1. I don’t know a lot about painters, but I do know I love Gerhard Richter‘s work and that every time I came across one of his paintings in a museum, it made a big impression on me.  ‘November ‘contains 54 works in ink and for what I’ve seen, they are absolutely stunning.  (source)
2. Designer Thomas Billas is the man behind ‘How to make it without ikea’, a zine that shows us how to transform everyday objects into useful tools.  Volume three comes out soon, volume I and II can be found on line here and here. (source)
3. As far as my german skills tell me, ‘wenn ich mal gross bin, werde ich designer’ is a student project and a pretty cool one at that.  This masterpiece contains beautiful illustrations, both hand drawn and on computer, and even some pop-up mechanisms.  Take a look here.
4. ‘Quite good houses‘ shows us ordinary European houses, which might surprise us upon taking a closer look at them, but honestly, the title alone already does it for me.
5. Like every self respecting person of my generation, I have a collection of tote bags.  However, the author of this book, which is conveniently named ‘Tote Bag‘, has gathered a much bigger collection that is well worth taking a look at if you love design and illustration.  (By the way, author Jitesh Patel also has a blog dedicated to the subject.)
6. ‘A history of graphic design for rainy days’ gives you what its title promises, all explained with beautiful illustrations and even some exercises to keep you focused.
7. ‘Don’t eat the yellow snow‘ gives us advice in the form of 250 of the best pop songs from the last 50 years, in all possible genres.
8. The flamingos on the cover are what got me interested in ‘Mémoire universelle‘, and the fact that it’s available at Hunting & Collecting (one of Brussels’ finest shops) was very promising as well. Stylist and curator Benoît Bethume started a series of nine ‘bookazines’ of which this one is the first, devoted to love.  It’s available with four different covers and shows us a collection of articles and shoots, presented as an encyclopedia of personal memories.

For more pretty books, take a look at my pinterest board or my previous posts.

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1. Understand rap: explanations of confusing rap lyrics you and your grandma can understand – no further explanation needed, right?
2. Funny Food: 365 Healthy, Silly, Creative Breakfasts gives you exactly what it promises!  Now all I need is to convince someone to prepare me one of those breakfasts every morning… (source)
3. Every story needs a book, and that’s exactly what My Book by Dennis Guidone offers: a cover sheet, chapters, a table of contents and a blank body for you to fill.  (source)
4. Ryan McGinley, one of my absolute heroes, selected his favorite photographs from his first decade of work and collected them in the book You and I.  My birthday’s in two months, just saying! (source)
5. Urban knits by Simone Werle stuns you with images of the latest street art hype.
6. Belgium’s best buildings shows a selection of 75 buildings completed after 1900, ranging from the Royal greenhouses of Laeken to the MAS museum in Antwerp.
7. Bike Snob: systematically and mercilessly realigning the world of cycling should be a must-read for anyone who rides their bike on a daily basis.  I’m curious!
8. Store front – the disappearing face of New York by James and Karla Murray captures New York City’s timeworn storefronts.  (source)
9. Carpe Diem journal is a wonderfully illustrated diary for both your mini and major goals.
10. Jonathan Safran Foer collaborated with graphic designer Sara De Bondt on his book ‘Tree of codes‘.  It’s a cropped version of the Polish story Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz – and you can take ‘cropped’ quite literally: Foer literally cut out words of the story and left the blank spaces as empty holes in the page.  If you click here, you can find videos of the making off and people’s reactions when they first open the book.

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1.  I already own Muriel en Diane’s book about Belgian architects and their interior (which appeared in a previous ‘pretty things’ post about books), and I love love love that book.  So after seeing their newest book about Belgian designers and their interior, this is next on my wish list.

2.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt (I’m sure all of you know him from the movie ‘500 days of summer’) published a book under the motto: “The universe is not made of atoms; it’s made of tiny stories.”  Therefor he asked Americans to send in illustrations and super short stories, of which 60 made it into ‘The tiny book of tiny stories, volume 1’, which is nothing more than a collection of inspiring mini stories, and that’s probably all it needs to be.  I haven’t read it, but I expect this to be a great gift for a loved one, and I wouldn’t mind getting one myself!

3.  If I were a man, this would be my bible.  ‘The moustache grower’s guide’ helps every man to achieve his dream mustache, and since my love for mustaches is endless, my male friends can all expect this book as a birthday gift, until none of my friends is without a mustache.  Making the world a better place one mustache at a time!

4.  Stefaan Pauwels and Dominique Nzeyimana from knotoryus released a book (available at colette or as an ibook version), filled with inspirational photos, drawings and words.  Looks like a book I need on my coffee table.  (source)

5.  ‘Living in brussels’ is a collection of 20 interiors in our Belgian capital.  As far as I can tell from the sneak peeks at I love Belgium, this is another book I’d love to get my hands on.

6.  Photography is unfortunately a very expensive hobby, but luckily you don’t need an expensive camera to make beautiful photos.  ‘Pin hole cameras, a do-it-yourself guide’ shows how you can make pinhole cameras from objects which you can find in every household.

7.  ‘The guerrilla art kit’ by Keri Smith (which I’m sure you all know from ‘wreck this journal’) gives you all the inspiration you need to start an arty revolution.  Let’s get crafty!

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