reading: the work of art (adam moss)

notes

recommended: highly

this has been sitting on the end table since this summer. i sat down to “grind” through it after i’d hit the target of 30 books this year. the book is physically beautiful. it’s one of those things that you just want to hold in your hand and work through. i’m surprised by how much i simply enjoy the feeling of this book in hand. books rarely feel like this. this explains the cost.

the photography in this book is immersive, critical and absorbing. there are close-ups of notebook pages, sketches, photos of photos, instagram snaps, etc., i pored over these more than i thought i would. the book teases out tufte-esque bits. there are side notes aplenty and lines that correlate the text to something interesting/relevant in the text which make it feel almost interactive.

nit, the footnote text and the font for the reference within the text is so small that you can easily lose track of where you’re correlating something.

if you don’t read this book having gone down innumerable rabbit holes, you need to check yourself for a pulse.

interesting interviews

gay talese there’s a fascinating discussion of a write around he did re: frank sinatra. i had no real idea what a write around is/was when i started reading this interview, but this interview and recounting of the process he went through to write the article was fascinating, i was really disappointed when it was done.

samin nosrat i loved, loved, loved. salt, fat, acid, heat it ranks as one of the best cooking books I’ve read and it will always hold a place on my shelf. the birthing of this book was much harder than i could have imagined.

new york times A1s the 100,000 COVID deaths NYT front page and the full page cratering of the economy A1, have been burned into my memory. the stories behind these is well covered here. the sketches for the layout that they used are fascinating capsules of the design process.

david simon the wire remains in my mind one of, if not the best TV shows i’ve seen. the interview here was way too short.

it’s clear that as an editor at esquire, moss had insight and visibility into a wide range of artistic endeavors. art in every medium imaginable is poked at; painting, photography, sculpture, music, dance, computer generated art, the list keeps going on. setting aside the creation of the artworks themselves, there are numerous side excursions that you will likely be thrown on based on the volume of artistic media in play.

i must have added a dozen books to my reading list and followed half a dozen new folks on instagram.

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interesting interviews#

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notes

interesting interviews

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