What a day. We spent the day at Kennywood Park here in Pittsburgh, a beautiful park with lots of fun rides. The rides and coasters take advantage of the hilly terrain, and there are gardens, old buildings, and the most beautiful carousel in the world there, giving lots of great photo-ops. So naturally, this week’s book diary was inspired, and it’s all about coffee table books.
What’s on your coffee table? More below.
I’d love to have a coffee table book on Kennywood, but I don’t. So I’ll share a few pictures, then tell you what’s on my coffee table.
Kennywood’s heart and soul is the beautiful carousel.
Here’s a really cool fountain
They had these amazing Kenyan acrobats performing. Here’s a guy jumping through fire-no idea why the photo came out so weird but it’s too good an action shot not to keep.
And of course the human pyramid.
They were terrific, and so exuberant!
The railroad takes you past great views of the river, including the brand new lock and dam.
That’s the monongahela river.
Here’s the “auto race”, the last one of its kind in the world. It’s great, electric cars that run on an enclosed wooden track.
Some flowers-what are these?
and some more flowers.
It’s a beautiful park, if you’re ever in the area, stop by.
There are many books on my coffee table right now because I’ve got clutter issues. The ones in permanent residence are a book on the Beatles, the big assed Monty Python book, a book called “what if” that gives alternate histories, and the illustrated Audobon art plates book-the one that weighs about 50 pounds.
Coffee table books are more than just pretty pictures, though, they say something about us. What books are on your coffee table? What does that say about you?
And as always, what have you read lately??
What does my coffee table say about me? It says I like good music, weird humor, thinking about ways things could be different, and birds.
I love coffee table books, and I’d have a hundred… er… a hundred more. I have many. They should be in more of a rotation, but sometimes it’s just a matter of what looks good and what there’s room for.
Still… still… still.. working on Cryptonomicon, but I think I’ll finish it this week-I’m about 820 pages in. It’s past the tipping point and I’m starting to have trouble putting it down. Plus, I haven’t been reading anything else this week, except a quick re-read of Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
Sorry for the lateness of the diary, I just totally lost track of time. Perhaps being out all day in 95 degree heat had something to do with it.
Here’s a couple of guys playing with fire to make up for it.
Those acrobats really were amazing.
Okay, you’re forgiven for being late, but ONLY because of the fire dancers! Well, that and you’re doing so well with Cryptonomicon.
I always want coffee table books, but I don’t have any for some reason. I do have a small, fat book I got as a gift — Shoes — it has a lot of really cool photos of shoes through the ages.
My favorite “picture books” are the ones by… I think his name’s Graham Base? The 11th Hour and… Animalia? Not sure if that’s right but I don’t have them at hand. I got them for my son and we both love them.
I’ve seen the “shoes” book. It’s really interesting. Another coffee table book I’ve always wanted is called “women in hats”, it’s a collection of gorgeous black and white photos of real, every age, every demographic african american women in church hats. Really interesting and beautiful photos.
I can’t say enough about the Kenya Safari acrobats-they were adorable and so good! The first act, which I was too amazed to photograph, was limbo-ing under a pole on fire. The lowest setting was the pole balanced on a couple of bottles, and he made it. It was no more than 10 inches off the ground.
do reference books (since I got scads of those) instead of coffee table books of which I’ve only got two and they were both given to us (Indiana Wildflowers and Looking at Earth) and they pretty much stay on the bookshelves. Our coffee table is actually something we built ourselves because we wanted to have multiple shelves to organize magazines. The top of it also has several magazines on it (currently Backpacker, MacAddict, Geotimes, and the Nation). I have no idea what this says about us, except that we are somewhat eclectic readers.
Just finished Mary Gentle’s “Sundial in a Grave: 1610” and as with almost all of her books, I worked hard reading it, really enjoyed it, and couldn’t begin to do a summary that would do justice to it. It’s not quite up there with “Ash, a Secret History” but it’s close.
I hadn’t thought of doing reference books-that’s a good idea, and your coffee table sounds wonderful-you should post a picture!
My coffee table is awash with Dir en Grey photobooks lately, Dragonfly, XX Capsizing the Islands and several others. They’re a Japanese band,latest cd is Withering to Death-a bit of an obsession with me. The pic is from Dragonfly-rather choppy image but..
Reading this week? Still dipping in Outlaws of the Marsh while reading a few other things-latest is Bold in Her Breeches-Women Pirates Across the Ages, a nonfiction anthology.
That’s a beautiful picture, and the pirate book sounds great!
“America” by Jon Stewart and the Daily Show gang. Now you know that I have no culture – just need a few laughs every now and then.
My big reading news is that this Thursday, my book group leaves for our annual retreat weekend on Madeline Island (a part of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior). If this year is like those in the past – we’ll laugh, cry and talk ourselves into oblivion. We’ll also choose our monthly reading selections for the coming year.
Here’s the four that I am going to recommend:
“Leaving Mother Lake” by Yang Erche Namu and Christine Mathieu (recommended to me by a boo triber in this dairy a few weeks ago – thank you!)
“Feminist Fairy Tales” – by Barbara Walker
“The Chalice and the Blade” by Riane Eisler
“Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and their Lost Art of Love” by Betsy Prioleau
The Jon Stewart book would go well with my Monty Python book, but I think the MP book weighs more than the audubon. That’s why I have not finished reading it after 2 years in my house, I literally need the coffee table to support it!
Golly I want to be in your book club-you actually go to an island to make your selections? That’s awesome. Just so long as you don’t have to eat grubs or conspire against each other, or be filmed for network television. I can see it now.. “BOOK SURVIVOR-LAKE MICHIGAN!” Watch our intrepid survivors as they battle it out over literary genre, sci-fi-fantasy, and biography. Will they make their selections before being eaten whole by mosquitos? Tune in to find out!”
Really, it sounds marvelous and I envy you.
I love your “Book Survivor” idea. We will be battling mosquitos, but we’ll hardly be roughing it. Madeline Island is about 2 1/2 miles off the coast of Bayfield, WI and is 14 miles long and 3 miles wide. One of our (rather wealthy) bookgroup members bought some land up there and built a house. Usually in “these parts” we talk about building a “cabin up north” but that hardly describes what she built. Its small and very minimalist, but has been written up in magazines. Very modern – not my cup of tea – but I’m so glad she’s willing to share it with us once in a while.
Artwear: Fashion and Anti-fashion, the catalog of a very cool exhibit currently at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor museum, is on my coffee table. Check out the link if you fancy wearable art. The catalog is gorgeous!