rutherfoord

updates

i've been having some issues trying to upload photos to blogger...i'll be trying for later today or tomorrow for a couple of posts...see you then!

in the meantime:

i love typography and i heart it too.

have you seen jay walker's library? who is jay walker? via things magazine.

vintage paperbacks and digests

little mouse on the prairie

when i was a kid one of my favorite books was pippa mouse, and i've been on the hunt for a copy for a long time. when i saw this book, not only was i enamored with the cute title, but it reminded me of pippa. the story is nice enough but it's the illustrations that really stand out. the illustrations are by robin james who illustrated a series of books called serendipity books, which seem to have all been published in the late '70s early '80s. i think the big-eyed cute quality of her illustrations were a nice mix of nostalgic inspirations and early eighties sentiments (popular again after all this time)...definitely an illustrator worth checking out.

little mouse on the prairie by stephen cosgrove
a serendipity book, 1978, grolier enterprises, connecticut
illustrated by robin james

my first golden encyclopedia

this is so not the encyclopedia that i had as a kid...i had the brittannica boring version...i clearly remember copying word for word everything about magellan for a school project, this was before i knew anything about plagiarism or proper research :)

if i had this encyclopedia, i may not have had the same depth of information but a whole lot more fun researching anything. the subtitle of this book is, "everything the beginner wants to know, from aircraft to zebra." and the pictures are just so pretty. and it's illustrated by william dugan. and everything is written to look like a poem. it's perfect!

my first golden encyclopedia: everything the beginner wants to know, from aircraft to zebra by jane werner watson
a golden book, 1965, golden press, new york
illustrated by william dugan
consultant bertha morris parker

simplified mechanical drawing: a textbook for beginners

i normally steer clear of old textbooks, although there are a lot out there which are not only informative, but also designed really well. the textbook today is not the calibre of yesteryear's textbooks, that's for sure. anyways...this one on mechanical drawing techniques is really wonderful. i find the illustrations totally captivating. i also imagine that if you were into learning this type of drawing style, this book could be very helpful. with most instructional illustrations today being primarily digitally driven, i find these hand-drawn illustrations refreshing. on a personal note, although i do finish my illustrations digitally...they all start hand-drawn, and i always prefer to hand write any text included, so i guess i'm partial. i'm also reminded of draplin design co.'s ideas on american design, and i do agree. by the way, this book was written and illustrated by an "instructor in mechanical drawing, south bend central junior high school, and vocational school, south bend, indiana..." not some high falutin' engineering professor from carnegie mellon. as i said, refreshing.

simplified mechanical drawing: a textbook for beginners by thurman c. crook, b.s.
revised edition, 1935, mcgraw-hill book company, inc.
printed by the maple press company, york, pa.

america's wonderlands: the national parks

i'm not an out-doorsy, camping, lake swimming lover (although i do love a good bonfire)...but i do really enjoy these kinds of tourist, encyclopedic, souvenir books. this one is published by national geographic society and is all about america's national parks. this book is full of great information and tons of wonderful kodachrome photos. it's interesting to see the difference between the "modern" day environmental troubles and the pristine quality of 1959's (when this book was published) environment. i'm not an expert, but i'm sure that deforestation and erosion (not to mention marijuana farming) have made a difference in the american landscape since then. on a sunnier note, if you're into the outdoors lifestyle or plan to visit any of the national parks, this is a great starting point for some unconventional and captivating information. this edition also has a wonderful map tucked in the back!

america's wonderlands: the scenic national parks and monuments of the united states
prepared by the national geographic book service
a volume in the national geographic world in color library
third printing, 1959, the national geographic society, washington d.c.

the golden book of grimm's fairy tales

i love grimm's fairy tales...even though i still have a lasting fear of spinning wheels thanks to that little s.o.b. rumpelstiltskin. this is a really nice edition by golden press illustrated by gianni benvenuti.

the golden book of grimm's fairy tales retold by jane carruth
golden press, 1970, western publishing co., wisconsin
illustrated by gianni benvenuti