Stuff I've Been Reading
Issue #258
It’s been a while since I’ve written about the books I’ve been reading, so today, that’s what I’ll be doing.
I’ll be dividing this up into three groups:
Photography Books
Non-Photography Books
Kindle Books
If you click on a book's picture, you'll be taken to that book on bookshop.org, except for a few that seem to be available only on Amazon.
*Note that this is a long post, and some email services may truncate it. If you don’t see the last book, The Metamorphosis, look for the link labeled “View entire message” to read this newsletter online.
Other than the above groups, the books are listed in no particular order.
Photography Books
Josef Sudek: The Legacy of a Deeper Vision
Czech photographer Josef Sudek’s career spanned over 50 years. If you’d like to get a book that showcases his work throughout his entire career, this book might be for you. The book is large, with a bit of biographical information and commentary at the beginning, but most of the book is of his photographs. Black and white pictures, as mentioned, were taken throughout his career. Everything from still lifes to portraits to street images. Like most large books with a lot of pictures, some are intriguing while others are colloquial.
Graciela Iturbide on Dreams, Symbols, and Imagination
I’ve written about Graciela Iturbide’s work in the past, and I really like Aperture’s Photography Workshop Series of books, so I picked up this book. In it, Iturbide gives a lot of insight into how she makes a shot—how she communicates dreams, symbols, and imagination onto a two-dimensional photograph.
Michael Kenna: Forms of Japan
I know I’ve written about Michael Kenna’s work before, but I can’t remember if I mentioned this book. This is a very large book with a fine representation of Kenna’s work. All are in black and white, many are high-contrast, and some have a lot of negative space. I think what I appreciate most about Kenna’s work is that his compositions are flawless. I’m not sure another photographer could frame a scene better than Kenna.
Matthew Christopher: Abandoned America – The Age of Consequences
If you like Urbex photography—that is, photographs of things left abandoned—I think you’ll love this book. It’s a deceptively large book with beautiful color photographs of ugly things. Abandoned buildings, factories, theaters, hospitals, and more.
Danny Lyon: The Bikeriders
Okay, I’m going to ruffle a few feathers—I was a bit disappointed in this book. I’ve written about it a few times, but never owned my own copy. My knowledge of it came from seeing the pictures, reading reviews, and watching videos about it. Because of that, I suppose I had a bit of a romantic view of it before actually seeing it. Half of the book consists of pictures. The best of which, you’ve probably already seen online—the rest are relatively mundane. The other half of the book consists of written vignettes of some of the members of the bike gang Danny Lyon was a part of, the Chicago Outlaws. The vignettes were transcribed from audio-taped interviews. Some were boring, others were hard to follow. I suppose if you ride motorcycles and belong to a motorcycle club, you find this to be more interesting than I did.
Mitch Epstein: American Nature
I own one other Mitch Epstein book, American Power, and like it quite a bit, so I decided to get American Nature. American Nature is a 170+ page photobook that seeks to convey, through photographs, the pressure on nature from industry, government, and global climate change. I don’t care for this book as much as American Power. Many of the photographs are of dead trees and old-growth trees—after a while, that gets a bit boring. Also, some of the pictures from American Power are in this book. Don’t get me wrong, the book is good, but American Power is better.
Rinko Kawauchi: Utatane
When I first paged through this book, I was a bit disappointed, but upon subsequent viewings, I began to appreciate it and even came to love many of the photographs. Rindo Kawauchi often photographs everyday life, often in a somewhat abstract way. Always in color and often with a soft palette. To me, her work is intriguing and calming at the same time.
Antony Penrose: Surrealist Lee Miller
My son Joe noticed that I had written about Lee Miller in previous newsletters and thought that I’d like this book, and bought it for me. Lee Miller was a fascinating woman. She was a fashion model in New York and later Paris, where she met the photographer Man Ray. She became Man Ray’s assistant and lover, and somewhere along the way, became a photojournalist. A war photojournalist, to be exact. From Wikipedia: During World War II, she was a war photographer and correspondent for Vogue magazine, covering events such as the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. This book is by Lee Miller’s son, Antony Penrose. It’s physically small but has many pictures of her and many taken by her, as well as some text in the first part of the book about her life.
Non-Photography Books
Harlan Coben: Tell No One
Confession: I want to write thrillers. I outlined one once, and when I showed it to my wife, she said it sounded like a Tess Gerritsen thriller, so I canned it. I’m now reading as many thrillers as possible, so if I do write one, it will be original. With that said, this book was ok. It was a relatively fast-moving novel and an easy read. My main complaint was that it had a twist you could see from a mile away.
Robert Greene: The 48 Laws of Power
My son Anthony bought me this book. I’ve been reading it for two weeks, and I’m not yet halfway through it. It is fairly intereting but it’s not the easiest read. There are many notes in the margins that slow my reading, and some of the historical stories Greene shares are a bit, shall I say, dry. With that said, if you’d like to understand power, how to wield it, and how to defend yourself from it, this book might be for you.
The Book of Useless Information
My wife knows that I enjoy books like this, stumbled across it somewhere, and bought it for me. As the title states, this is a book of useless information. Currently, it’s not something I’m reading cover to cover. It's on our coffee table, and every now and then I pick it up and read a few pages. If you like stuff like this, you’ll like this book.
Kindle Books
365 Days of Tao
I am interested in Eastern Philosophies but that isn’t the reason why I bought it. I’ve noticed that “Daily” books are very popular: The Daily Stoic, The Maxwell Daily Reader, and A Calendar of Wisdom, to name a few. These books usually have 365 things, like 365 Taoism quotes or 365 Stoic quotes. I’m thinking of writing a photography book—perhaps titled The Daily Photographer, where I’ll write 365 lessons on photography. Oh, by the way, this book is good. I like it.
Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I’m a fan of the literary genre of nonfiction called New Journalism. Some of my favorite New Journalism authors are Joan Didion, Thomas Wolfe, Gay Talese, and a few others, but I’m a bit more critical of Gonzo Journalism, as exemplified by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. For lack of a better way to put it, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is ridiculous. If you’d like to read a book with unlikeable characters and over-the-top drug use, then this book is for you.
Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: A Way of Being
I liked this book. Rubin gives a lot of insight into the creative process—how to get into a creative mindset, what to do while you’re in it, and how to maintain it. There is a bit of woo in it, such as the idea of manifesting thoughts. If you’re not into that, don’t worry because there’s not a lot of it, and what is there doesn’t detract from the book.
Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis
I could have sworn that I read this when I was younger, but apparently, I didn’t. My son Nick was explaining it to me, and it didn’t sound familiar, so one evening, looking for a quick read, I downloaded it to my Kindle. I’ve read that this novella explores alienation, isolation, the absurdity of life, and existential dread. I agree with all of that. I suppose it can be off-putting for some or, for others, ridiculous. I found it to be fascinating.
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