More book loot from last year
I meant to write this in November but got sidetracked somewhat.
Bass, Mids, Tops: an oral history of sound system culture by Joe Muggs and Brian David Stevens permalink
This is a beefy book about UK bass and sound system culture and interviews with those connected to it - some I know of (Adrian Sherwood, Nicolette, Norman Jay) and loads I don't. It covers quite a broad time frame from the post Windrush 60s and 70s generation through to garage and dubstep and then to more recent things like grime. It's a good dipping in and out book that you can just keep on the side and pop into whenever you like. Joe Muggs is a worthwhile music writer following, especially for discovering new music if you're into your dance music.
You can get it from Strange Attractor http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/bass-mids-tops/
The Bitmap Brothers: Universe by Duncan Harris, designed by Darren Wall permalink
The first of three game-centric books I bought last year from Read Only Memory, all of them excellently written and immaculately designed. If you don't know the Bitmap Brothers by name, you absolutely will by their graphic style. This runs through the inside story of the life of their studio and includes buckets of concept art and graphics from the games (engineered to look like how they would on an old CRT telly).
You can get it here: https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/the-bitmap-brothers-universe/
Britsoft: An Oral History. Edited by Alex Wiltshire, designed by Julia. permalink
The second book I got from Read Only memory was this Britsoft companion to the From Bedrooms to Billions documentary from a few years back. It's a very detailed history of the home computer explosion of the late 70s and early 80s right up to when the Playstation arrives and kind of prices small studios out of being able to compete with that era of games. Both this and the Bitmap Brothers book are satisfyingly chonky and land on my desk with a big old think. Both of them are quite pricey but Read Only Memory invest in a huge amount of design into their books and it's worth it for that alone.
You can get it here: https://readonlymemory.vg/shop/book/britsoft-an-oral-history/
House Industries: The process is the inspiration permalink
Speaking of investing in design, I picked up this House Industries retrospective book from Ebay for about £20. It's a really lavish production - nearly every page has some sort of spot colour or varnish on it and this plus the project detailing inside makes it come across as a real labour of love. This is another you can just pick up and pop into whenever.
Andy: A factual fairytale by Typex permalink
Finally there's this excellent graphic novel about Andy Warhol. I first heard of this when the author was on a comics podcast a few years back. It's ten comics each covering a set of years in Warhol's life, each with their own styling even though by the same illustrator. I loved this one and blasted through it. There's lots of detail with a ridiculous cast of characters and plenty of things I never knew about Warhol. Sadly it doesn't have him dicking about on Amiga though.