taking things seriously

I happened to be clicking around the margins of Design Observer just now, which was lucky, because I came across this book, Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance, by Joshua Glenn & Carol Hayes. These are the sentences that sold me:

[...]though I call it The Robot. It was found on Tremont Street in Boston, discarded by the Lord's & Lady's Hair Salon one garbage night in August 2000. [...]

I've never seen a commotion on the subway like that caused by The Robot. Half the train insisted on meeting him. And yes, he's a "he."

I know that very salon! And I've had similar subway rides when I schlepped things on the subway while living in Boston.

I am on the hunt for good books at the moment, as I recently was given a $50 gift card to Amazon, which was quite unexpected and very nice. I have been compiling my order for two weeks, being careful to get just the right combination of books that I have been wanting for longer and shorter amounts of time, about concepts I have been thinking about and not (yet) thinking about. My order as it stands so far: Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art by Jacquelynn Baas & Mary Jane Jacob (Editors), Textiles Today: A Global Survey of Trends and Traditions by Chloe Colchester, and Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance, added as an impulse buy.

I wholeheartedly recommend reading Design Observer, especially when you want to read about concepts and trends relating to the design world around us. And if you are shopping for books like me, I recommend one by Michael Bierut, editor of Design Observer, called 79 Short Essays on Design.

After I receive my three books, I will let you know if I recommend these too. I must report that turning off the TV has been working out just the way I wanted it to. I even turn off the monitors on the treadmill at the gym. I figure that watching soundless stories about Britney's latest trip to the L.A. courthouse in her inappropriate white lace mini-dress would be cheating. Unfortunately, that subtitled image inserted itself into my brain before I could reach the Power button.