Seasonal Promotion

I'm afraid I don't have a capital-intensive hobby that can generate lots of holiday-season Amazon buying suggestions. But I do buy a lot of books with pictures, which cost a lot (and take up a lot of space). So here are a few suggestions, concentrating on works where the text is as valuable as the photos.

Woman in the Mirror: 1945-2004, is the definitive collection of Richard Avedon's photographs with an extensive essay by the brilliant Anne Hollander.

I read Richard Neutra: And The Search for Modern Architecture by Thomas S. Hines while researching my Atlantic column on Julius Shulman's photography. The book has great photos, mostly by Shulman, but it also tells the story of a fascinating life and career.

Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies by James Sanders demonstrates how our mental images of New York have been created by the movies, beginning with writers who went west to Hollywood to escape the Depression and invented an on-screen New York that was far more glamorous than the city they left. It's a great book for anyone who loves New York or the movies or who (like me) is interested in image-making in popular culture.

Professor Postrel waited two decades for me to finally read Watchmen, the brilliant graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I finally did, as research for my Atlantic column on superhero glamour, and it lived up to the hype. It appeals most to people who've read superhero comics and can fully appreciate how it upends genre conventions, but anyone who is interested in literary genres, the temptations of power, dramatic irony, or a host of other English-major topics ought to read it. For truly impressive gift giving, the oversized the "Absolute Edition" of Watchmen is ideal. But I enjoyed the plain old paperback.

Also on the superhero-glamour beat, Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross is a fun, visually impressive tour of Alex Ross's "realistic" painting of iconic superheroes. I enjoyed reading how in fact Ross uses "impossible lighting" and other unrealistic techniques for dramatic effect. The reproductions of his childhood drawings are charming, as is his relationship with his parents.

It has nothing to do with any of the above, and isn't even a book, but I have to put in a plug for the DVDs to Battlestar Galactica: season one, season 2.0 (episodes 1-10), season 2.5 (episodes 10-20)

For those who prefer their DVDs glamorous, Garbo - The Signature Collection, including Anna Christie, Mata Hari, Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, Anna Karenina, Camille, Ninotchka, and the silent films Flesh and the Devil, Anna Christie, The Temptress, The Mysterious Lady, and Nothing Ever Happens. The acting is extremely stilted by today's standards, but compelling in its own way.

Finally, the best book I've read recently is Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, by Oliver Sacks, which elegantly combines memoir and history of science with a portrait of a vanished way of life.

Posted by Virginia Postrel on December 19, 2006