Books, books, books....

As if I don't think about books enough working for a publishing company — but I have such a weakness for them...

Via a friend on Twitter I discovered the portfolio of James and Karla Murray today. Looking through the delicious store front photos I thought, My God, I'd like to see a whole book of these! And apparently my wish is grant-able, because the 336 page book is available on Amazon.

Asylum, which I posted about earlier this month, arrived early and is every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be. I haven't read the intro by Oliver Sacks yet (maybe tonight) but the photos by Christopher Payne are both amazing and chilling.

Next, allow me to introduce you to a book I designed for Countryman Press last summer called Out of Gas.

It features nearly 100 photos of pickups and abandoned gas stations and pumps by Jeffrey E. Blackman. If you're into rust and abandoned place (like me) you'll want to check it out.

Not long ago a friend surprised me with this book in the mail. Tina Berning's paintings and drawings of women are beautiful - playful, sensual, stylish, fun. I love looking through it, and if you could see some of the fashion illustration style drawings I did in high school (and later in cut paper collages) you would recognize immediately why I'm so fascinated by it.

Some friends recently commented that they'd like to come over to my house and do nothing but look through my coffee table books for an afternoon. I think this is a fantastic idea. Books are meant to be looked at and enjoyed, and the time I can spend drooling over my own (relatively small) collection is limited. A pile of books, wine, some munchies, good music, friends...I definitely want to do this.