Hans Weyandt from Micawber's Books picks three books about whales. (And, yes, one of them is quite obvious.)

Welcome back to my3books, everyone!  After the Year-End / Decade-End Opinion Avalanche from every other blogger on the planet, I took some time off from sharing too much online to go out and do my day job, which generally involves a lot of coffee drinking and talking with independent booksellers and other book lovers about new books.  I've been building my strength back up, twittering a few times a day and sharing a link or two on Facebook.  But I'm ready to dive back in and get some great posts up here on my3books.

And as if the fates themselves wanted to confirm that it was time for me to get things flowing again here, I got a fresh submission today from indie bookstore owner Hans Weyandt.  Hans is one of the co-owners of Micawber's Books in St. Paul, MN – a great indie bookstore in a city with a lot of great literary things going on.  One of my favorite things they do?  They shelve all the books from cool publishers' series together – like NYRB Classics or Persephone Books.

The three books that Hans has picked for today's my3books post are all about whales.  Read it here and then go check out their own store blog for more Hans.

Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
foreword by Nathaniel Philbrick; cover by Tony Millionaire
Penguin Classics | 9780143105954 | $17 | Oct 2009

As a great scoffer, I generally have a hard time believing in things like kismet or fate. But the reading gods? The reading gods will teach you things. An old friend had to read Moby-Dick for school earlier this winter and asked if I'd join him on the journey. The word epic is overused, well, epically. But this is one. Melville's humor was a shocker to me. And the language pushing you onward and onward. Captain Ahab. The sea. The monster of the deep. I will treasure the experience of finally reading Melville's great novel forever.

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The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea
by Philip Hoare
Ecco | 9780061976216 | $27.99 | Jan 2010

A week after finishing I was telling a friend about it and he said, "You know, I have a friend who is an editor at HarperCollins and he says they have a whale book that's just out that is incredible." So I read Philip Hoare's The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea immediately. It would be easy to simply call this natural history or cultural history. But it's much more. It combines myth and folklore with science and family history. The whale occupies a space in human understanding that surpasses all other animals and this book explains why. It also contains gorgeous in-laid art work and it got me wondering, "How do whales lend themselves to such cool art?"

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Moby-Dick
by Jens Hoffmann
CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (dist by DAP) | 9780980205527 | $30 | Mar 2010

Then, just a few days later, I was unpacking boxes and found this gem from the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. Jens Hoffmann has compiled an extraordinary collection of Moby Dick-related material. A brief statement at the beginning states, "I have carefully collected whatever I have been able to learn of the story of Ishmael and the great white whale, and here present it to you, knowing that you will thank me for it. To their spirits and characters you cannot refuse your admiration and love; to their fate you will not deny your tears."  This is one of those rare books where price does not even matter--I needed it. From its white and gold stitched cover to the watery blue paper inside to the wild array of related art it is all a wonder. So you see? I did not choose this maritime madness. It was all thrust upon me.

 

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Hans Weyandt is co-owner of Micawber's Books in St. Paul, MN. He actually does read books that have nothing to do with oceans or huge sea mammals. He blogs for the store at micawbers.blogspot.com and has a fairly serious addiction to pho.  He is also in the market for a harpoon. A sweet harpoon.

Micawber's Books can be found here:
2238 Carter Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55108
651.646.5506
www.micawbers.com
www.micawbers.blogspot.com

Fall 2009 Catalog Picks: D.A.P. part 1: the impulse picks

No other publisher that I represent gives me the same roller-coaster-y excited wooziness like D.A.P. Their seasonal catalog brings together the finest arts and cultural publishing from around the world - hundreds of big and small publishers and galleries like the Aperture Foundation, Steidl, Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Boston MFA, the MCA in Chicago.

To spend time with the staff of D.A.P. is to glimpse the dizzying borderlands between the capital-A Art world and the world of publishing - they bridge that gap easily, helping their publishers bring word to the outside world of the latest wonders, the newest downtown galleries, the most innovative exhibits and installations.

At the same time, the sheer wonder of their catalog (over 500 new books this fall!) defines for many of my buyers the heart of their problem of trying to choose the right books for their stores. Many of the choicest books from D.A.P. can top $50 or $75 or $100 each. No matter how beautiful those books are, no matter how well-reviewed the new exhibits and fairs will be, many stores simply cannot afford to stock these books.

Here at my3books, we can momentarily overlook the most important and pricy exhibit catalogs and artist books in the Fall 2009 D.A.P. catalog to look at three charming and affordable books that any store can afford to stock in quantity, and any interested buyer can snap up without hesitation.

Tim Burton
by Tim Burton
edited by Ron Magliozzi and Jenny He
Museum of Modern Art (D.A.P.) | 9780870707605 | $19.95 | Nov 2009

This book is an introduction to the vast breadth of the career of Tim Burton, the visionary artist and director. It's being published this fall to accompany a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This affordable paperback will include works from his earliest years to his latest films, including 2010's Alice in Wonderland.

The show at MoMA, and this book, traces Burton's creative process, from sketches to pencil and painted concept art, puppets and maquettes, storyboards and stills from his movies. It opens November 22, 2009 and will run through April 26, 2010.

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The New Millennium Paper Airplane Book
by Klara Hobza
Public Art Fund (D.A.P.) | 9780960848850 | $15.95 | Sept 2009

Inspired by a historic paper airplane contest that was originally held in 1967, conceptual and performance artist Klara Hobza organized a modern-day recreation in 2008. Contestants entered the new contest, designing their own paper airplanes, and then traveled to the same location as the original - the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows, originally built for the 1964 Worlds Fair.

After a day-long event, Hobza and her judges declared the winners in many categories. The best airplane designs and the stories from their creators have been gathered into this single volume. The airplanes are removable and foldable.

This is a great gift book for an era in which we are both looking backward to see how previous generations survived challenging times with creativity and innovation and looking forward to what our own generation will discover.

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Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People
by Emily Pilloton
Metropolis Books (D.A.P.) | 9781933045955 | $34.95 | Oct 2009

Emily Pilloton founded Project H Design in 2008, aiming to promote and inspire the kind of world-changing (or at least, world-improving) design that simple, thoughtful, useful products can become. As her manifesto on the Project H web site says, industrial design is "a tool to address social issues, a vehicle for global life improvement..."

Design Revolution, the resultant book from the beginning of Project H's work, brings to our attention some of the best recent industrial design: safer baby bottles, waterless washing machines, rent-a-bike systems, DIY soccer balls and many more.  Pilloton challenges designers to move beyond "going green" and to become change makers instead of mere "stuff creators."

This is the kind of design book that, like another book I featured earlier this summer on my3books, Graphic Design For Nondesigners, transcends the realm of the professionals in the field to appeal to a much broader slice of readers.