Gift Guide For Book Lovers
By Diana Jou - Dec 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am
Penguin Book and Poster Sets: The redesign of titles like 1984 and Arabian Nights brings new life to the classics. Though the Shepard Fairey sets are sold out, there are other sets worth checking out. It is perfect gift for the ultimate for book lover. My personal favorite, Ten Tales of the Supernatural. (Ten books and a kick-ass poster for 59 British pounds)
The Night Life of Trees: This is a great artisan book from an independent publisher in India. Every single book is bounded and silk-screened by hand. If you have the guts to take apart the book and frame the individual pieces, it’s like getting 48 works of art for 39 bucks. Limited edition of 1,000. Buy direct. See video.
Good magazine: Progressive politics has never looked so hip. It is best at articulating specific social and political issues in beautiful and easy-to-understand info graphics. The magazine recently partnered with Starbucks to distribute free mini info-graphic sheets and boy, do they go quick. But the magazine is still the real deal. $20 for 6 issues. 100 percent of the profit is donated to your choice of charity.
Colors magazine: Hands down one of the most cohesive magazines out there that combines social justice, photography, and great design. It is a theme-based magazine that covers topics from a global perspective in a timeless fashion. Some past themes include “money,” “victims,” “Beijing,” “boring,” “HIV/AIDS,” and “lust.” You can pick one of three bilingual editions: English/French, English/Italian, and English/Spanish. $31 dollars for four issues.
Tank Books: Skip Urban Outfitters if you want to get a gift book for a real hipster. If the person on your list must have Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in his/her pocket at all times, Tank published pint sized classics stored in redesigned cigarette boxes.
The Other Side: Not all picture books are created equal. Hungarian American illustrator Istvan Banyai concocts fantastic narratives with his drawings that all link together but bring you to different places. A great adventure for babies and grandparents (no reading glasses required). $15.95
Paper Captain: What a classy and fresh cover design: colorful diagrams on top of a gray photograph and topped off with a little bit of foil-embossed letters. It is a book about boats and ships of every kind. It is wonderfully laid out with photographs, informational graphics, and intricate little paper models you can punch out and construct. For the little boy in all of us. $16.50
Harvard Business Review Classics: With catchy titles like “Teaching smart people how to learn” and “Managing your boss” and great patterns on the cover, what is there not to like? Learn to powertrip with a good book (cover). With all the secrets they tell you, it is worth collecting it all. $8.95 each
ABC pop-up book: When a video of Marion Bataille’s ABC pop-up book surfaced in March, all the design blogs went crazy. I had to get my hands on it once it was released in October. Bataille crafted a book that exploited the pop-up form and at the same time introduced us the world of typography. A perfect gift for designers or people amused by moving things. $13.57
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