Book Review – 1,000 Artists’ Books

1,000 Artists' Books: Exploring the Book as Art by Sandra Salamony
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fascinating collection of well-photographed pieces of art in the form of books (or book-like objects). It’s amazing to see how a medium that’s been around for centuries – even millennia – can be reinterpreted in so many different ways. I didn’t get much out of the intro, but the works themselves more than made up for that. For any artist considering working in this milieu, this gallery is a must-visit.

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Book Review – Mastering UI/UX Design

Mastering UI/UX Design: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Applications by Frahaan Hussain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are some nuggets of good information here, but you’ve gotta really dig for them. Once the authors establish basic UX principles, the text becomes extremely repetitive. Even in the realm of technical writing when some repetition is encouraged, this is excessive and badly in need of a good edit. Snippets of CSS code are a poor substitute for visual examples, the lack of which is a problem in an intensely visual realm. Normally I keep reviews focused on content rather than presentation. However, given the subject matter, I feel the need to point out that the ebook formatting on Hoopla was so terrible that the text was nearly unusable. I picked this up hoping that I might be able to use it as a textbook for the UX Design course I teach. But no, the search continues.

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Book Review – Creative Journaling

Creative Journaling: A Guide to Over 100 Techniques and Ideas for Amazing Dot Grid, Junk, Mixed-Media, and Travel Pages by Renee Day
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though I read the whole thing, I found the last 100 pages or so much more useful than the first. The beginning of the book mostly focuses on simple layouts and labeling, and a lot of it would work better in a planner or tracker than in a journal. But then the author completely switches gears and focuses on more purely artistic things that can be done with journal pages. I suppose the combination means that the book meets all needs, but my interests definitely fell way more squarely in the back half, much of which was really good.

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