Barnes & Noble Book advice??

[Badluck Brody]

Ok so I just got a coupon for 25% OFF my next purchase. I also recieved a $25.00 gift card for Christmas....

I was thinking about picking up a DVD set. But I can always borrow it from the library... Anyone know of any "must have" books out there???

I did see a sharp hard-cover book on classic Pinups and Pulp covers....???

Any new must have CD's out there??

 

[sweetfrancaise]

Since I work there, let me know what you're looking for, and I can rummage around and see what I can find. Have you bought the book based on the Ken Burns' The War? Or looked at the absolutely fantastic poetry book Jazz A-B-Z by Wynton Marsalis? That's one I think should be a must-have in any jazz lover's library. Gorgeous poetry, all shapes and forms, and arranged like music.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Expensive but well worth it:

"All American Ads" 1930's or the one for the 1940's.

These books run about $40 but you will look at it again and again.

Here is one review from Amazon which describes the 1930's book:



Taschen's fourth volume of the All-American Ads series provides a big look back to the day before yesterday. Steven Heller provides a short overview of the decade and explains that despite the Depression magazines, in which most of these ads appeared, had very high circulations. For a few cents readers could escape the reality of everyday life and be entertained by the features and the colourful advertisements. Naturally there is no real mention of the Depression though some of the ads sport the little NRA symbol and the words `We do our part'

The format of this book is the same as the others, nine sections (Alcohol and tobacco, Automobiles, Consumer products, Entertainment, Fashion and beauty, Food and beverages, Industry, Interiors and finally Travel) provide whole, two or four ads to a page and fortunately none of them are angled or overlap. The digital reproduction of the 1500+ ads is excellent, it is always a problem to reproduce anything that is already printed because it can create screen clash but these are reproduced with clean colors and sharp lines (thanks to 175 dpi).

Most of these ads are copy and picture heavy, stylish use of white space and clever typography was years away, though three ads for Pierce Arrow autos on pages 176-177 stand out because they do seem very modern. Illustrations rather than photography were the main visual elements with headlines and copy used to fill any space that was left.

This as a super book if you are interested in social history or want to see how copywriters created product desire more than sixty years ago or you are just curious about things your grandparents reminisce about. Maybe they remember the 1932 ads for the Pitcairn autogiro, after all no home should be without one!

 

[Badluck Brody]

You guys....

...are nothing but trouble!

I love that sh-tuff!!

ON my way now!

 

[Brian Sheridan]

My problem is that my taste has gone so far from the mainstream, most stores do not carry the obscure, odd-ball books, DVDs, and CDs I want. No one wants to carry a German import box set of Artie Shaw, for instance, or the THIRD digital remastering of Benny Goodman's 1938 Carneige Hall Concert, released on a small, indepedent label.

People give me gift certificates I usually try using them on-line where the selection is broader.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Taschen is such a great publisher--I get their email newsletter and it just makes me want to buy everything they produce (which is probably the point). Abbeville Press is another publisher I love--whenever I'm stuck on what to spend a gift certificate on a visit to those two sites usually gives me lots of ideas.