an aspiring eccentric's reading list

Mansuetude got me to thinking about this whole eccentricity thing.  I've been pondering the idea a bit and I came up with a couple of clues regarding my aspirations.

A good one came last night as I finished reading Seth Godin's We Are All Weird, the very last sentence in the book kind of summed up my motivations, "... someone brave enough to choose precisely what it is they want." 

Then I decided to see what the on-line dictionary had to say.  I like both of these:

1.deviating from the recognized or customary character, practice, etc.; irregular; erratic; peculiar; odd: eccentric conduct; an eccentric person.

2.Geometry . not having the same center; not concentric: used especially of two circles or spheres at least one of which contains the centers of both.

So  maybe it's not so much being eccentric as just being my own person, being brave enough to follow my own vision, to not compromise my values or aesthetic voice.  Lately I've been getting a lot of encouragement from the printed page ... lots. This got me to thinking about my personal library.

 

Like most artists, I am a total visual junky and Pinterest is turning into a daily fix, but first and foremost, I am a book addict.  I cannot see me switching to one of those electronic thingies anytime soon ... just don't see the point in them.  Second, I take great pride in my library ... I've got some real treasures and, color me surprised, there's a bunch of juicy tomes that I thought would be fun to share with other aspiring eccentrics.  

Here are some of my favorites, an aspiring eccentric's reading list ...

There's the navel gazing section.   These are pretty good.

But the way to really judge how much I like a book is by the neon fringe of stickies.  Ignore Everybody has a slew, but the hardcover hides them.  I really love this book!

The one with the most stickies is The War of Art ... a really good book.  He's got a new one (Do the Work) that's pretty much the same thing, just hardcover and more the "pithy purls to ponder" format. 

There's the clothing and fashion section, alternative to contemporary ...

... I just found this one - it's chock full of clothing and design in general - I'm looking forward to a thorough perusal ... I love Japanese and German design!

then there's a big home/style section ...

... and anything by Sibella Court is sure to end up on my shelf.  These are such beautiful publications ... useless on a Kindle.

And the last category is jewelry inspiration.  It's always fun to see what the avant garde is up to and these are two good ones ...

But I'd much rather look to the past and these are full of good visual juice ...

I know I've shared some of these in the past, but it was fun to pull them out from a slightly different perspective.  Unfortunately, most are not going to show up on any local bookseller's shelf.  I've tried to show the names and authors in the images, but if anyone wants more details on one or another, let me know and I'll send you the full 411 .

Okay, off to do some more pondering and fix dinner.  Thanks again, Mansuetude for the nudge.

l i g a - kvk