Bookworm
Dutch author and illustrator Dick Bruna is probably best known as the creator of Miffy — Nijntje in Dutch — the cute but inscrutable rabbit dressed like a toddler and pictured, in bold lines and primary colors, at the zoo, in the snow, at the seaside, etc…
With the summer reading season in full swing and just when we had tired of this year’s Swedish crime wave, we were delighted when a friend sent us the new boxed set of the Penguin Books’ Boys’ Adventures series…
Starting to worry about how you’ll fill your days once the Cup is over? With just two games left to enjoy, you might be wondering: “how will I live without my daily dose of soccer?!”. Well, to help you transition back to the real world, order a copy of Arkitip’s Issue №0055 (the World Cup special edition), done in collaboration with Chinatown Soccer Club. It’s 100% football meets design — cover to cover.
At this stage of the tournament, with so many favored teams crashing out (see yesterday’s Brazil v. Holland shock) and with the hopes of entire continents dashed by the sporting fates (poor Ghana! perfidious Suárez!) it may be time for a reminder that the World Cup is, after all, about football. At the heart of the carefully managed fanfare of this four-yearly feast is a simple game, played with no more than a ball and a set of posts. A new book by photographer Thomas Hoeffgen, African Arenas, captures just that pared-down beauty of the game…
I am so embarrassingly addicted to office supplies. From the run-of-the-mill manila interoffice folder to every kind of stickie page marker, I love it all — perhaps it’s a residual childhood librarian/teacher obsession… Thus, it was with childish glee that I scoured the Present & Correct online shop: discovering a cornucopia of office must-haves. The company’s collection of workroom thingamabobs spans from vintage melamine desk trays to quirky notebooks and writing utensils…
A few months back, while splashing around in the happy bookstore mud that is Amazon, I came across David McCandless’ infographics atlas, The Visual Miscellaneum (also titled Information is Beautiful for the UK hardcover edition). As a total graph & data junkie I immediately sleuthed up some details around the author/designer, and found that, aside from the two books under his belt, the writer has contributed visual information & great writing to the likes of The Guardian, Tank, and one of my all-time favorites, Wired. Well, lucky for me, I got the chance to dissect The Visual Miscellaneum / Information is Beautiful page by page and ask David some questions about his approach to visualizing data in a world of rather staggering & bleak stats…
What’s not to love? Perfectly simple concept + simply perfect execution = irresistible. These felted Book Boxes by Etcetera are constructed with naturally water-resistant felt and Danish wool by textile bigwig Kvadrat. At 15″ × 6″ × 6″, the bins are perfect for that rotating collection of paperbacks by your reading chair or to organize your quick reference books on your desk! Available in gray with an orange, blue, brown/black, or green base, the boxes are made to order so be sure to calculate in 2-3 weeks before they ship out… Oh, and they’ve got other goodies too…
While we wait for the iPad (ugh… I can barely say the name without wincing) to get with the times (no flash? really?) we’re happy to stick to our trusty Macbook Pro as a primary portable computing device. So, in honor of the good old dog, get yourself a BookBook, the stellar
invisibility cloakslaptop covers by Twelve South.
I just loved Back-to-School when I was a kid. Pacing the aisles of Staples, I made sure not to let a single thumbtack’s worth of office supplies slip past my scrutinizing eye. One of my favorite things to do was to wrap my textbook covers (mostly because I found the cover design so hideous). My mother helped me at first – she did it perfectly (as with every single thing the woman has wrapped over the years, from gifts to broken bones) but I soon took over the task and began using all sorts of materials for the eclectic covers. Of course, the books would become cluttered with doodles and notes as the term passed – something that lifted the simple piece of paper from utility to keepsake.
It seems Santa received my Christmas list this year because, wrapped and waiting under the tree was Marjane Satrapi’s latest graphic oeuvre, Chicken with Plums. I must confess, I was a bit worried that nothing could live up to the author’s heart-wrenching bestseller Persepolis and her sharp-as-a-tack protagonist but, (phew) I was wrong…
1Nel's Pack of Dogs Bookshelf & Bench$413
2Penguin Classics with Cover Illustrations by Coralie Bickford-Smith$14
3My Wonderful World of Fashion by Nina Chakrabarti$13.5
4Studio Smeets Design Lili Lite Bookshelf Lamp€99
5Harry Allen Rollerstop Bookend$95
6Folk & Flora Pattern Books and Notecard Set by Reprodepot$44
7Zelco Itty Bitty Book Light$35
8Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller$29
9Pictorial Webster's$23
10i3’s Help! Bookmarks – Set of 5$19
“If you believe in love, but find it difficult to explain – this is for you.” – Rob Ryan
