Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?

An illustrator's catalog of daily purchases

Now available in book format, “Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?” is artist Kate Bingaman-Burt’s winsomely self-conscious take on transparency and consumer culture. Beginning in 2002, in the face of growing credit card debt, Bingaman-Burt resolved to give new meaning to the term “retail therapy” by documenting her daily purchases, first with photographs and then with ink drawings. The book chronicles three years of …

Anatomy for Interior Designers

A witty and uniquely illustrated vintage book that solves interior design issues

Written by Julius Panero with brilliant illustrations by Nino Repetto, the 1948 “Anatomy for Interior Designers” is an inspired and still relevant take on organizing living, working and commercial environments. From closets to kitchen drawers, filing cabinets to game rooms, the book details the ideal proportions for creating harmonious and appropriate spaces. Several editions of the book exist; the one we found is the 1962 …

Four Inventive Children’s Books

How to make a kitten, escape a monster and fix clocks in our roundup of clever kid lit

Modern parents know that today’s children’s books, while often overlooked as serious literature, can convey rich, complex worlds that appeal to more than just the elementary school set. We looked around to find the latest that expand the genre best, picking “Puff” and “The Monster at the End of This Book” for their visually-rich and surprising stories. Much like the acclaimed “Where The Wild Things …