by beatriceotto | Mar 1, 2019 | places & spaces, readers & reading
Antonio La Cava, a retired school teacher, converted a quintessential Italian vehicle, the three-wheeler micro-van, into a travelling library.For 20 years he’s been visiting remote villages and hamlets in his home province of Basilicata to bring books –...
by beatriceotto | Feb 15, 2019 | judging by the cover, just my type
The finest book cover illustration I’ve seen for this slim, timeless, moving book, wrapping around the back cover and even into the back flyleaf. Oddly, there is no mention of who designed the jacket. The colours and lines are marvelous.And that font!...
by beatriceotto | Nov 30, 2018 | places & spaces, print & publish
This vast languishing resource was first brought home to me in Erik Reinert’s How Rich Countries Got Rich … and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, which highlighted a lemming-level of group-think compounded by ignorance of an entire ‘other canon’ of...
by beatriceotto | Sep 21, 2018 | judging by the cover
These charming children’s illustrations of Daudet turned up at a flea-market, and I have several versions including this selection of his Lettres de Mon Moulin, and one featuring a specific story with it, ‘La chèvre de M. Seguin’....
by beatriceotto | Sep 21, 2018 | judging by the cover
There is a dark-forested haunting element to the illustrations in this French rendition of Russian stories. They are part of a series I’ve been collecting at the flea market, using a range of fresh and unusual illustration styles: see also the Tales from...
by beatriceotto | Sep 7, 2018 | judging by the cover
These enchanting, sunlit illustrations of a French children’s rendition of Greek Myths delighted me. They are part of a series I’ve been collecting at the flea market, using a range of fresh and unusual illustration styles. See also the Russian Tales and...
by beatriceotto | Aug 17, 2018 | readers & reading
The Rat is a street-savvy kid in a barely known children’s book by the author of the infinitely famous The Secret Garden. I enjoyed the book and The Rat is one of the most endearing characters. He teams up with the noble-born lost prince to go and reclaim a...
by beatriceotto | Jul 27, 2018 | judging by the cover, print & publish
This book cover and related illustrations are from a wonderful old French series of tales and stories from around the world. I keep finding them at the flea market and second-hand bookshops. Each country or region represented has a stunning set of illustrations and...
by beatriceotto | Jul 20, 2018 | readers & reading
A striking idea, that in being true, a book will feel intimate and familiar to all men. ‘True’ surely means authentic rather than fact-based. Some books feel intimate and familiar to some people, not all, and there is value in that too. It is probably...
