Reviews for Viewing, reading, listening

The average rating for Viewing, reading, listening based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-11-05 00:00:00 David Caylor This is everything you want to know about the iconic Vespa scooter, and so much more. Written by multiple authors and translated from Italian, the book not only details the history of the Vespa, but puts it in historical context. That historical context can be burdensome for a reader that is not from Italy or even Europe, but it does set the stage for the various developments and models over the years. The typesetting also cut off some characters at the beginning or end of lines. But the graphics and overall design are excellent, and I would give this impressive tome 4 1/2 stars if I could. How interesting that one of the greatest examples of Industrial Design was created by an engineer, not one of the great Italian designers. Highly recommended!

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-12 00:00:00 Solomon Kapustin Weschler's temporally and topically wide-ranging collection has fed my love of creative nonfiction, and specifically of writing that "worries out the threads" between art, history, biography and politics. I picked up this book, almost at random, at a used bookstore, initially fascinated by its title but then pulled in by the first piece, "In Lieu of a Preface: Why I Can't Write Fiction" ("I wouldn't be able to invent a fictional New York housewife, because the city as it is is already overcrowded-there are no apartments available, there is no more room in the phone book.") Thankfully, Weschler's inability to write fiction means he has devoted himself to creatively engaging with all kinds of non-fictional things. His "Balkan Triptych" finds the relevance of Vermeer, Shakespeare, and Aristotle during and in the aftermath of the Bosnian War, while "Three Polish Survivor Stories" provides complex portraits of Roman Polanski, Jerzy Urban, and Art Spiegelman. Grandfathers and daughters, L.A., and a series of artist profiles round out the two-decade body of work presented here. I finished it inspired, and looking forward to more.