It’s a throwback, a Stuff I’ve Been Reading column! Well, actually, it’s just a Stuff I’ve Bought collection because while I’ve been reading, it’s more interesting to look at what I picked up in New York recently. It’s rare nowadays that I bother with physical books, unless it’s used, graphic, or a friend’s book. Everything else is digital because nothing beats the portability of a Kindle.
[Note: This is the last post I'm going to bother italicizing titles of movies, books, TV shows, etc. It's just too much work to highlight and italicize things. But just know that I have now learned how to italicize properly, thanks.]
However, I grabbed a handful of stuff in New York because I figured I’d never see them again. My stroll through Williamsburg took me to Book Thug Nation and the new-ish McNally Jackson there. Overall, I bought the following:
Masculinities is Cindy Crabb’s interview with men about well, masculinity. Which is interesting coming from the Doris creator, as Crabb's zine was a defining feminist zine. Personally my attention span nowadays for men talking about masculinity is low but if Crabb’s asking the questions, I’ll read the answers. Also snatched up issues #56 and #58 of Cometbus, because I always get Cometbus if I see them. And then a real throwback, as I saw Ayun Halliday’s East Village Inky on the rack and it brought me back to years ago when I interviewed her about Zinester’s Guide to NYC. Hello 2010, hello East Village Inky, still going strong with issue #58!
Also at Book Thug, I got a copy of The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by Juhani Pallasmaa, which explores why architecture caters mainly to only one of the five senses. (Spoiler: it's sight.) It promises to be very interesting. I realized most of the used books I buy are old ones about buildings or traffic -- or personal essay collections. Eyes of the Skin should dovetail nicely with this mini-book I got at the Whitney gift shop, Confessions of a Poor Collector, which was a speech Eugene Schwartz gave in 1970 about his rules, discoveries, and principles of art collecting. Despite it being only thirty-nine pages long and costing $18, it seems like an excellent purchase already. I hope to be a budding art collector. But you know, not really...
The other area I tend to hit up in bookstores is graphic memoirs, especially little pocket sized ones. I grabbed Trying Not to Notice by Will Dinski and Square Comix #16, by Ian McMurry, neither of whom were familiar to me. If it’s physically small and the pages are filled with cartoonified images your quotidian life, I’ll probably buy it. And since I have aspirations of making a similar type of book myself, I picked up Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice by Ivan Brunetti at McNally, which condenses Brunetti's cartooning instructions into a short (and small) book. Perfect!
[Note: This is the last post I'm going to bother italicizing titles of movies, books, TV shows, etc. It's just too much work to highlight and italicize things. But just know that I have now learned how to italicize properly, thanks.]
However, I grabbed a handful of stuff in New York because I figured I’d never see them again. My stroll through Williamsburg took me to Book Thug Nation and the new-ish McNally Jackson there. Overall, I bought the following:
Masculinities is Cindy Crabb’s interview with men about well, masculinity. Which is interesting coming from the Doris creator, as Crabb's zine was a defining feminist zine. Personally my attention span nowadays for men talking about masculinity is low but if Crabb’s asking the questions, I’ll read the answers. Also snatched up issues #56 and #58 of Cometbus, because I always get Cometbus if I see them. And then a real throwback, as I saw Ayun Halliday’s East Village Inky on the rack and it brought me back to years ago when I interviewed her about Zinester’s Guide to NYC. Hello 2010, hello East Village Inky, still going strong with issue #58!
Also at Book Thug, I got a copy of The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by Juhani Pallasmaa, which explores why architecture caters mainly to only one of the five senses. (Spoiler: it's sight.) It promises to be very interesting. I realized most of the used books I buy are old ones about buildings or traffic -- or personal essay collections. Eyes of the Skin should dovetail nicely with this mini-book I got at the Whitney gift shop, Confessions of a Poor Collector, which was a speech Eugene Schwartz gave in 1970 about his rules, discoveries, and principles of art collecting. Despite it being only thirty-nine pages long and costing $18, it seems like an excellent purchase already. I hope to be a budding art collector. But you know, not really...
The other area I tend to hit up in bookstores is graphic memoirs, especially little pocket sized ones. I grabbed Trying Not to Notice by Will Dinski and Square Comix #16, by Ian McMurry, neither of whom were familiar to me. If it’s physically small and the pages are filled with cartoonified images your quotidian life, I’ll probably buy it. And since I have aspirations of making a similar type of book myself, I picked up Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice by Ivan Brunetti at McNally, which condenses Brunetti's cartooning instructions into a short (and small) book. Perfect!
