FIVE BOOKS THAT INSPIRE ME

I love looking through page after page on the internet, looking for pictures and words that inspire me. Especially on tumblr and other blogs. But there's just something a little or a lot different about holding a book that inspires you while you look through it. I've been collecting art, travel, short stories, poetry, any kind of book since I was in high school. It just feels good to have them around. Here are five of my book that inspire me the most.

Selby has been one of my favorite sites since forever it feels like. I was so excited to go to a gallery show and artist talk he did in Atlanta. I went with my mom, and we had so much fun. It was awesome to look through the pictures in the book after having looked at them on the screen so much. Each space he photographs is so different, each with their own characteristics that pull me in. This might be my favorite book out of them all. How can I choose though?

Flipping through old, black and white snapshots in a junk store is one of my favorite things to do. You never know what you're going to find. I've found some pretty quirky ones over the years, but this hefty book is full of charming, sometimes really offbeat snapshots from all types of people. Looking through these really makes me more motivated to take my camera with me absolutely everywhere, to capture moments like these from my life.

I have so many favorite novels and poetry books, but this one inspires me I think more than most written words. Each individual story is very much like stepping into someone else's body. And some of them definitely stick with you. Her writing style is really, very interesting. Miranda July's first movie Me, You, and Everyone We Know is worth a least one, interesting, awkward watch. Her second The Future is just not.

I'm trying to get back into hand lettering, and this book by Mike Perry is the best inspiration for that. It is full of so many different styles and ideas and alphabetized by artist. It is such a fun book to look through. 

I've always loved graphic novels. I was super into Ghost World and all that in high school. I found a few books in downtown Athens by Jason  a cartoonist from Norway, and fell in love with his simple style and variety of characters. This anthology is almost like a collection of short stories, and some are only a page or two long. Sometimes there aren't many words, but sometimes they're really meaningful.

What books inspire you?