Cherylynn Tsushima

theatlantic:

What Grown-Ups Can Learn From Kids’ Books

My copy of Le Petit Prince looks like it has been through a natural disaster. Or two. The dust jacket is torn at every edge. What’s not torn is frayed. A piece of scotch tape holds together the éand r of Exupéry. The white background can’t really be called white anymore. And inside, little pencil markings lurk throughout the text (I would memorize passages when I was young), alongside evidence of attempted erasure—but you know how those old-school Number Two pencils are; all the erasers seem to do is leave things a little grayer than before. The book, in other words, has been well loved.

That’s not surprising. Most favorite children’s books are. But there’s one thing about mine that’s different: With the exception of those pesky eraser marks, the damage wasn’t sustained in childhood. Those are adult wounds.

The Little Prince is not alone to suffer that horrible fate: the designation of “children’s book” where it’s anything but, where it is actually far more worthy of an adult designation than many a so-called “adult” work. Leaving such books to childhood is a mistake of the worst kind. Fail to re-read them from a more mature standpoint and you’re almost guaranteed to miss what they’re all about.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

TRUTH.

nevver:

What Katie Does

Truth.

timelightbox:

Alright photographers, there’s a new photography book in town. One with a roster of some very talented photographers, might I add. Instead of showcasing their work, Photographs Not Taken is a collection of photographers’ essays about failed attempts to make a picture. 

Editor Will Steacy asked each photographer to abandon the conventional tools needed to make a photograph––camera, lens, film––and instead make a photograph using words, to capture the image (and its attendant memories) that never made it through the lens. In each essay, the photograph has been stripped down to its barest and most primitive form: the idea behind it. This collection provides a unique and original interpretation of the experience of photographing, and allows the reader access to a world rarely seen: the image-making process itself.

“I longed for this moment to stay preserved, as if it would become more real if I could hold it captive on film. Or that my story would be more intriguing if I could prove what it looked like. The photograph not taken, a portrait of what we had become, the fear that my family had failed me, the confrontation of unconditional love, a portrait of uncertainty. Instead, I sat with my hands tucked against the worn-out wood of the picnic tables, watching and listening to the sounds of what we were able to be for a moment.”

— Amy Elkins

You can order the book here.

This goes hand in hand with my previous post. Also, add this to the growing list of things I don’t need but really want.

Oh Brattle Book Shop, why are you so perfect?

(via kateoplis)

nevver:

die Bibliothek

graydongordian:

housingworksbookstore:

I’ve been here too!

For those browsers not as impressed by architecture as they are by the beauty of books upon books upon books in narrow hallways — not to mention a place to nap. Shakespeare & Company, Paris, France [photo via] (via Flavorwire » The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World)

I love this bookstore.

Used bookstores are some of the happiest places to be. For every city I’ve lived in, I’ve had a favorite bookstore and New York (specifically Manhattan and Brooklyn) is no exception.