5. Your three favorite books and why.

I planned to answer this question in a video, and even filmed it a couple of days ago. Then I watched it back and realised I'd said the complete wrong title for one of the books I'd held up. Idiot. I've had my friend Tara staying with me for the last couple of nights, and we all ended up going to town last night so I haven't felt the best today.

Instead I've changed the books for this question, since I already did a post on my favourite books which you can find here, and just written briefly about each. The three books in this post are my favourites that are visually beautiful.

Days with my Father by Phillip Toledano.
Fortunately for both you and me, I don't need to write much about this one at all, because you can read the entire book online for free here, and I highly recommend that you do so (it's mostly photographs, so only takes ten minutes or so). However I warn you that you probably do not want to read it at work, nor if you're wearing any eye make up that you don't want smudged. Since I bought a copy, I've showed it to several people and every single one has cried. It's so, so beautiful but my goodness it chokes you up.

The Sinatra Treasures by Charles Pignone.
My parents bought me this book as a birthday gift a few years ago. Between its pages are pockets containing reproductions of Frank Sinatra photos, tickets, fliers, letters etc. with the detailed story behind each item. I actually have a couple of other Sinatra books, including one other scrapbook-style one, but this is far and away the best. If you like Sinatra then you will definitely appreciate this book.

30,000 Years of Art.
I got this insanely heavy Phaidon book as my leaving present from my last job, and it's amaaazing. It contains hundreds of images of artworks, and also has a detailed timeline of art periods at the back. It mostly sits carefully in my bookshelf to keep it safe, and is definitely a book to treasure- maybe some day I'll be comfortable sitting it on a coffee table but at the moment I'm way too paranoid it'll get damaged!