Fortune has its cookies to give out (Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

Book 1 - Pictures of the Gone World (Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

Book 2 - The Beatles in 100 Objects (Brian Southall)

My goal of 50 books in 52 weeks kicked off in earnest last week with the Ferlinghetti collection, and this week I'm into the Southall book on the fabs (up to page 124 at this point).

Both were recent purchases from our Christmas holiday trip to San Francisco and London.

I couldn't let a visit to City Lights Books go by without some Ferlinghetti. It's almost against the law! I read Coney Island for the Mind back in Auckland University days and the beat poets put their crazy hooks in me.

This one took my eye because it was his first collection, published in 1955.

I've had to have a few goes at it - the intensity of the word pictures is erm...intense. Rewarding in unexpected ways. 

The fabs book was bought from a bookstore on Upper Street in the Highbury/Islington area, close to where we were staying at Pat and Randy's place in Newington Green.

It's written by Brian Southall - I have another of his Beatle related books (which looks at Abbey Road), and this one is also a wee gem.

This time he uses 100 items like posters, suits, records, guitars, cars and other groovy objects to tell the story of the greatest band of all time (it's official!).

Every page has a photo of the object in question and a mini essay about it. This one, on the left, for instance, features a run down of the Beatles' bug logo used on a French LP.

Apparently it was first roughed out as a design by Macca, who passed it to Liverpool sign writer and artist Tex O'Hara (whose brother was a member...shock horror probe... of The Fourmost) who developed the idea further.

I know!! Fascinating stuff, right?

It's a quality, largish format book with brilliant colour reproductions, great stories and well, gush gush gush. It's fab and gear and I just love it! 

Love and peace - Wozza