UNEMPLOYED DESIGNER
You didn’t think we would give away three bestselling books without pairing them with a stunning set of bookends, did you? Of course not. We know many of you make a side game of predicting who or what we will feature in the month, so for those of you who guessed bookends, it’s time to give yourselves a hearty pat on the back. Of course, we could be giving away a month of car parts and we would still figure a way to feature these hip little book huggers by Kim Bonner of Unemployed Designer. And it’s not just because the image shows Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, one of my all-time favorite novels. Fabulous finds wait for no theme.
These leather bookends are as bright as Kim Bonner’s life philosophy. The unemployed designer opened up her lemonade stand in 2009 and put to use the design and sewing skills she has been honing since her first completed garment at six years of age. Having learned from her mother the importance of quality materials and construction, Bonner strives to make each piece look professionally produced. To that end, these books ends are constructed with thick, gold-pigmented cowhide and stuffed with pea-sized gravel for heft–a must for those of us who prefer heavy tomes. A look at her shop makes clear this eye for detail and professional excellence extends all throughout Bonner’s work. We’re not ones to will ill at The Bright Side Project, but we can’t say we would be devastated if Bonner were to stay Unemployed for a little while longer.
Unemployed Designer is giving away to one winner a Pair of Bookends in Modern Pebbled Leather to one lucky winner. The fun part? Kim Bonner decided she couldn’t possibly choose the best answer, so we’ve decided to let this one go to the random generator.
Here is how we are going to do it. We know many of you LOVE answering the questions and like to transfer your answers to a journal later on or even discuss answers with your friends over morning coffee at work. So, we are going to have a question here for you to answer as an additional entry, if you like. Otherwise, it’s the usual random generator business. Comment whatever you like and post to Facebook, Twitter, or your blog for each additional entry. Come back and let us know in the comments what you did. Here is the OPTIONAL question you need to answer by Thursday, January 21, 2010.
What book is at the top of your list to read this year?
Please check back on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 to see who the random number generator picked. Good Luck!
Most definitely SCAR TISSUE, the autobio of Anthony Keidis from the Red Hot Chili’s. Not only does he play great music that i love, i have heard so many people say great things about this book. I only need a chance to put down my text books, and pick up something with real substance! (Vancouver Olympic break anyone, anyone?).
This. Is. Amazing. Chaucer is definitely all over my reading list because I’m taking a class on his works, and Guy de Maupassant, because I’m reading his stories in my French Lit Class. I also want to read some TC Boyle, re-read the Sherlock Holmes novels (thanks to the movie), get ahold of JMG Le Clezio’s works (after his short story in the New Yorker about Daniel and his octopus I’ve been head-over-heels), etc! There’s also a book called Not Me that I want to read, and one about a lobotomy– My Lobotomy, I think.
II am an ‘older person’ and have read a lot of books in my time! I rarely re-read a book as I figure there are so many new books to read and not enough time to read them all, let alone re-read. However I do have one book that I want to re-read and that is Umberto Echo’s ‘The island of the Day Before’. I remember the first time I read this, a good many years ago. I had borrowed the book from the library and later bought a copy in Oxfam, to re-read at my leisure. It is still waiting for me…..
Cool. The Bible plus whatever books my book club chooses. Thanks!
I’d like to read “Flashforward” by Robert J. Sawyer. I watched the tv serie so far :)
I can’t wait to dig in to “What is the What” by David Eggers. It is based on the real life story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee and member of the Lost Boys of Sudan program. Eventually, Valentino makes his way to America, but yet still faces challenges in this new context. I love Egger’s writing and also know that the issues faced by Valentino are very relevant right now.
The Fat Booty of Madness!
Also-
Play with a tiger’ by Doris Lessing. I’ve read nearly everything else by her (37+ of her books) and it’s time I read that one as well. I neglected it as I wasn’t in a play reading mood (for a few years…) After recently re-reading her book ‘Love Again’ that’s based in the theatre I’m curious about it.
I have decided to real the entire opus of Orhan Pamuk. I was completely mesmerized by his “Snow” so why not make this a Pamuk-ian themed reading year?
Those bookends are the essence of total and complete awesomeness! <3
For Christmas, I received “Paris: The Biography of a City” by Colin Jones. It’s on the top of my ‘to read’ list
I love to read and have more books than I can could but one of my favorites is The Historian. I keep waiting for the next one to come out.
Catch 22 & Valley of the Dolls. Can’t believe I haven’t read them yet!
Makers, by Cory Doctorow.
Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma for kids. I’m teaching a class on sustainability next year and this might help make the adult version more digestible for my students. Also his new Food Rules book. Can you tell I heart MIchael Pollan?
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf. I’ve heard great things about it.
1984. it was on my to read list from 2008 D:
My goal is to read all of Jane Austen’s work–I read Pride & Prejudice in 2009, and Sense & Sensibiltiy quite a few years ago…I love her writing, so I’d like to read all of them. :)
My sister’s Keeper. The movie was good, and the book is supposed to be amazing :)
My husband and I are moving to a new home in three weeks. When the representative from the moving company came by, he estimated we had over 8,000 pounds of books. We knew we were big collectors, but having our collection translated into poundage was startling. As you may imagine, we can certainly use these gorgeous book-ends.
Oh, and I’m looking forward to reading Joshua Ferris’s new book: Unnamed.
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace – I’ve loved the movie for years and I’ve finally sat down to read the book.
what an awesome giveaway!
i love these bookends! my brother-in-law gave me dan brown’s latest book, the lost symbol, so it’s next on my list.
Does reading a cook book count?! I just started with Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book! haha
i tweeted!! http://twitter.com/agoodbuild/statuses/7748324150
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
To re-read The Alchemist.
I’m trying to read through the BIble again this year a chapter or so a day. I always find cool things I’d either missed or forgotten about.
my son-in-law keeps pushing me to read atlas shrugged….maybe that will happen. but i am a 52 year-old college student for the first time in my life (!)and i have to read montana 1948 – asap.
Next on my list is…
The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? by Padgett Powell
You guys are great!!! Now we have a chance even if our answer is, well, lame! LOVE The Bright Side Project!
I wanna read “Complete Prose of Woody Allen”.
I will finish Anna Karenina this year. I will finish Anna Karenina this year. I will finish Anna Karenina this year. I will finish Anna Karenina this year. I will finish Anna Karenina this year.
David James Duncan’s 1992 offering, “The Brothers K.”
if you’re the sort who seeks immediate gratification and “lite” escape from your reading, “Brothers K” is told in a series of broken up chapters and chapters-within-chapters, making it easier to simply pick it up, read a section or two and then return to whatever else you were doing.
If you can, that is. It’s a hypnotic, intoxicating read, which will make putting the book down difficult.
Anna Karenina – been on the shelf for a few years…i keep starting and stopping. time to focus and read this classic once and for all!
what gorgeous bookends!
Fun, fun, fun bookends!
I have the “poisonwood bible” beside my bed waiting to rbe e-read. I love that story, and Barbara Kingsolcer’s writing is so engrossing, and I love her characters. Yay B.K.! PS, love these bookends, fingers crossed that I win!
I am currently reading Style Statement by Danielle LaPorte. It is an amazing journey. I don’t usually do those sort of things, workbook pages and all, but these questions and directions are very telling, and I want to be able to incorporate my Style Statement into everything I do!
Enjoy the day! Erin
Discounting all the books I’ll be reading for my Master’s in History (eep.), the top of my to read list is a book called The Rebel Sell about the development of counterculture as mainstream capitalist culture.
If I read any fiction this year it’ll will probably be Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version in preparation for a) my thesis and b)the movie starring Paul Giamatti. But really, I can’t stand to read fiction.
The one I don’t know about yet. You know the one I’m talking about….that one that just catches you and instantly draws you in. You have no choice but to buy it and sit down and start reading right away until you are done. And then….then comes the best part. It becomes a part of you. You dwell on it. You think about it. You always remember it. That is the book I’m most looking forward to reading this year. It’s out there.
I got a Kindle for xmas and I’ve been reading up a STORM this year. I’m currently deep into A Piece of Cake: A Memoir by Cupcake Brown.
I make a point to re-read A Prayer For Owen Meany every year. Its required reading. This is such a great question- I am loving reading thru all the other answers to get new good book ideas! Thanks so much.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. My sister let me borrow her Kindle DX and I’m so excited!
I’m going to read “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and then the next two in the trilogy. Lately, this book is all I’m hearing about and how unfortunate that the author died and this is the end of his work.
I have a few books queued up to read. I’m always reading something, but I kind of feel like they’re all just a welcome distraction until the next Sookie Stackhouse novel comes out in may. I think I may turn to some graphic novels until then. The Preist series or, perhaps, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics. Those should keep me busy!
Ahh to be unemployed… and designing.
I term it “my Shakespeare project”. I own the complete plays of Shakespeare, and I’ve only read about half of them. So this summer, I am determined to read ALL the plays and the sonnets, if I can get my hands on them.
I really do enjoy the questions, it’s my creative reading exercise for the day…
I have alot on my to read list this year, though nothing that I feel seriously required to get through. I noticed many favorite aunts reading “My life in France” by Julia Child this Christmas, I’d like to read that. I’d also like to read Martha’s Rules as the designer behind Bambako did, it may help in my quest to launch an etsy shop.
I started the road when I was pregnant (he’s now 8 months old). Maybe I’ll finish it this year.
Last night I just added a book to my very big to-read list but it’s one that I HAVE to get read for sure, it’s ‘Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit: A Son Remembers’. I love Audrey Hepburn and from all the reviews I’ve skimmed, it sounds like a really fascinating read, I can’t wait to dive into it!
Fun giveaway- those are chic bookends! I am reading Ted Kennedy’s autobiography… 500 pages…!
About 100 books on childbirth and conception. :)