Stuff I've Been Reading: Maps of Perceptions
After Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby writes a column in The Believer magazine called Stuff I've Been Reading. His column is loosely about the books he's been reading, measured loosely against the books he's bought. He spoke here in San Francisco in February. He's one of my writing heroes. I love his essays in The Believer, and I really love Fever Pitch, where he simply raised fanfare memoir to literature status.
Borrowing Mr. Hornby's concept, here's my Stuff I've Been Reading. At least here's two books I've been reading, both by Andrea Ponsi: San Francisco - A Map of Perceptions, and its companion from a few years back, Florence - A Map of Perceptions. Andrea Ponsi is also one of my heroes - one of my drawing heroes.
His book San Francisco - A Map of Perceptions was just published in January of 2015. The book is filled with his watercolor drawings and sketches of the city and its famous and not so famous sites. The sketches are poetic and suggestive and evocative and creative. Ack! They are gorgeous and simple and almost sublime. The sketches are paired with writing in the form of stream-of-conscious narrative, which is less successful than the watercolor sketches but has all the same qualities. Suggestive, evocative, intuitive, inviting.
Florence - A Map of Perceptions is the predecessor book to this San Francisco version. Like the book on San Francisco, it pairs lovely watercolor sketches with musings about the city and perceived life within it. Ponsi constructs his maps with sketches and writings that act as placeholders for memories. And he knows that any take on San Francisco or Florence will be unique. His "perceptions" are just that - those of a visual poet with a keen eye and a skilled paintbrush-holding hand. He does not make THE authoritative drawings of the city. Rather, he draws and sketches his own perceptions, which are skewed, overlapping, projecting, tangential, translucent.
I'm filing these on the "Books I wish I had written" shelf.
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