Last week I stumbled upon a massive bookfair in London at the Whitechapel Gallery. I bought many books because I am obsessed with the format. Strangely, my favourite was this small yellow fellow which made me feel mellow.
Its called 'All the clothes of a Woman' and it's by Hans Peter Feldman. He is a latter- day list maker and collector. Apparently he owns a toy shop. The cover gives the contents away with inimitable accuracy.
Not two days ago in Johannesburg I found this orange chap which jumped out at me like a slap. It's a first English edition of Italo Calvino's Mr Palomar. It's really beautiful and often features the protagonist watching waves.
At times this reader feels that the act of watching the waves might be marginally more interesting that the description of Palomar watching the waves but, like the act of watching waves washing over eachother, Calvino always manages to bring the attention to attention.
I also Found a reprint of Juan Foncuberta's Fauna which is a fictional account of the travels and discoveries of a certain Dr. Ameisenhaufen. Presented like a botanist/explorer's diary the book charts the discovery of a wide variety of outlandish hybrid beasts. The good doctor even discovers an elephantine beast with a trunk which becomes luminious when the animal is distraughs-Elephas Fulgens. It's far out.
Here are some bad page shots. That's Ameisenhaufen noting 'a fact' in a small book, the lumo trunker and some other weirdos.
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