Happy monday everyone. Well, the weather here in london has been glorious and rumour has it we’re actually having a summer!
Today i’d like to introduce a new monthly category here on the colourliving blog, entitled my library. My regular readers would know of my love for books and my dreams of a dedicated library. You know the ones with a ladder and a chaise longue! Wouldn’t that be fab? Of course, my favourite has to be karl lagerfeld’s home library in paris.
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss
With technology developing at such a fast pace, some people believe that the printed book is dead. Far from it. The more optimistic would argue that there’s room for both printed and online books and magazines. I would have to agree here. They can compliment each other in wonderful ways.
Books feature heavily in my home so i thought it might be of interest for me to share some of them with you here. Since this is a visual blog, i will stick to mainly visual books. So, don’t expect no 50 shades of grey anytime soon!
Books are enriching, fascinating and inspiring and i’m always really taken with visual learning. The web definition is: “visual learning is a teaching and learning style in which ideas, concepts, data and other information are associated with images and techniques.” Research suggests we retain far more information through visual associations.
Often, there is magic to be found in children’s books. When in need for inspiration one can often find me in the tate modern bookshop children’s section. Today, let me introduce you to the brainwaves, a creation by illustrators lisa swerling and ralph lazar, a husband and wife team who established lastlemon productions in 1999, which originates, produces and licenses cartoon properties, including harold’s planet and vimrod.
I first stumbled upon them in 2006 and immediately bought a few copies in a bookshop in notting hill. I don’t know about you, but i can always use help with my insatiable appetite for knowledge. What better way to educate small and big with wonderful graphics and illustrations. See for yourselves!
Meet the brainwaves – ‘little people with big ideas’! This dorling kindersley children’s book series has been translated into more than 20 languages.
How nearly everything was invented and how the incredible human body works were the first ones i bought. They are hardback with sleeves and have these amazing fold-out pages. The illustrations are magnificent and i can spend hours looking at them and still find something new, every single time.
Here you’ll find everything from the steam engine, famous inventors to fascinating firsts and fabulous flops!
In how the incredible human body works, the fold-out pages focus on a key part and process of the body. You’ll learn everything from breathing, looking inside to everything about the blood and the digestive system.
There is one more hard back sleeved book missing in my collection. I’ve ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive. The Most Stupendous Atlas of the Whole Wide World. Doesn’t it look wonderful? I can’t wait to receive it and see all the fold-out pages.
The most explosive science book in the universe was first published in 2009, but this paperback version in 2012. It does not have any fold-outs but the illustrations are intense and explosive (excuse the pun). It makes learning about science a real pleasure. Just look at the cover!
In 2010 the brainwaves underwent a make-over. Both, the little brainwaves investigate…. animals and the little brainwaves investigate…. human body are hardback but in a smaller format. There are no sleeves, no fold-out pages, far less illustrations that get mixed with a whole heap of photoshop’d photography. It’s much simplified and i am left wondering whether this is to attract far younger readers or whether the first books were too expensive to produce. I’d love to know the answer.
Nevertheless, they are still charming and will supply hours of interesting reading with children. As for adults, they are far less intriguing but then i’m assuming that the brainwaves were invented for children, not to satisfy me!!
Do you get inspired by books? Do you own children’s books? What are your favourites, i’d love to know!