IDOLS CRAVING BALLERINAS

The thing about working in a bookshop is that no matter how tall that pile of new/charity shop unread books get you can still justify buying more with a 30% discount. Especially when, as happened this Saturday, a book appears on the 'art table' written (it would seem) especially for you. My love of fonts has taken me into many strange places, like playing Type Trumps (top trumps with typefaces, yes) on Christmas day debating whether a font should lose over another because it's main use was in Hitlers propaganda (we decided yes, obviously).

But this book, by Simon Garfield (who I've never heard of before) is absolute perfection for any typography geeks. It has a whole chapter on Ampersands for God sake! Heaven. In fact the chapter titles are pretty spectacular on their own: We don't serve your type, Capital Offence, The Hands of Unlettered Men, The Ampersand's Final Twist, Baskerville is Dead (Long Live Baskerville), What the Font? And a whole chapter on the worst fonts in the world (the Olympics 2012 font). Honestly, it's worth the full £14.99 more than any other book. In fact you can get it for £11.99 at Blackwell...ahem.

Also I bought the new Douglas Coupland, who you may or may not know as an author I've written about before on the blog. I have read every fiction book he's ever written. He is literally, one of the greatest living authors I know of. If you fancy a book with a decent graphic cover, interesting characters & constant acute observations about modern life on a psychological level go & buy a Coupland novel. Now. The bubble quote is from the book.

Lovely words.