My younger sister lives in London and always finds the most amazing books to give as a presents. Thanks to her I´ve read titles such as “White Teeth” and, last Christmas, she gave me two books that constitue a high source of inspiration for me, but never got to blog about.

One of those books is “This is for you“, by Rob Ryan, a book filled with his amazing papercuts. By stretching the very synthetic language of a papercut (single coloured shapes against a neutral background), the author manages to evoke a fairy-tale ambiance to each and every single piece. He also has a strong sense of composition, putting together harmoniously text and image – all in papercut, of course. I love papercutting, so this book is like a bible to me.

The other book my sister gave me last Christmas is “Colors” by Anne Varichon.

Now, this is a true bible of everything colour related: not only does the author explain the symbolics and meaning related to several colours in different cultures, the author also explains how to make the different pigments by yourself.

On top of all that, the graphic design is flawless, working perfectly to convey the message that is most important: colours have an impact.

These two books are always within reach!

I´m having a lot of fun looking at the illustrations “Cuando Verónica teje” (which translates as “When Verónica knits”), from Valeria Cis, published by Primera Sudamericana. My appreciation for knitting and its possibilities is quite obvious by now, I believe, and that´s probably why I enjoy so much the fact that it can be seen as more than “a grandma thing”. A children´s book with a sheep knitting? Love it!

The illustrations are very beautiful and expressive as well as the writing (both by Valeria Cis) and the only thing missing in this book is a nice edition. The cover is soft, the book itself is quite small in format (23cm x 15,5cm), considering that it is a children´s book, of course. It isn´t an inviting object – but it is a lovely work. Congratulations to the author, not so much to congratulate on the publisher´s side, though.

(From the same author, “Diez excusas para no comer vegetales”, also very beautifully written and illustrated, belonging to the same collection – “Puercoespín” – but, weirdly enough, with a different format.)

There are some more posts about books coming up. In the meantime, have a nice weekend everyone! It will be a long weekend here, due to a national holiday on Monday, so regular posting will resume on Tuesday.

Para los Argentinos: feliz día de la Patria! (eso fue editado para que quede totalmente argentinizado. De todas formas: feliz 25 de Mayo!)

I started reading “As Benevolentes” by Jonathan Littel quite some time ago but as it is very visible by its size, it isn´t very easy to read. Well, maybe the size doesn´t actually tell it, but the theme (World War II) is very dense and the same is true for the pages´visual appearance: the author uses no paragraphs, or almost no paragraphs, and that means that you need large amounts of time to get into the subject and read a considerable chunk of text without getting lost. It´s not uninteresting, not at all; it´s just that for the graphic designer in me it is difficult to read. I love white space but don´t know what happened to it in this book. No white space whatsoever, just lines and lines and lines with almost no space between them.

Anyway, the story it tells isn´t a nice one either: the main character was a german army officer during World War II and tells the story through his perspective. He tells about the conflicts the arian philosophy and his homossexuality raised in him. Some parts of the story are very engaging, some are so appalling that it takes time for me to get through them. It´s a very good read, nevertheless, but not for the faint of heart.

Totally the opposite are the books by Malcom Gladwell. I read “Blink” during the weekend and loved it. It´s interesting and I realize that I love that style of writing. I call it “magazine writing” – a term that, I reckon, lots of people might use too. So, to get back to his books, the topics are interesting, the style of writing is very fluid and engaging and the data is presented in a way that makes it easy for me to understand, relate and remember. I´m now well into “The Outliers” and enjoying it almost as much – not just as much because I´m reading a spanish translation, albeit a good one, I always prefer to read the original. But that´s what I had close at hand.

“Mujeres que corren con los lobos” by Clarissa Pinkola Estés is like a referral book to me. I´ve been reading it slowly for months now and I find it to be the best way to assimilate all the information that it contains. It´s been a revelation, so it works best for me to take it in little sips.

Well, last but not least, a mention to what I read during the vacation in Australia: “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert – I was probably the last woman on earth to have read it but if someone hasn´t yet, then I´ll recommend it – and “Dom Casmurro“, by Machado de Assis, one of the classics of brazilian literature, of which I know so little. Both are good and entertaining reads, and both have something to teach too.

This is the second book made during the course of the workshop taught at Papelera Palermo´s Casa de Oficios. It´s a little different from the first model done but it was really nice to build. All in all, the feeling of having made something with your own two hands is just unbeatable, specially in this digital age where no one seems to know what to do without the help of a computer.

See more photos here.

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Este é o segundo livro feito no workshop organizado pela Casa de Oficios da Papelera Palermo e leccionado por encadernadores da Asociación Argentina de Encuadernadores Artesanales. Depois da prática da construção do primeiro, este aqui não foi muito difícil de fazer. É óbvio que apesar de ser bastante perfeccionista (ui!), é um livro feito por uma principiante. Mas estou satisfeita com o resultado, sobretudo com o facto de o ter construído manualmente, artesanalmente, nesta época de predominância digital em que muitas vezes nem sabemos o que fazer sem um computador por perto. Por mim falo, obviamente!

Mais fotos aqui.

I´ve been away from blogging for a while now and it mostly had to do with work. Last week I was more than flooded with work, which is good, but prevents me from getting close to the internet (which can also be good, I guess!).

Despite the work overload the bookbinding without adhesives workshop started last Thursday and this is the result of the first work session.

See more photos here.

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Apesar da sobrecarga de trabalho da última semana, comecei a frequentar o workshop de Encadernação sem Adesivos , na Casa de Oficios da Papelera Palermo. Este foi o primeiro livro que encadernámos, cosido com fio de algodão.

Mais fotografias aqui.