1.23.2009

snow-white and the seven dwarfs







i love this version of snow-white...it's really special...the book is a linen (well linen-like as specified) book and the illustrations are wonderful. there isn't a date listed, just that it's printed in the netherlands. i'm thinking it dates to the mid '60s. it's also in great condition...a lot of the linen books i see are creased and bent. this one has obviously been taken care of through the years.

snow-white and the seven dwarfs: a linen-like story book
published by artcraft
illustrator not credited

12.21.2008

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.

12.05.2008

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.

11.17.2008

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.