book review and author spotlight

Normally I post my review of a book and call it a day but in this case, I wanted to comment on both the book and its author.

[the book, above-left, copyright © 2003 Mark Haddon, book design by Maria Carella]

As an artist, I'm drawn to things that are visually interesting. Book design is one factor that I take into account when browsing through a bookstore; more often than not it's led to a great read. This book is no exception. It grabs you before you read the first page, the description on the back of the book is enough to send you scrambling for the check-out counter. Check out reviews and information here...

http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400032716

[the author, above-right]

I found it interesting that Mark Haddon not only writes but creates art; I found his notebooks to be inspirational...

http://www.markhaddon.com/Home.htm

SPECK: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things

For those of you that like to leave something interesting for your guests to read on the coffee table, this book will start conversation very quickly. It's called SPECK and is a compilation of creative projects that were intended to among other things answer questions, serve as creative experiments, or bring to light seldom seen details in our surroundings. If you'd like to read more you can check out Amazon's review as well as thoughts on the book from others. I'll leave you with the first sentence of the book..."Notes: On the dusk of August 14, 2000 one red helium balloon was released into the hazy Brooklyn sky."!

(moved from 02/2006 archive)

book review 10.06 - Windblown World

Over the past couple of weeks I read the book "Windblown World". It's essentially the journals of writer Jack Kerouac, composed and edited into one compilation by Douglas Brinkley. The journals cover Kerouac's day to day thoughts and activities while writing the books "The Town and the City" and "On The Road". It also covers Kerouac's many cross-country roadtrips as well as some of his personal insights into people, life, etc.

The book is an amazing read, Kerouac uses some of the most well constructed written descriptions imaginable that literally paint amazing pictures of what he saw or what he was going through at that time. I actually wrote down my favorite quotes in the back of the book and recorded the page number for future reference. Here's one quote I wrote down pertaining to art:

"An art dies when it describes itself instead of life-when it turns from the expression of man's feelings in the void, to a mere description of the void." Jack Kerouac, p.267

I recommend this book to any creative (artist, designer, photographer, etc) as another source of inspiration. There were times I couldn't put it down...there were also times I had to put it down because I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say! My point...you get involved with it and the writing challenges you to figure "it" out. Check out Windblown World and see for yourself!