Things I love - day 5

Books! I am a complete book worm, when I was at school if I wasn't in the art room then I was in the library tucked in the corner with a book. I always read more than the other kids when you had to do those 'how many books can you read in a term' tasks. I just liked learning and being in my own world I suppose! I seem to have stopped reading so much for fun when I started uni as then reading was always for work purposes and it sort of become a chore. However I adore buying art books and have stacks of them now, one of my dreams is to live on a house boat but to be honest I think I'd need a separate boat for my books! Eeek!

 So here's a few of the books that I love, they are all very interesting so I'd like to tell you a bit about each one if that's okay?

In Praise of Horses - A sweet little book compiled by Stella Walker, published by Fredrick Muller London and printed in 1953. This book is full of illustrations and poems about horses and it was given to me by a university friend who also loves horses, oh yes I'm a bit horse mad by the way just sadly have no time or money for them :-/

Birdfight - by David Ross, illustrated by Jennie Corbett published by Macmillan in 1968. Oh my goodness these illustrations are amazing!! I found this book in a second hand book shop and had to have it.

Weldons Encyclopedia of Needlework published by Waverley, London in 1935. This book belonged to my great great grandmother, it's full of lots of info and illustrations. One day I will become friends with my sewing machine and learn how to do terribly difficult things like make clothes and lace!!

Print and Pattern by Bowie Style, if you haven't seen the Print and Pattern website or this book then you should, lots to drool over!

The Reenchantment of Art by Suzi Gablik   A very interesting but heavy going book, one of my uni reads!

Lion and Blue by Robert Vavre illustrated by Fleur Cowles 1974. I found this book in a second hand market in a town in Cornwall. The pictures are so vibrant and interesting I just had to take it home with me!

The story is beautiful and about a lion who falls in love with a butterfly, I found a couple of copies of this on amazon and Etsy and it's such a great book I'd definitely recommend it as a gift to a child or illustration loving adult :-)

Naive Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design published by gestalten. This is a brand spanking new book that completely rocks! Page after page of gorgeous graphic design featuring artists such as Strawberryluna and Pietari Posti whose work I love. This was one of the last art books I bought a few months ago. YUM!

Last but not least, Francesca Woodman,published by Phaidon compiled by Chris Townsend. This is one special book, if you haven't come across Francesca Woodman's photography you then really need to see it. Woodman was a very talented American photographer who died in 1981 aged 22. I ordered this book before it was released and couldn't wait to get it. The only book previous to this is no longer being printed and prices are in the range of £180 -£300, so waaay out of my range.

Here are some Francesca Woodman images from a Tripatlas.com article and from Studio International.co.uk you can check out both of those links for more images. I studied Photography for 3 of my further education years and her work was a massive source of inspiration to me.

So I hope this hasn't been too long a post for you all? I'm stuck at home feeling ill and it's nice to have something to do!

:-)