Category Archives: Reading

What Are You Reading in August?

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Do you believe in the concept of beach reads? I don’t. Not for me, anyway! My habits are fairly solid year-round.

I’ve been burning through books the last few weeks, which, coming on the heels of a few slow-ish reading months, is such a nice (and familiar) feeling.

Since 1st August, I’ve finished:

  • Andy Warhol: A Biography by Wayne Koestenbaum
  • Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography by Meryle Secrest

I’m currently reading:

  • The Andy Griffith Show by Richard Kelly
  • The Witch of Lime Street: Seance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World by David Jaher
  • Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon

To be read by 31st August:

  • The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us by Diane Ackerman
  • Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull
  • And a few more books still to be determined

Which book on your list do you most look forward to finishing?

Please share with me in the comments.

Happy reading!

What Are You Reading in July?

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Do you believe in the concept of beach reads? I don’t. Not for me, anyway! My habits are fairly solid year-round.

Things are finally back on-track for me; I had a couple of really light reading months. It feels good to return to normal.

Since 1st July, I’ve finished:

  • Women in the Middle Ages: The lives of real women in a vibrant age of transition by Frances and Joseph Gies

I’m almost done with:

  • Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky by Paul Johnson
  • Own It!: Be the Boss of Your Life–at Home and in the Workplace by Tabatha Coffey
  • The Who, the What, and the When: 65 Artists Illustrate the Secret Sidekicks of History by Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, and Matt Lamothe

To Be Read by 31st July:

  • Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley by Jeffrey Spivak
  • Grace: A Memoir by Grace Coddington
  • The Ultimate Illustrated beats Chronology by Robert Niemi
  • HAVOC in its third year by Ronan Bennett
  • Movie Icons: Welles by TASCHEN

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading?

Please share with me in the comments.

Happy reading!

What Are You Reading in June?

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It’s a new season! Have you changed your reading habits to suit the demands of warmer weather, or do those habits stay steady year-round?

I’ve been so wrapped up in creative projects, that my reading has, by my standards, practically slowed to a trickle.

Since 1st June, I’ve finished:

  • The Fauves (Art of Century Collection) by Nathalia Brodskaia

I’m in the midst of reading:

  • Thinking About it Only Makes it Worse: And Other Lessons from Modern Life by David Mitchell
  • Ilya Repin by Grigori Sternin and Jelena Kirillina

To be finished by 30th June:

  • Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham by Emily Bingham

What is your favourite book this month?

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading?

Please share with me in the comments.

Happy reading!

[Book Nerd Links] Four Links for the New Week

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What Are You Reading in May?

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What is on your reading list this month?

Do your reading habits change with the seasons, or are you always equal opportunity?

I’ve kind of been all over the place this month, reading wise, which is pretty typical of me.

Since 1st May, I’ve finished:

  • M Train by Patti Smith
  • Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction by Cathy Whitlock
  • The Ice Cream Blonde: The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious Death of Screwball Comedienne Thelma Todd by Michelle Morgan
  • Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered by Dianne Hales

I’m in the midst of reading:

  • Spencer Tracy: A Biography by James Curtis
  • Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style by Cintra Wilson

To be finished by 31st May:

  • Art on the Block: Tracking the New York Art World from SoHo to the Bowery, Bushwick and Beyond by Ann Fensterstock
  • I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist by Betty Halbreich with Rebecca Paley
  • Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters Edited by Bill Morgan and David Stanford

What is your favourite book this month?

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading?

Please share with me in the comments.

Happy reading!

A Reading List a Mile Long: Daedalus Books Summer Preview 2016

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If I’m not reading, I’m adding books to my to-be-read list. That list is monstrously long–maybe not a mile, but getting there!

Here are some of my newest additions, courtesy of the Spring Preview 2016 Catalog from Daedalus Books.

  1. Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Wilson (#60392). $4.98.
  2. The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature by Ben Tarnoff (#60993). $5.98.
  3. The Calvin Handbook Edited by Herman J. Selderhuis (#60437). $6.98.
  4. Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer Contributions by Frank H. Goodyear, Elizabeth O. Wiley & Jobyl A. Boone (#41026). $6.98.
  5. Charles Dickens’ Favorite Daughter: The Life, Loves, and Art of Katey Dickens Perugini by Lucinda Hawksley (#51293). $5.98.
  6. All the Poems by Stevie Smith (#69176). $27.95.
  7. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (#60819). #12.98.
  8. The True Benjamin Franklin: An Illuminating Look Into the Life of One of Our Greatest Founding Fathers by Sydney George Fisher (#54011). $4.98.
  9. The Poetry of William Carlos Williams of Rutherford by Wendell Berry (#53435). $3.98.
  10. Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper (#54592). $4.98.
  11. Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion by Anne Somerset (#54294). $6.98.
  12. The Dragon Throne: China’s Emperors from the Qin to the Manchu by Jonathan Fenby (#61060). $5.98.
  13. The 1900s: Britain in Pictures Edited by Paul Richardson (#54183). $5.98.
  14. The 1910s: Britain in Pictures Edited by Paul Richardson (#54184). $5.98.

[Book Nerd Links] Bas Bleu, Libraries, Shakespeare/Tolstoy, and Shaw

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What Are You Reading in April?

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What is on your reading list this month?

Do your reading habits change with the seasons, or are you at all times equal opportunity?

I haven’t finished one book this month, although I am quite close to finishing the first two. My list is unusually light, and skews almost exclusively towards film history and criticism. I’ll likely add at least a few more books to April’s pile before the month is through.

Here’s what is on my reading list this month:

  • The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks by Tracey Goessi
  • The A to Z of Italian Cinema by Gino Moliterno
  • Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger (I’ve read this before)
  • A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960 by Jeanine Basinger (I’m pretty sure I’ve read this once before, as well)
  • The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth by Robert Graves (I’ve read several other books by Graves, but not this undeniable classic)
  • Elizabeth Taylor: A Passion for Life: The Wit and Wisdom of a Legend by Joseph Papa

What is your favourite book this month?

Which book on your list do you most look forward to reading?

Please share with me in the comments!

Happy reading.