An illustrated compendium of first-person musings by writers, artists and other creative types about the books that inspired them and helped shape their identities.
When writer/editor La Force and illustrator Mount decided to put together this delightful collection of essays, it wasn't simply to express their love of reading and the written word. They sought to make the statement that "in an era when digital technology…threatens irreversibly to change our reading experience, there is nothing that parallels the physical book." They chose friends, acquaintances and people whom they "admired from afar"—Jonathan Lethem, Jennifer Egan, Alice Waters, Mira Nair and Patti Smith, among others—and asked them to pick the books that most influenced them. La Force pairs each of the 100 essays she gathered from personal interviews with images Mount painted of the books (specifically, their spines) each participant chose for his or her "ideal bookshelf." The pieces are as unique as the people they represent and reveal the particular relationships participants have with the texts they mention. Lethem calls his choices "eccentric," a reflection of a "decrepit attraction" to old books and the "literary history that lie[s]…waiting to be discovered" in early editions. Chef and restaurateur Alice Waters identifies her bookshelf as commemorating the texts that started her on her epicurean journey. Nair spotlights choices that not only introduced her to English, Urdu and Hindu poetry, but also to the writer who later became her husband. La Force and Mount's joint efforts do "sentimentaliz[e] the book as object," but what they achieve clearly demonstrates that, despite the encroachments of computers and the Internet, books still matter. Other contributors include Chuck Klosterman, Dave Eggers, David Sedaris, Michael Chabon and Judd Apatow. A bibliophilic feast for the eye, mind, heart and soul.
Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-20090-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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