I'm happy judging a book by it's cover

Spacesuit, Fashioning Apollo by Nicholas de Monchaux

I saw a review of this fascinating book over at Maria Popova's Brain Pickings (http://bit.ly/tUgfz5) and I couldn't resist getting a copy. It's a wonderful account of how the ingenuity Playtex trumped the established military contractors in the race to develop the spacesuit. The book is lovely. The dust wrapper is made from a rubberised material making it feel beautifully tactile, evoking the suit itself. The spacesuit was constructed from 21 layers and this is also the structure for the book. It's a cleverly put together piece, a great object and a great read.

Visualising music - 21 Notations

Notations 21 by Theresa Sauer, from Mark Batty Publisher.

I was really excited to get this in the mail, I'd seen a few blog posts and it looked great. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of issues of Source Magazine which first sparked an interest in these innovative approaches to music notation, so I new this wasn't a book to miss out on. 

It's even better in person. It's lovingly produced on a great mat stock that makes the 'notations' and scores look and feel wonderful. There's a diverse mix of styles and techniques with great insight into why the composer took their particular approach. 

Anyone looking at the current trends in data visualisation should definitely take the time to peruse this book, full of inspiration at tackling one of the oldest and most difficult visualisation tasks. 

There's a website and the blog also looks good.

http://notations21.net/notations21/

Get it from Amazon UK here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0979554640 

Another beautiful book from the Princeton Architectural Press

Picked up a copy of The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects by John Tingey (http://www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781568988726). Yet another beautifully designed book from Princeton Architectural Press. Hats off to the designer Deb Wood for the great typography and managing to capture that essential 'englishness' in the design.

This is a wonderful book about an eccentric man's obsession with the postal system and increasingly creative ways to collect. The Englishman is Willie Reginald Bray and he was a mail artist extraordinaire. He constantly probed and challenged the postal system and invented elaborate ways to gather postmarks from far off places, such as dropping postcards in bottles over the sides of ships and out of hot air balloons. It's a great story full of art, humour and inspiration.

Tree of Codes - The book that couldn't be made.

From the minute I saw Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer over at http://www.fastcodesign.com I wanted a copy. This notion of the book as both object and narrative is such a hook for me. Call me shallow, call me a sucker I don't care I love these physical literary exercises. It's the main reason I'm unlikely ever to cross over to the Kindle, I just can't give up the physicality. Digital is great for reference, resource, research and forage, but it's rubbish for the full sensory experience of paper, print and time.

It's courageously published by the brilliant Visual Editions who have yet another book on my radar: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

This new edition looks really good, definite labour of love from the design team over at http://www.apracticeforeverydaylife.com/ (their name says it all).

Below are a few picks from Tree of Codes, but for a really great piece on creating the book see their site:

http://www.visual-editions.com/our-books/book/tree-of-codes

Lovely book/object from Glen Duncan

I've been a long time fan of Glen Duncan ever since I was lucky enough to read the prerelease of Hope whilst working at Penguin. It's something about the way he gets under the skin and reveals that dark male psyche that we all try so hard to deny exists. So, when I saw that he had a new book out, I was straight on Amazon...

Wow a 'horror' novel, a werewolf story at that, with vampires and full moons, for a brief moment I hesitated and then thought, yeah but it's Glen Duncan not bloody Twilight and added it to my basket. What a great decision, not only is it as brilliantly written as ever but the book itself (hardback edition) is beautiful. From the elegant foiling for the moons on the cover through to the gold page edging it's a lovely edition.

More on the book and the design over at http://www.wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2011/04/the-last-werewolf/

And here's the Amazon.co.uk link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1847679447