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CounterPunch
December
23, 2002
New Books Christmas
2002
Livres Deluxe
by GAVIN KEENEY
The tidal wave of big books passing as coffee
tables has come for the Holiday Season 2002. This year's big
sensation includes: Grace Coddington: Thirty Years of Fashion
at Vogue (with slipcase), the perhaps bi-annual Visionaire #38:
Love (a self-consciously stylish compendium of everything hip,
chic, and -- um -- stylish), and Palaces of the Sun King
The mammoth tome on the graphic works
of Albrecht Durer, associated with the current exhibition at
the British Museum, will -- alas -- not be available till February/March
2003.
Then there is the big photo-documentary
New York, New York with its six-feet-long gatefold image of the
New York City skyline. If that does not please, one can opt for
Dressing the Man: Mastering The Art of Permanent Fashion, or
perhaps a crisp monograph -- David Adler Architect -- on David
Adler Architect.
The publishing sensation of the year
-- Dream of Palestine -- written by a fifteen-year-old Italian
girl (of Palestinian descent) will not be available in the U.S.
(in English, French or Italian), but you can buy Oriana Fallaci's
anti-Muslim screed The Rage and the Pride (in five languages).
The former is in the process of being suppressed overseas and
will probably never see the light of print in the U.S., while
the latter has climbed the bestseller list despite being universally
condemned as a post-9/11 apoplectic tirade in 'defense' of the
supremacy of Western values. Odd, indeed, since both of these
titles come from the same publisher.
Moving down the publishing foodchain
one can buy innumerable cloth-bond works of non-fiction and self-congratulatory
biography. This includes Al and Tipper Gore's latest literary
outing Joined at the Heart. Or perhaps the new David Rockefeller
Memoirs might please the man about town on your Christmas list.
Pop-up books are very popular this time
of year. The Pop-Up Book of Phobias (1999) still charms. Plus,
there is now a Pop-Up Book of Nightmares (2001). There is even
an Antonio Gaudi pop-up book this season -- or, should you prefer,
Frank Lloyd Wright in Pop-Up. Pop-up architecture titles seem
to be on the rise.
There are all manner of little gift books
available for the inexpensive, novelty gift. The Worst Case Scenario
line has been extended to include a sex and dating edition --
not to mention 'holiday', 'travel', and 'golf' editions. There
is a rash of dog books too. Designer Pugs is charming. Perhaps
next year will see Pugs in Leather.
Enormously expensive editions of enormously
expensive jewelry are au courant this year. There is Jar Paris,
a monstrous tome on the work of the French jeweler. The Queens'
Jewels has made quite a splash in newspaper Christmas book lists.
Tom Brokaw's books continue to sell well
-- Anybody say 'synergy'? -- and there is a cookbook from one
of the characters of The Sopranos.
Wine books are an excellent choice, for
example Michael Broadbent's Vintage Wines is an excellent supplement
to a case of a nice French red. There's also a book on caviar,
foie gras, and truffles (Caviar, Truffles, and Foie Gras: Recipes
for Divine Indulgence)! Or perhaps that nice boxed edition Ferrari
1947-Whenever will warm the heart of your boyfriend, father,
brother, or employer.
Few people give novels this time of year
even though -- like Hollywood -- there is a rash of new stuff
aimed at the holiday down-time. These are almost always semi-expensive
cloth editions and you have to wait till at least one year for
the paperback.
There's also a mini-spate of auto-erotica:
'boy books' as they are called. Bruce Weber's annual photo-narrative
All-American: Short Stories has just arrived and features "eroticized
images of Hudson River beaches". "Girrrrrl books' are
harder to come by.
And let's not forget the Bushisms series.
These collections of Thus Spake the So-Called President continue
to please partisans of all stripes. The quotations are eminently
'quotable' and one has to wonder if the So-Called President is
receiving royalties.
Lastly, let's not overlook the interiors,
decorative arts, and above-mentioned architectural monographs
aimed straight at the heart of nouveau-riche America. O new Gilded
Age! There are so many books on this subject that it is all but
impossible to sort out the style of the moment though cool minimalism
seems to reign supreme in the upperly-mobile, chic world of the
urban cognoscenti.
At Bergdorf Goodman the elegant publications
of Assouline were on display this past week, with wine, as the
holiday season accounts for perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 of all de luxe,
annual book sales. This event took place on the seventh floor
amid a gorgeous array of 'housewares'.
Big, swank volumes are the gift of choice
for corporate giving and orders of 100 titles are not unusual.
"Could you wrap those, include a card, and we'll send over
a messenger." "We'll fax over a list of the recipients
for the gift cards." The $7-an-hour seasonal workers at
these luxury book emporia are only to eager to oblige, half hoping
many of the books will be returned after December 25 and their
temporary jobs may be extended a week or two in order to process
the deluge.
Gavin Keeney
is a landscape architect in New York and writes on the subject
of landscape + architecture + other things, a cultural amalgam
always-already forthcoming. He is author of On
the Nature of Things (Birkhauser, 2000). He can be reached
at: ateliermp@netscape.net
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