Last Minute Book Presents

Hello everybody,

for those of you who are really last-minute-Christmas-presents-shoppers walking into the next bookshop may be a pleasant solution for getting gifts today. Personally I believe that books always serve as great gifts, at least if you have an idea which ones of the thousands of books you should buy. Therefore I asked my good friend Romana, who is responsible for the book selection at phil (a very cool café/bookshop/DVD shop/music store - actually I think you can even buy the vintage furniture) if she could give me some tips. Here come her books of choice:

Romi's favourite book is the "Atlas of Remote Islands" ("Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln") by Judith Schalansky. She says about it:  "Whenever you wanna dream yourself or your loved ones away from this strange planet, you can open up the "Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln" by Judith Schalansky. You can practically smell the ocean and hear the seagulls and the tides. A wonderful book, which turns us into Robinson Cruse for a moment."

"The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden" ("Die Analphabetin die rechnen konnte") is the new book by author Jonas Jonasson who also wrote the bestselling novel "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared". It's the story about Nombeko Mayeki, a girl born in an South African township. Destiny and her unique talents lead her to Sweden where suddenly the fate of the whole world lies in her hands. 

In "Woolgathering" the great Patti Smith dips into the past. The book includes texts about her childhood, poems and thoughts about life, time and contemporaries plus numerous photos.

"Die Kunst ein kreatives Leben zu führen" is the new book by psychologist and philosopher Frank Berzbach. The book deals with the work and life realities of people working in the creative sector and the (often) missing balance between these two. It's an "invitation to a cup of tea and a silent dialogue"... 

Pimp up your paperback

Hi folks,

when I went to Portugal last summer I found this wonderful present edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned" with gilt edge pages, a nice book cover and a bookmark. Since then I've been thinking about how I could imitate this at home. Actually I found a quite easy solution, which I want to share with you today. :)

What you'll need: 

• paperback 
• gold watercolour
• bristle brush
• gift/creative paper (make sure the paper is not too thin)
• pencil
• cutter
• glue (for the bookmark)

How it works:  

Use your bristle brush with your gold watercolour and start colouring the book pages. It's important to press the pages together very hard, otherwise the watercolour may also leak into the book. Colour along the pages and make sure you don't use too much water with your colour in order to prevent the pages from sticking together. 

When all the pages have dried, draw the outlines of your book onto the back side of your paper. You'll need 3 to 5 cm (depending on the size of the book) on every long side to fold into the book, so don't forget to include those in your drawing as well. Then cut out your new book cover. :)
Fold in your extra cm on every side and wrap it around your book.

To finish your book project create a nice label with the book title and put it on your book.
If you want you can also make a fitting bookmark. For this I simply used a price tag and glued some more of the gift paper around it.

Done! :)