Writing has always been my greatest love. It was my passion for storytelling that led to other creative pursuits; from creating an award winning fashion label, to exhibiting my artworks around the world. However, in all my creative adventures, I never forgot my love of words. It was this burning desire that drove me to create small editions of hand crafted art books—one which found its way into the hands of iconic film director Tim Burton at the opening of his Wonderland show.

One day, out of nowhere, I posted some of my writing on Tumblr. I could not believe my eyes when my posts began to generate hundreds of notes. This quickly climbed into the thousands, tens of thousands and then, hundreds of thousands. There were daily requests for a book so I figured a hand made version would not be feasible this time round.

This led to the creation of my first published book: Love & Misadventure, a collection of poetry and short prose about the intricacies of love and loss.

Within hours of its launch, Love & Misadventure shot to the Worldwide number one Best Selling Book on Amazon in the category of Love Poetry. Days later, Amazon listed my book in the coveted Teen Literature section and it debuted in the top 15. It was incredibly surreal to see my book sitting amongst some of my favourites including: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Hunger Games as well as bestselling authors such as John Green and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

As an indie author, I don’t have the backing or the marketing budget of the big publishing houses so every time someone buys a book, it means I am one step closer to my dream of writing full time. You can purchase a copy of Love & Misadventure here.

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This is a really illuminated approach to art, a brilliantly novel idea created by South Korean artist, Airan Kang. Bright Books are ‘electronically luminescent sculptures cast from transparent synthetic resin’ and were made for her Luminous Words series. To realize this work, Kang traveled around the world to visit and photograph numerous bookstores and libraries in order to then recreate each environment in digitized versions. 

Luminous Words is another chapter of the Digital Book Project of the artist. She used over one hundred digital lighting books and new LED paintings to explore the ontology and evolution of the book as a source of knowledge in the digital era. By introducing light from within the sculpture, Kang removes the association with the object as an actual book, asking the viewer to contemplate the subject matter conveyed by the book’s title.

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Remember Jeffrey Brown’s splendid picture storybook Darth Vader and Son? He’s back with a fresh follow-up for a children’s book, Vader’s Little Princess, which imagines the dad tackling even more parenting woes as he raises his rebellious teen daughter Leia.

He even gets to employ the classic disgruntled dad phrase “You are not going out dressed like that!” on Leia at the sight of her in that iconic metallic bikini getup.

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Looks like we just can’t get enough of Milan Design Week. London design duo Raw Edges was commissioned by the British Council to display fiction titles by Brit novelists handpicked by lit magazine Granta, and they came up with an elegant bare-bones wooden bookcase to display the works. Called Bloom, the bookshelf takes its design cue from a loom, with red threads that hold the books with the help of black stoppers.

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This is something you don’t see everyday. Walking down the street, you suddenly realize you didn’t bring your book to read. No problem. Pick one up at the tree library.
I wonder how smart the squirrels are in that tree?!

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Just how influential is Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now? Well, here’s something quite unexpected: it has even inspired Filipinos to pick up surfing. It was at Baler, a fishing town in northern Philippines, where the surfing scene was shot, and the locals who watched the actors surf were intrigued.

“When the filming finished, some of the crew left their surfboards behind, and my friend and I picked up the boards and taught ourselves how to surf… we’ve been surfing ever since,” said one surfer who hung out at the film set in 1979 when he was ten. The place has since been dubbed Charlie’s Point.

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How did we ever miss this? Utah-based concept designer Timothy Anderson did a pretty cool series of 60s-styled pulp novels for sci-fi movies such as The Matrix, Alien and Blade Runner. The tagline for Blade Runner is gold: ‘IT’S TOO BAD SHE WON’T LIVE. BUT THEN AGAIN, WHO DOES?

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Random House, The Footpath Library, and BMF have joined forces to re-gift the gift of reading to homeless and disadvantaged Australians. The Mailbooks for Good project is simple: buy a book, read it, and post it to a charity for free. Each book features a cleverly designed dust jacket which transforms into a pre-paid, pre-addressed parcel once the book is turned inside-out.

The Footpath Library charity will then post your pre-loved book to an Australian in need. It’s good Karma, folks! After all, when you share a book, you’re sharing more than just pages of paper and ink. You’re sharing the opportunity to learn, discover and feel cared for. Check out the current range of titles available at Gleebooks bookstores in Sydney, Australia.

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We love paper, we love books, we love folding stuff and Vermont-based Etsy seller Luciana Frigerio, who folds pages in paper books so they open to reveal words or symbols, makes simply splendid stuff. We have a soft spot for the book universe: that’s the one with the infinity loop carved on it.

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Public librarians in Michigan, Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, have been holding the book fort for over a decade and know a thing or two about awful library books. So much so that they’ve set up a site of actual library holdings — from their travels, snooping in library catalogs and hearing from library staff all over the world — that are somewhat questionable.

Libraries rock. It also says a lot about the super random world of published books. If anyone wants to gift us Diet, Crime and Delinquency with that classic cover of a wayward teen stabbing donuts in cold blood, we will love you for life.

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Bookshelf Porn is the perfect inspiration blog for any bibliophile. The site features a unique and diverse collection of bookshelves, libraries, and bookstores from all over the world. Even if you aren’t particularly interested in books, this blog will give you the urge to read.

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BookMooch is a website for avid readers who like giving away old books in exchange for ones they want to read. If somebody has a book on your wish list, they send it to you. If someone wants a book from your inventory, you send it to them. Membership is free, and has reached around 74,000 in more than 90 countries. The website was created in 2006 by founder John Buckman. Some of my favourite Mooches so far are five copies of The New Yorker and A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.

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The shortlist for The Diagram Prize – which awards the oddest book title of the year by popular vote — is out and there are six nominees on it. So, what is more odd: the fact that a competition to find the oddest title actually exists, or that these book titles are really quite odd? Still, we can’t say we didn’t see the chortles coming, so do brace yourself for some pretty audacious stuff. Our favourite’s the rather succinct but ponderful ‘Was Hitler Ill?’

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Sometimes we just want to flip a table and go take a hike, far, far away from work. Furniture designer Chen Liu — who flipped a bunch of cut up yoga mats to make both a book and a chair — may actually convince us to sit still and zen out our need to flee. Alas, the book chair is just a prototype design, with the next one quite likely to be made of felt.

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Rachel Federman’s latest book answers the age-old question: ‘Is your dog a genius?’ Now you can finally find out whether your dog is extraordinary or just an average-Joe mutt. We know you’ve been dying to find out. Woof woof.

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Not sure whether to read a book or inspect some art for inspiration? Russell Cobb, a celebrated illustrator based in the UK, offers a creative compromise: experimenting with canvases, he has come up with a colorful and striking ‘book painting series which is just lovely.

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Photographer John Schabel’s latest book is a collection of photographs taken between 1994 and 1996 entitled Passengers. Shot with a 35 mm Nikon film camera and a telephoto lens, taking these same photographs today would most likely land you in jail. Since airport security has increased after 9/11, attempting to photograph planes at an airport is not the smartest idea. But luckily, John Schabel captured these fascinating images for us.

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If you’d like to read archetypical nightmare design stories, one needs only type in the URL “Clientsfromhell.net” and you’ll find a tonne. If you want to find some unique nightmare design and art stories, though, I’d advise reading Anne Applebaum’s new social history of Stalinist Eastern Europe. In it are tales of dreadful state-artist collaborations, including the story behind the post-impressionist painter Max Lingner’s forced pairing with the very picky and uncreative and dictatorial East German leader Otto Grotewohl. The communist newspapers called the teaming exemplary of “the new relationship between Art and the People,” but the results are as depressing as a failed state.

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I have to admit, this is my baby. It’s a 208-page book collecting black and white illustrations I completed between the years 2002 and 2012, and it includes everything from house party flyers to zine covers to pieces for the New York Times and GQ. A theme within it: that we live in a fantastically rich time and place in which almost anything is possible. In that environment, the most original and interesting thing to do is impose limitations on one’s work.

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When Tell Ritterbach set to work on designing a bookmark, he wanted something better than the run-of-the-mill ones that get slotted between pages. The result is Book Hook, a classy, triangular chunk of wood — available in beech, oak or birch wood — that you can set your book upon with no fear of damaging its spine.

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