Being Bookish
Comments(1) I have been buying a lot of books recently, which I guess is apt for the beginning of a new school year and a thesis topic to come to terms with. It may also have something to do, however, with Amazon.com, their FREE! SuperSaver shipping, and one-click purchasing.
In the last couple of weeks I have bought:
Design Noir, by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
Celebration Park, about the work of artist Pierre Huyghe
Typography, by type maestro Wolfgang Weingart
Pornotopia, by Rick Poynor
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
The Writers Journey, by Christoher Vogler
Consumer Behavior, by Michael Solomon
and, belatedly, the last issue of Emigre magazine, called The End
What is it about the purchase of a book? It is like acquiring a whole world in a small paper packet. Whether it is a fictional narrative that invites you into a character’s life, or an explication of an idea or process that explains the world from a whole new vantage point, books pack an amazing amount of experience into a sublimely economical form. Browsing a bookstore is like going to a travel agent, and buying a new tome is almost as good as going on a trip – each book is a ticket for the mind to escape from its usual rut and and take flight above the small world of our daily habits.
It is somewhat shameful to admit, but I often to prefer browsing and buying books – acquiring bits if the world like parcels of land – to actually reading them once I have gotten them home. I am sure it means I am a shallow person, and I justify it by reading the reviews on Amazon or asking somebody who actually did read it to summarize it for me. I have always been a slow reader, so maybe that is my excuse. But somehow the promise, the advertisement if you will, for the trip to Tahiti or Freakonomics-ville, or wherever, is often more tantalizing than actually plodding through the text.
Anyway, buckling down for school, I am determined to actually read these books – at least enough of them to get the gist. Since I am a designer, and they have lots of pictures, that should help too. 
yeah, i know what you mean. i’m kind of the same way with blogs, particularly ones with pictures. so much easier just to look at those nice line drawings and guess what the words are about. i’m sure i’m not missing anything much.
who are you again, btw?