READ covers fiction, fanzines, zines with no fans except for us, websites, blogs, magazines, artist's books and other independent releases. Chances are, if it's been published then we know about it and chances are, if it's not in FourThousand, then we didn't like it. READ is for people who were born with ink in their veins and a fat balding critic on their shoulder. READ has also created more best-sellers than Oprah's Book Club and more wannabe to be writers than Hunter S Thompson.
I used to despise Morrissey. I don't know what it was but he really got under my skin. Perhaps it was chin, I don't know, but I couldn't stand the sight of him. Of course, the more I ignored him the closer he got; I was wasting my time. Now I'm one his biggest gayest fans. I even know people who've touched him.
Whether depicting Robert Altman's fondness for whorehouse blowjobs in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls or character assassinating Harvey Weinstein in Down and Dirty Pictures, Peter Biskind has a tendency for getting sued. Now he's readied his lawyers for the release of Star: The Life & Wild Times of Warren Beatty.
Many readers will be more than familiar with Conor and his work. He's a lovely fellow, a photographer from Perth who lived in Vancouver and Melbourne for a while and now resides in a place called Shag Cottage in Sydney. He's had a few memorable exhibitions in the cities he's lived, and to accompany each one, he produces a little book.
Conceptual art. You old dog, you. Fischli and Weiss. You young masters, you. They've been in the game for a while, but Fischli and Weiss never fail to intrigue. Their to-do lists have included making an airport tarmac seem exciting, scaling the Alps in rat and bear suits, and creating their own version of the game Mousetrap using household objects.
We live in tiny apartments on tiny budgets. We can't afford giant works of art selling for giant sums of money.
What we can afford are small, beautifully crafted books and zines, cataloguing more works of art in a six-inch stretch of bookshelf than we could ever afford in wall space. Though more expensive than a Whopper value meal, as far as luxury goes, these are our "tiny" vices.
Everyone comes up with weird ways to save money. Ok, not everyone. Poor people. Like yours truly. Anyway, my favourite method is thus: when I see an item of clothing I like, if there is any fathomable way I could possibly attempt to try to make something similar myself, I'll confidently state ‘I could make that'.
For me, some French picture books form the "Triumvirate of Utilité". They are charming, fable-like, ostensibly for kids (a niece perhaps) and can double as 'uplifting gift for pal in break-up hell', or triple as a 'de facto love letter to your new crush'. I used to keep a mint copy of Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince for said purpose/s.
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