book list #29 - Maira is the best

When you are in the industry that I am in sometimes the world feels very very small.

In this case it became stamp-sized.

When I saw the cover of Michael Pollan's illustrated Food Rules, I knew instantly that I knew the cover subject. Lo and behold, Bon Appetit did a blog post on it.  She is my former colleague.

I have a long history of being obsessed with Maira and her art.

When The Principles of Uncertainty had it's big release party (circa 2007), I made a joke to a very good friend of mine that he should just pick up a print for me while he was there. This lead to an almost year-long joke in which he told me Maira was working on it, and he was special ordering the wood and glass for the frame, etc.

On my birthday the next year, I went out to lunch and then came back to work to find this at my desk:

in that was this:

which was on the back of this:

which is a copy of the print I kept asking for. . .directly out of the book. One of the best presents ever. It sits on my current desk. People never get tired of wondering what the hell they are looking at.

[Side note: if you ever want to buy me a print that one (above) and this one (below) would be my choices-]

This is a very very long way of saying that Luise is living my dream by being the cover.

Michael Pollan's book is awesomely illustrated by the incredible Maira Kalman. You should have it, you should read it, you should appreciate it, you should try to follow as many the rules as possible, and you should enjoy all the beautiful art.