DODOcase

At brunch one day at Hudson View Restaurant in Washington Heights, the guy next to me had a stunning iPad case that I initially mistook for a Moleskine notebook.  When I asked him about it, he responded, “DODOcase.  It’s rad!”  I agree – totally rad.  Each DODOcase is handmade in San Francisco, and the craftsmanship is impeccable.  Visit the DODOcase website for more information about how they’re made.  Though I don’t want an iPad, I do want one of these cases.

(Also, hello, Yesterday Was Not Dull is back!  Did you miss me?)

Mike Stilkey

Found via Coates and Scarry.  Mike Stilkey is a visual artist who paints on book pages, book covers, and stacks of books.  I find his paintings incredibly captivating, especially the frequent juxtaposition of melancholic figures against colorful book spines.  Do check out his website and Coates and Scarry’s interview with him about his work, particularly his recent installation at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery’s exhibition “Art from the New World.”  Here is “Enemy in the house” by Mike Stilkey:

CoverSpy

CoverSpy is a fascinating blog that makes me miss those beautiful short moments one shares with one’s fellow New Yorkers.  Here’s the creators’ description: “A team of publishing nerds hits the subways, streets, parks & bars to find out what New Yorkers are reading now.”

Logicomix

If you like graphic novels, math, philosophy, logic, or anything, really, you absolutely must read Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth.  The graphic novel, written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou and illustrated by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, is an amazing look at the life and work of Bertrand Russell.  As a computer science major who also dreams of being a graphic novelist, I am mesmerized both by the story itself and by the ways in which the storytellers present it visually.  Unlike most graphic novels I’ve read, Logicomix features illustrated scenes of discussions between the book’s creators, and the interweaving of their storyline with that of Russell and his fellow logicians is especially intriguing.  Logicomix is an excellent read – no wonder it made the New York Times Bestseller list!

F Yeah Moleskines

One of my new favorite Tumblogs is F Yeah Moleskines (expletive deleted), which posts a wide variety of Moleskine art found on the web.  I love seeing what other people are doing with their Moleskines, and this collection of diverse pieces is really quite inspiring.  (And I’m not just saying that because F Yeah Moleskines reblogged some of my drawings.)

Andrew McDonald

Andrew McDonald‘s blog post “A Pictorial Guide to Avoiding Camera Loss” made me laugh.  What a clever idea, and a perfectly executed one at that!  I like the way this guy thinks.  He recently published a children’s book called The Greatest Blogger In The World, which I think I need to buy because I imagine it is what my life would have been like if I had been born ten years later.

Moleskine Passions Series

Moleskine has a new collection of notebooks, The Passion Collection, designed to help you keep track of the things you love.  Maybe I blog too much – when I saw this collection, I thought, “Oh, so it’s like blog post categories!  But where’s the journal for Stop-Motion?”  One wonders why the Passions collection only includes Music, Wine, Wellness, Books, Film, and Recipes.  What about Art and Travel?  Technology?  Regardless, the Passion Collection notebooks are sharp, well-crafted, and sure to appeal to people who like to keep their thoughts organized.

Wisdom

Wisdom by Andrew Zuckerman is beautiful and inspiring.

Syncopated

Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays, edited by Brendan Burford, is an incredible collection of real and moving illustrated stories.   From the haunting silhouettes of Greg Cook’s “What We So Quietly Saw.” to the wordless sketches of Victor Marchand Kerlow’s “Subway Buskers,” Syncopated features a striking variety of topics and styles of depicting them.

The Principles of Uncertainty

Maira Kalman‘s The Principles of Uncertainty will change you.

A Confederacy of Dunces

Here is another book suggestion for those of you who are interested. John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces is a masterpiece, the hilarious saga of an absurd man named Ignatius J. Reilly and all the strange people whose lives intertwine with his.  Each sentence is pure genius.  It’s a shame it’s only 405 pages long.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

For those of you whose New Year’s Resolutions include “read more books,” I have a recommendation: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which sits rather high up on my list of favorite novels.  I am struggling to find the right words to describe it, so I will just say that Foer’s voice is sometimes poetic, sometimes blunt, oftentimes hilarious, and always powerful.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a must-read.

Web Services Cover Therapy

Found via Unplggd.  Stéphane Massa-Bidal made book covers for some of the most popular sites.  You can see larger images here and buy prints here.

Regency Dress-Up Dolls

My admiration for all things Jane Austen led me to stumble upon these Regency dress-up dolls by Savivi (Sarah Vaughn).  Make your own Darcy and Lizzy, or create a Regency version of yourself.  Quite fun and impeccably illustrated.

City of Glass: The Graphic Novel

You may have heard of The New York Trilogy, a set of novels by Paul Auster, one of my favorite New York authors.  Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli brought a whole new dimension to one book in the trilogy, City of Glass, when they adapted it into a graphic novel.  Every time I read it, I am amazed at how perfectly their graphics interweave with the text.  It is an absolute must-read.  I found the excerpt below, my favorite page in the book, in Stephen Frug’s blog post about the graphic novel.

M.S. Corley’s Harry Potter Covers

I like the old Penguin book aesthetic that M.S. Corley used for his proposed cover redesign of the Harry Potter series.  All seven covers are posted here.

Slow Wave

Cartoonist Jesse Reklaw makes a weekly comic called Slow Wave.  The strips are based on real dreams sent in by readers.  Reklaw has also collected some of these strips into a book, The Night of Your Life: A Slow Wave Production.

Slow Wave “Hipster Influence” from August 22nd, 2009:

Pride and Prejudice Comic Book

How did I not know about this until today?  Marvel has made a 5-part comic book version of one of my all-time favorite books, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  You can read about the series and see some excerpts here, and you can also click on one of the issue covers below to go to that issue’s page in the Marvel Store.

If you like the idea of a P&P comic book, you will also like this comic book version of P&P by Liz Wong.  Also check out Marvel’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.