Book Goodies

As many of you know, I adore books -- books of all sorts, from fiction to poetry to psychology to biography -- and I especially, especially LOVE art books, craft books, and how-to books of all sorts. I'm not the best at following step-by-step instructions, but I read these books with gusto and soak up ideas and information on techniques and materials for later use.

So in hopes of sharing that love, I thought I would, from time to time, recommend a few of my favorites, and I have signed up with the Amazon.com Associates Program. Since I have barely begun to learn HTML (anyone have a book to recommend to me?), the links will be very basic at first. I will include a few in posts, and my very favorites down in the sidebar for permanent display.

To start:

The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is a delightful and unexpected selection of some very non-child-oriented art from Theodor Seuss Geisel.




Artists' Journals & Sketchbooks, by Lynne Perrella, is a glorious mix of colors and ideas for making very personal art from a wide variety of materials. A gift from my mom this week after we visited the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia.



And one of the classics, The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron, is an incredible source of ideas on how to live a rich and meaningful life. This book is appropriate for anyone, whether they consider themselves to be artists or not. I have found it to be a tremendous help in focusing, trusting my own instincts and creating my own inspiration. No matter who you are, it can be used over and over and over again. It was given to me as a gift almost 10 years ago by a roommate who probably had no idea how much it would mean to me in the years to come. And all this praise comes from someone who has never even completed all of the steps!