Category: Bookstand

Reading inspiration

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I had been pondering why I hadn’t experienced the pleasure of reading in a long time. I have a day job totally unrelated to this blog and in the evenings I’m busy doing paperwork and chores, blogging, or watching TV (I am hooked on the O’Reilly Factor and reruns of The Simpsons, which I think is genius for its references to both high culture and pop culture).

I found that I didn’t even have a list of books that I wanted to read. Then, my first inspiration was my niece, who said that her favorite books were Angela’s Ashes and Wuthering Heights. I then decided to pick up Angela’s Ashes.

I knew about her fondness for Angela’s Ashes and the other books by Frank McCourt (‘Tis, Teacher Man), but I was surprised and embarrassed to learn that she was fond of Wuthering Heights through the web site of a magazine! As I wrote before, I’m in awe of Wuthering Heights – it’s hard to believe that someone with such an erratic education as Emily Bronte could conceive the structure of the novel.

More recently, Style.com, the online home of Vogue and W, had a slideshow of books, the selection of which was inspired by recent designer collections. If you’re registered on Style.com, you can create your own “lookbooks” – to see which books I selected from that slideshow, visit my public lookbook.

And of course, there’s always my wishlist on Amazon.com.

If you had to choose, what three books would you recommend?

Pocket reads

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Every now and then, I like to get away from the topic of beauty and write about something else. Here, I’d like to share three series of books that don’t require major commitments of time to reading and that you can readily fit into your purse.

Very Short Introductions

Very Short Introudctions from Oxford University is a series featuring 160 titles that cover topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. These books feature covers with ombre watercolor illustrations and measure 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches (about 160 pages).

Discoveries

Discoveries is a series of books from publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. These books measure 7 x 5 x 0.5 inches and also run about 160 pages. Unlike VSI, however, Discoveries contains many color photographs and other images. A book on Gandhi has other features, such as appendices with his speeches, writings, and commentaries by others.

I found separate kiosks for VSI and Discoveries at a Borders store in St. Louis. You may shop VSI and Discoveries at Amazon.com.

BüK is probably the most unusual series of the three. This series consists of pamphlets that measure 5 x 7 inches and run only about 16-32 pages – according to the web site, reading that can be done in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. You have to visit the web site to see the odd selection of titles. BüK even offers its pamphlets as hotel room amenities: imagine! Something other to read than the Gideons Bible!

I found a BüK kiosk at a Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods Market in St. Louis, but the kiosk would be ideal for point of purchase at a coffeehouse. And how’s this gift set for Valentine’s Day:

BüK Collector’s Kit I

It features a slipcase featuring six BüKs, a package of Hawaiian-grown and roasted coffee beans, and a bright red mug with the BüK logo.

Desert of the Heart

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As I was browsing my feeds, I discovered this item from the New York Times: Jane Rule, Canadian Novelist, Dies at 76. Who was Jane Rule, you might ask? Jane Rule was a pioneer of lesbian fiction. Her best known work, Desert of the Heart, was published in 1964, long before there was a visible gay rights movement. Desert of the Heart is about Vivian Bell, a professor who goes to Las Vegas for a quickie divorce and bonds with with a younger woman who works in a casino. The book is really about human relationships, so it’s accessible to all except those who consider same-sex relationships a sin or morally reprehensible.

The novel was made into a movie Desert Hearts over 20 years later. The movie starred Helen Shaver as Vivian, Patricia Charbonneau as Vivian’s young lover, and Audra Lindley, as the owner of the ranch where Vivian stays – the last best known for playing Mrs. Roper on Three’s Company! Likewise, the movie is about human relationships, but it also features an explicit lesbian scene. Madonna was so smitten with Alex McArthur, who played Walter, that she cast him as her boyfriend in her Papa Don’t Preach video.

I saw the movie, then read the book. Both are worthwhile. Jane Rule’s obit made me recall both.

What gives?

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For me, sitting around at the hair salon is an opportunity for me to catch up on magazines. I was waiting as my husband got his hair cut, and picked up the current issue of Allure, with Britney Spears on the cover. It was surreal. The photo spread, which featured a topless Spears (with her breasts discreetly covered by her hands or arms), was accompanied by Judith Newman’s article about her unsuccessful efforts to get an interview with Spears. Then, there was Editor-in-chief Linda Wells’s tortured (and ultimately lame) justification for putting Spears on the cover. What gives?

Just go to the Allure web site – it’s all about boosting magazine sales.

PS I didn’t watch MTV’s Video Music Awards, but by all accounts, Spears’ headliner performance was a disaster. While Kanye West’s insistence that he should have been headliner is proof of his overweaning ego, he was probably right when he said that MTV “exploited” Spears for TV ratings.

Does this woman (Spears) have anything else to offer than exposing her body? Are Allure and MTV so deficient in imagination that they must exploit this woman’s tabloid-worthy escapades and problems to promote themselves?

Design*Sponge: r.i.p jane

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The premiere issue of Jane (L) and the current issue

The Style Page has reported on the demise of CARGO (Lucky for men) and SHOP Etc. (Lucky rip-off) magazines. Now comes news via Design*Sponge that Jane magazine will cease publication with its August 2007 issue.

The New York Times also reported on the demise of Jane in its article A Women’s Magazine That Tried to Be Otherwise. The authors described Jane as the grown-up version of Sassy, the groundbreaking, but now defunct, teen magazine. Detroit-based conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel has her own take on Jane’s demise: So sad, too bad …

I find the way that titles such as Glamour, Marie Claire, Vogue, and O conflate articles on fashion and beauty with articles on social and political issues jarring. Moreover, these magazines don’t reflect my views on social and political issues. I also dislike the way that magazines geared toward women in their 20s and 30s are obsessed with sex. No wonder I prefer magazines such as Lucky and InStyle, which don’t contain such articles.

National Library Week, April 2-8

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Ok, I know that my articles on books and readings don’t draw readers in the way that my articles on Top Picks for ’06 or L’Oreal HIP High Intensity Pigments or Vital Radiance have done, but I’d like to draw your attention to National Library Week, which is April 2-8, 2006. National Library Week celebrates “the contributions of U.S. libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support” and encourages reading.

The American Library Association has more about National Library Week on its site. You can even buy posters such as this one featuring the babe-lish Aishwarya Rai through the ALA bookstore.

For more inspiration, see The Style Page > Bookstand > Books.