as much as I love magazines, nothing quite compares to the journey that you take when you read a book. In my twenty-two years, I've sailed a raft with Huck and Jim, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, rode a rickshaw into a tiny Chinese village with Amy Tan and fought the Civil War with Scarlett O'Hara.
My books (all 400 or so of them) have travelled with me through 14 houses, from adelaide to sydney and hopefully in the near future to new york. it's hard for me to throw out magazines but completely unbearable for me to part with my books. every one of them not only tells a story through the author's words but through it's own history; where it came from, who owned it before me and who will own it after.
when i was packing up my adelaide life, my dad asked (told) me to cull my collection. i v.reluctantly picked out 12 novels (albeit all really bad ones given to me in my past life as a book reviewer) and left the box with my dad the day i boarded my plane. turns out history repeats itself; my mother saved my rejected hardbacks and found a place for them on her bookshelf. after all, no matter how bad the writing this (please, PLEASE never read a book called knitting, okay? you'll thank me) there's no reason to let them go unloved.
that's why i'm currently loving interior designer Samantha Parson's vision. Her dream? To rescue the world's unloved hardbacks and turn them into works of art. Her avant-garde tables (book block tables) and screens (bookscreens) are created by recycling and folding the discarded pages from old atlases, cookbooks and children's picture books. They’re part of her handcrafted product range, Family of Sam, which can be found at www.studiosam.com.au. LOVE! how genius is this?
Melbourne couple Ben Mason and Natalie Crupi have also jumped on the book bandwagon with their online store Rebound Books. By day they rescue dusty hardbacks from charity op shops, and at night they fill them with recycled denim paper and bind them with sturdy wire, creating a blank journal for travel dreams, shopping notes and sketches. My personal favourite are the old Enid Blyton covers. Go to www.reboundbooks.net for more details.
speaking of fabulous design, on saturday i went to sydney design at the powerhouse museum with my friend C (aka The Wife). we moved to sydney together this time last year so we thought we'd celebrate our first anniversary together and do dumplings/design...
i went mainly for the modern times exhibition, which was just so well done. they had architecture, music, fashion, art etc through the ages, from 1917 to the 70's. if you get a chance to go along -- do! it's on until Aug 24th.
it's time for a tired ness to rest her head, so i'll just leave you a pretty song to end the evening on...
0 comments:
Post a Comment