Introducing Stuart’s Bookshelf: A monthly column dedicated to the finer publications influencing the work of Melbourne design practitioner, Stuart Geddes (http://chaseandgalley NULL.com/).

You can tell a lot about someone by looking at their bookshelf. What am I doing? I’m a shy person, and private. This is way too exposing… but I promised, so, on my bookshelf this month, from left to right, is:

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The Old Man and the Sea (http://www NULL.amazon NULL.com/Old-Man-Sea-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/0684801221)
By Ernest Hemingway

Of all that he wrote, this is the book that won Hemingway the Nobel prize for literature. A good friend (http://ihearttype NULL.com/) gave me this beautiful edition.

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Book 1 (http://www NULL.amazon NULL.com/League-Extraordinary-Gentlemen-Vol/dp/1563898586)
By Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill

Alan Moore is arguably the most influential writer in comics. He broke the mould with Watchmen (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Watchmen) in the ’80s, and has been at it ever since. League is, I think, his best work, and according to him, it’s going to be the only comic he’ll work on from now. Just whatever you do, don’t watch the dreadful film (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?v=930owrsCrwI) that was made, seemingly without regard to the source material.

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Dot Dot Dot (http://www NULL.dextersinister NULL.org/index NULL.html?id=129)
Edited by Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt (Dexter Sinister (http://www NULL.dextersinister NULL.org/))

This is issue 15 of a journal I’ve been reading for a few years now. It hovers around art and design and I find it as much of an education as my time at University.

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The Psychic Soviet (http://www NULL.amazon NULL.com/Psychic-Soviet-Other-Works-Svenonius/dp/0965618390)
By Ian Svenonius

This is the best book ever written about Rock and Roll. Ever. I wrote about it once before–over here (http://www NULL.threethousand NULL.com NULL.au/read/psychic-soviet/).

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The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (http://www NULL.amazon NULL.com/Invisible-Dragon-Four-Essays-Beauty/dp/0963726404)
By Dave Hickey

Dave Hickey (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Dave_Hickey) is the funniest, smartest, and most insightful art writer I’ve ever read. This book starts with him describing himself daydreaming through a discussion panel he was on in the late 1980s when he realises a question had been directed at him, something along the lines of, “What will be the issue of the Nineties?” He reflexively answers, “Beauty”, to a stunned, eye-rolling silence. This was at a time when the mere utterance of the word in relation to art was verboten. Hickey, the iconoclast, went on to write these three essays that question what happened to beauty in art in the 20th century, and is partly responsible for its reintroduction to the art lexicon.