Sometimes books — BIG books — big, impractical books with beautiful photographs are the best gifts of all. Why? They edify, they are good to use as a laptop desk in a pinch, they are visually inspiring, they look great just hanging around, and one can share them with a friend. I mean, they are just the kind of luxury that is amazing to have sitting around: It’s like having pounds of inspiration at your fingertips.
Truth-bomb: Slowly flipping through a book like the ones listed below is about a million times better than Googling anything. Here with a few favorites:
- John Baldessari: Pure Beauty by Jessica Morgan and Leslie Jones (Nov 25, 2009)
- Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel by Lisa Vreeland, Lally Weymouth, Judith Thurman and Judith Clark (Oct 1, 2011)
- Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (Metropolitan Museum of Art) by Andrew Bolton, Solve Sundsbo, Tim Blanks and Susannah Frankel (May 31, 2011)
- Grace: A Memoir by Grace Coddington (Nov 20, 2012)
- Little Black Dress by Andre Leon Talley, Gioia Diliberto, Maureen Dowd and Adam Kuehl (Apr 2, 2013)
Where to store all of your beautiful books? Why, how about having some built-in modern shelving installed? So many amazing craftspeople in town to build these for you in case you are not the power-tool type! Pictured is a wall of shelves that I saw in a hotel in Florida. I love how they are oriented vertically instead of horizontally.
I would love to have five books and a set of shelves for Christmas! Get to work oh tiny elves with your tiny saws and tiny hammers and tiny book presses! What books would you add to this Style Points list?
