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That’s my haul from the Library Book Sale two weekends ago. More cool stuff than last year, even though I went down after lunch that day.

It’s a good mix of technique, artist centric and theory (not to mention a few plain eye candy books). Sculpture, Form & Philosophy is a book I’ve borrowed from the library before and wished that I had a copy of my own. Ian Norbury’s wood scultures are insanely good. Each one not only has an interesting pose and texture, they each have a story to tell. His technical skill with wood makes his sculptures really look alive. Nick Bantock’s book Artful Dodger is great in how he relates his artistic journey, from early days in art college, painting book covers for a living and finally writing and illustrating his own books (and pop-up books as well!). The Digital Domain book is also something I’ve been meaning to get. I have William’s sharp eyes and generous spirit to thank for that one. Patience & Fortitude was an apt find, considering it deals with libraries and the obsession of book collecting.

For the comics, The World’s Greatest Super-Heroes is one of my favourites. It’s the book that Alex Ross and Paul Dini did after the success of Kingdom Come. I grabbed the book off a heavily loaded cart on a hunch, didn’t even really take a good look at the cover. It was like last year when I saw a portion of a cartoon face obscured amongst other books, dug it up and realised I was holding on to a Princess Mononoke artbook. Gorgeous fully painted art from cover to cover, the stories are pretty interesting too (getting Superman to solve world hunger isn’t as easy as it sounds). The Dark Knight Returns was a great find.

Honestly, both times I’ve been to the sale it’s exceeded my expectations by giving me both what I wanted as well as cool stuff I didn’t know I needed! Add to that the price of $54 for the lot, and you’ve got an annual event that can’t be missed. Looking forward to the next one (and also planning more shelving..)

I’ve always been a fan of illustrated story books, and my copy of the first Dinotopia book finally arrived today, 7 days after I put in my order at S. Howlett-West Books. It’s an online bookstore specialising in Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Childrens’ Books, especially illustrated ones. I intended to take pictures of the package it came in and have a grand unwrapping of sorts, but when it came I just tore through the packaging in an instant. The box has been recycled by my young brothers into a storage chest with a hidden compartment.

I paid USD$15 for the book itself and another USD$16 for shipping, putting this practically pristine second hand book at SGD$41. It was really a bargain considering the book retails at USD$34.95 without shipping from the official Dinotopia website, on top of that there’s no way to pay by credit card there and they do not ship internationally.

I’ve been meaning to get this book for ages, and so I finally decided to order it after some scouting around the net. It’s in excellent condition, I could have mistaken it for a new copy if I didn’t know it was used. The content of the book itself is as good as I thought it would be. The painting in the two page spread is what got me interested in this series, at least 7 years ago. The book is filled with loose yet detailed depictions of humans living in peace with Dinosaurs on a lost island in the 1800s. I’ve been following the author James Gurney’s blog too. It offers great insight into all manner of traditional art techniques as well as art history.

Unfortunately my copy isn’t signed by James Gurney like a lot of the books out there are, but that’s ok since I’m sure I’ll be able to get it signed someday. What’s cool is that it’s a first edition. All I can say is, thanks again to Stephanie Howlett-West for the warm customer service and for finding this book in the first place.

The 20% discount for purchases in August sounds great, and I’ve got my eye on that $5 copy of Where the Wild Things Are..

Took the weekend to start acclimatising myself to Maya after being a 3dsmax user for such a long time. Heh, feels so different but I think I’m getting the hang of it slowly. Even so, things just aren’t where I expect them to be.. which is to be expected I guess.. gonna keep at it, will need every bit of expertise these next few months..

I was also researching architecture for my environment design, and I happened to revisit a website I had bookmarked under “Books” in my browser and promptly forgot thereafter.

BibliOdyssey is a blog about books, but oh what books they are. Recently the trend has been for various educational institutions and museums to digitise and upload some of their collections, and in high res no less. These sites are largely out of the general consciousness, being targeted at academics, scholars and the like. BibliOdyssey unearths the wonders that can be found there and spreads them to the masses.

Japanese woodcuts, 16th Century German treatises on Architecture, beautiful colour plates from a book on the splendour of Old Mexico, these are just some of the finds that are showcased regularly on BibliOdyssey. Some of my childhood favourites like illuminated manuscripts, old maps and automata are among the mix. A charmingly eclectic collection that would appeal to artists, writers, anyone who has a fascination for the treasures of the human mind stored on the printed page.

Bonus points to not being exposed to musty tomb like libraries, or having manuscripts crumble to dust in your hands, not to mention fighting your way through hordes of undead nasties to get to such treasure.