Bookish Tattoos June 28, 2009

For quite some time now, I’ve been thinking about getting a bookish tattoo. I do not have any tattoos and take the matter very seriously. This is why I do not have any yet. For some (weird) reason it just appeals to me to have my biggest passion on me. As an everlasting work of art, because that is how I view tattoos. A work of art. That is, if they are done by a proper artist.

To get inspired I have been searching the web for people with bookish tattoos. I found out that there are not many. (Loving books and tattoos apparently do not go together…) It seemed like a fun idea to post some of the bookish tattoos I found. You can see them by clicking ‘more’ at the bottom of this post. I’m curious to your response to them. If you are thinking about a book related tattoo, please post about it in the comments. If you are not sure yet, like me, this might be something for you.

If you are the owner of some bookish ink, please send me a picture of it. (Click here to mail me.) I will post the photo’s in a separate topic.

Bibliophile sofa June 23, 2009

If you love to hang out and read on your sofa, this is a piece of furniture from your dreams! It is big enough to comfortably read on and it has your favorite books within reach. If it was available in leather, I would consider this as my next sofa without hesitation. To read more about this Flexform bibliophile sofa, click here.

Well-Read Life Kit June 23, 2009

If you know someone that loves to read (including yourself!) this is the perfect gift. It could come in very handy for students too. I love this “Well-Read Life Annotation Kit”. It looks beautiful! Click here to learn more.

The smell of books June 18, 2009

Some people call me weird, but I love the smell of old books. Often, I get funny looks at book markets or in a shop that sells antique books. I tend to stick my nose between the pages and have a good sniffle. The best ones have this sweet scent to them, instead of the aroma of old socks.

As if they knew of my ’strange’ habit, two readers have e-mailed me an interesting link. (Thank you Roger and Mary Jo!) I love how the makers of the website neatly point out the lack of character of an e-reader. In a very fun way they make it very clear that reading devices might be handy, but that it can never beat the experience of a real book.

If only the product and its five different scents were real. I would put a can in every room in the house! “New Book” for the toilet perhaps? And, o-la-la, “Classic Musty” for the bedroom maybe? Click here to see what I’m on about.

Shakespeare and Co book June 16, 2009

Remember the post I did recently about the Paris based bookshop Shakespeare and Company? (If not, click here.) It has been brought to my attention (thank you Ineke!) that there is a book about Shakespeare and Company. Or rather, a book written by a reporter that worked there for nine months. In this book “Time was soft there”, Jeremy Mercel, tells all about his experiences in this fantastic store. Click here to learn more about the book.

For the Dutch readers, the book has just been translated into Dutch! It is called “Een bed tussen de boeken” (A bed between the books). You can find more information on it here. Once I’ve read it, I will let you know what I think of it.

Bookish News Feed June 16, 2009

I must have been sleeping under a stone for a while or something, but I just discovered something new to me. Alltop! This website ‘collects’ all the bookish news. It has links to articles of newspapers, but also of quite a few ‘bigger’ bookish blogs.

I was quite surprised to see Kimbooktu on there as well. But very pleased. (Thanks guys!) I browsed for a bit and found the idea of a website like this quite fantastic. You can follow all the bookish news via one site! Click here to see what my excitement is about.

Bookish Etsy June 6, 2009

Browsing the web in hopes to find some cool bookish gadgets for you, I stumbled on the website Etsy.com. On this website you can buy and sell things that are handmade. Of course there are people on there that make fantastic bookish things. Below I will state some of the things I found. I do not know how long the products will be on there, so do forgive me when a link dies in the future.

Take this paperweight for instance. (Click here to go to the Etsy page.) Click on ‘more’ to see more of my finds…

Weird book titles June 6, 2009

Every once in a while I stumble across a book and think I misread the title. Usually it actually says what I thought it did. There are some weird book titles around. Usually the title is so strange, because the topic of the book is. Like how to do a number 2 when outdoors. I then think of all those gifted struggling writers out there that just cannot get their book published.

A website I like to read, Oddee.com, likes to make lists of the weird and wonderful in this world. So they also did a couple of posts on “insanely titled books”. I have to warn you, some of the books have quite graphic titles. Click here to see the first post with 15 crazy titled books. The next one states 10 books with odd names, to be found here. The last one they did has a collection of 12 books with “insane” names, see here.

Amazing bookish paintings June 6, 2009

It is fantastic when the love for things get combined. My obvious love for books and my love of art. Quite a few artists make paintings of books. The Australian Victoria Reichelt (1979) is one of them. She paints modern books, which is quite different. Her style, realism, makes the books and other objects almost touchable. Love it! Click here to go to her website.

Another  artist that makes book paintings, he does not paint anything else, is the Dutch Gerd Renshof (1959). I discovered him when I was given a new calender for this year (Click here to see.). Every month has a beautiful picture of old books above it. Closer inspection showed me that it were prints of oil paintings made by this artist. Stunning! Click here to read his website in English.