Dear Mr. Fantasy, The Lyrics of Jim Capaldi - Jim Capaldi

Another stunner from Genesis Publications, the UK publisher of outstanding limited edition books.  They cover several subjects but excel with their music related titles.  Always filled with reproductions of rare ephemera, wild stories and gorgeous photographs, Genesis knows how to bring the "book as object" concept to life.

Jim Capaldi was a founding member of Traffic and brilliant songwriter and drummer as well. Originally inspired by The Beatles, Jim would eventually write for The Eagles and come to play alongside George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix amongst many others.

A legendary book about a legendary guy, this is in fact more than a book.  It's a piece of history.  And that's the beauty of holding something like this in your hands.  These "book plus" projects catapult  you into a world you never knew, or if you did you desperately want to visit again.

Available at www.genesis-publications.com

The Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy

The LA Times and every other book review section imaginable has raved about Elaine Dundy's 1958 novel chronicalling the trials and travails of expat Sally Jay Gorce, a single American girl making her way through France.  Sally is described as a vigorously shaken cocktail of Carrie Bradshaw and Holden Caulfield; to put it mildly, Sally would have eaten Carrie for breakfast and been too bored by Caulfield to sit through his incessant navel-gazing.  Sally is the embodiment of the grit, neuroses and wild recklessness that still defines the young American woman fifty-two years after the book's original publication.  It is, simply put, required reading for anyone intent on living her life to the fullest wherever it may take her.

Although not an illustrated book, The Dud Avocado makes it onto this blog for one reason only.  It must be read as it would have been by Sally and her compatriots back in '58.  Dog-eared, stained, and constantly present in whatever purse or tote bag the reader chooses to carry. A book rife with this much insanity and passion cannot be confined to the digital display of the e-reader of the moment.

Published by NYRB, available at local bookstores and amazon.com

Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts - Lynd Ward (Author, Illustrator), Art Spiegelman (Editor)

From The Library of America:


From the eve of the Great Depression to the start of World War II, Lynd Ward (1905–1985) observed the troubled American scene through the double lens of a politically committed storyteller and a visionary graphic artist. His medium—the wordless “novel in woodcuts”—was his alone, and he quickly brought it from bold iconographic infancy to subtle and still unrivalled mastery.....

...The images reproduced in this volume are taken from prints pulled from the original woodblocks or first-generation electrotypes. The Library of America is proud to bring Ward’s masterworks to a new generation of readers, together with nine illuminating essays about his craft, including those he wrote for the long out-of-print Storyteller Without Words, a 1974 retrospective. Art Spiegelman contributes an introductory essay, “Reading Pictures,” that defines Ward’s towering achievement in that most demanding of graphic-story forms, the wordless novel in woodcuts.

So if you're into graphic novels, the history of the United States between the wars, or simply a collector of exceptional books, this one's for you.  A two volume set at 1408 pages with a paper over board slipcover that's as gorgeous as what's lurking inside this behemoth of a project, don't miss out on buying it as quickly as possible on its release date: October 14, 2010.

Available at local bookstores and Amazon.com