REGENCY ARTS PRESS BOOK SWAP

I went to the fun Art Book Swap organized by Regency Arts Press last week and held at the Museum of Modern Art. This is the third book swap that the organization, directed by Lauren Wittels, has produced. Here's how it worked: you bring any art books that you don't want or need anymore, hardcover or paperback (but no magazines or how-to books), present them at the check-in table where you get a receipt indicating the number of books you have donated, and then browse the tables full of books donated by other swappers and by publishers and dealers . There were more books filling the tables all day long as swappers arrived and donated. At the end of the day all remaining books are donated to prison libraries through local organizations: in New York the Prisoners' Reading Encouragement Project, and in Los Angeles the Bunche Center Prison Outreach Program. I walked out with some amazing books!

COOL ZINES

As a young hipster and budding historian growing up in New York I acquired and saved a lot of magazines, newspapers and zines. As a result I now have a pretty extensive of publications like New York Rocker, SoHo News, The Face, i-D, Non-LP B Side, Short News, Mouth of the Rat, ZG and other titles that may be familiar to cool folks who hung out in the East Village and Soho circa 1979-1983. Back then the entire hip community seemed to consist of less than 1000 people--much less. While organizing my collection I discovered I had doubles of a few things and have put them up on eBay. Check out my listings for a rare copy of punk zine Mouth of the Rat and three early issues of The Face.

LIBRARY THING

I ran into my friend Laren Stover, the author of the Bombshell Manual of Style, the other night at Sally Randall's fabulous and fun holiday party. I asked her if she was on facebook and she responded "no but I'm on LibraryThing!" She and a number of other friends of mine who embody style as well as substance. So I finally decided to join LibraryThing also. It's yet another internet timewaster but at least a highbrow one that also has some practical benefits. You enter the titles of the books in your collection into LibraryThing and it creates a catalogue of your personal library. A few of my favorite rarities from my collection are shown below and you can see the beginnings of my catalogue on the site (these books are in my permanent collection so none of them are for sale). Plus LibraryThing has social networking features: you can see the profiles and catalogues of people who have the same book that you do, etc. Check out Laren's profile.

              I Am A Cliche, 1979:                     

Les Lalanne, 1975:

Improbable Memories by Sarah Moon, 1981:

Oscar Niemeyer: Works in Progress, 1956:

Bjorn Weckstrom, 1980

The World of Carmel Snow, 1962:

Your Home and You, 1963

Bookshelves

My new bookshelves:

Organizing My Library

I'm in the middle of an enormous project organizing and editing my library. I just installed a whole wall of shelves and as a result hundreds of books and magazines are going from piles on the floor onto the shelves. I'm sorting through the magazines and finding lots to let go of (I'm filling several bags to donate to the library at FIT) and rediscovering lots of treasures (design and decorating magazines from the 1930s-1970s). I'll be posting scans of some of the cool stuff. From a pile of 1980s Lei magazines that I'm letting go of is the one below, December 1983, starring my good friend and web designer Alison Cohn, photographed by Paolo Roversi. Alison's website is http://www.semidivine.com/