(via papertissue)

Definitely adding this to my always growing reading list.

While I was away on vacation, I read A WHOLE BOOK. (I know! I know!) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies {link} by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith was everything I hoped it could be and maybe a little more. I’ve never read the original Pride and Prejudice, but I imagine this one to be much more interesting… It was definitely chuckle-worthy and packed full of romance, drama, humor, and braaaains!

I just finished Steve Martin’s biography Born Standing Up {link}. It was unbelievably well-written, funny, and insightful. He’s clearly a very smart guy, with a certain perception of the world of comedy. The explanations of some of his routines were sometimes confusing and other times hilarious. It makes me want to go see all the stuff he’s ever performed.

I’ve always been really interested in how people get where they are and Steve Martin provides an excellent record of his journey from kid magician to famous stand-up comedian. The pictures sprinkled throughout the book added to the hilarity and truthfulness of the writing. It was a really great (quick) read!

I just finished White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. I’m having a hard time nailing down what happened and who the characters were. It was confusing and riddled (for me) from beginning to end. I feel like there are whole scenes missing from my memory, introductions to characters that I missed. Usually, I’d say that makes for an awful book, but it was so strange and so mysterious. I liked it. I’m pretty sure. I think I need to sleep on it.

Oyeyemi has such an interesting writing style too. You move from one character’s point-of-view to the next seamlessly; it ends up being a jumbled story. Almost like you’re hearing or seeing or sensing the story through many people rolled into one.

I don’t think I’m making any sense at all.

This week I finished reading Rockabye: From Wild to Child by Rebecca Woolf of Girl Gone Child {link}.

It was a fairly well-written book with a good flow. I felt a bit… unresolved at the end of it though. I think it’s because I need some closure that isn’t possible, because it’s based on her life and her son isn’t grown up yet. Otherwise, it was mostly interesting to me, because it’s a look into the life of a young mother.

Anyhoo, this last month and a half has been overwhelmingly filled with babies. Part of it is my own fault, part of it is just coincidence.

1) I found out my step-sister is pregnant. Her due date is on my birthday in October!
2) One of my best friends from high school had a baby boy on Easter. I drove up to see him two weeks after he was born. Cute as a button!
3) Heather Armstrong of dooce.com {link} came down to Austin for a book signing of her new book It Sucked and then I Cried: How I had a baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita {link}. I went to the signing and read her book. (Do you know what kind of HORROR a woman’s hoo-ha goes through during childbirth?! Yeah, neither did I. Thanks Heather.)
4) I somehow got roped into reading this book Rockabye: From Wild to Child.
5) The photographer I work for had a big shoot this past week for a commercial for a local hospital which involved filming 15 babies over a two day period. I was in charge of wardrobe and purchasing a highchair and carseat. It was a weird experience shopping for babies. (Also, they’re SUPER expensive. Holy cow!)
6) I’m mildly obsessed with this website momversation.com {link}. It’s a website where Mom’s talk about issues they’ve had while raising their children. Some of the conversations… they’re terrifying {link}. Like a train wreck I can’t look away from. And some of the conversations are super informative {link}.

The moral of this big story? Birth control is a wonderful, wonderful thing for me for the next like 6 years of my life.

I just finished reading It Sucked And Then I Cried: How I had a Baby, A Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather Armstrong of dooce.com.

Heather’s book reads much like her blog {link}. It’s funny, entertaining, and for someone who has never had a child very, very educational. You just don’t think about some of the things she talks about in her book. So, THANK GOD she wrote it.

As a side note, I’ve thought about what it would be like to have a kid and let me just say this: between this book, dooce.com, and this episode of momversation.com {link}, I’m holding off on having kids until I’m… oh, 50. Talk about birth control.

Tiny Art Director is the hilarious blog and book, archiving the job orders given to artist Bill Zeman by his two three four-year-old daughter.

This book is a faithful record of my daughter’s tireless efforts to get some decent work out of me. All the words are hers, as far as I was able to record them. Given her propensity to erase my notes, or run water over them in the bathroom sink, this was sometimes difficult. Some of the art had to be recreated as well, largely due to her unnatural quickness with an eraser or my paper cutter, but sometimes because, I have to admit, her critiques were right on. (via NOTCOT)

- — Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. A Guide to Creating Great Advertising By Luke Sullivan

Andy Mangold. Super inspirational.

Just found this book project from 2003-2004. Over a 36 week period, four artists were given the opportunity to work on it. The artists had no contact when making the book.

“Every Wednesday, one participant would receive [the] book. The following Monday it was sent out [to the next artist], giving each artist five days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it.”

I really like the concept of working on something like this. It’s almost like Layer Tennis only in book form.

- From the first two lines of Abarat by Clive Barker. I love, love, love the imagery he used. I had casually picked up the book from Chris’s shelf, not really intending to read it, but after those first two lines, how could I not? I’ll let you know how the rest of the book is after I’ve finished it.

I just finished reading “The Brief History of the Dead” {link} by Kevin Brockmeier and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The point-of-views were really captivating and the writing was beautiful.

“Sometimes he thought that the most joyful sound in the world would be the sound of the birds taking over the city after everyone else was gone.”

I’ve been gravitating towards black type on an off-white page. It’s all sort of coming together. I’m suddenly reading more than I have in a long time. And enjoying it. Appreciating it, rather. I think it’s partially this Contemporary Publishing class I’m taking. I’m learning to appreciate where book-making came from.