Simple Pleasure - a list by audrey24

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About this list:

This list celebrates the small, domestic, quiet pleasures that last, the ones that encourage comfort. Here are some things to do on a sunny or rainy day, in your pajamas or fully clothed, with an anxious or relaxed mind. Most of these happen to be small-format books, so that when you fall asleep in a recliner with one on your chest, it won’t make a horrible crashing noise when it slides out from your fingers and lands on the floor, waking you up.

Qualifications:

I'm a domestic person by nature.

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Viewing 1-10 of 10 Items

1,001 Pearls of Buddhist Wisdom: $9.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

Buddhism can be daunting, but the digestible, accessible, and rich nuggets that make up this collection avoid dogma in favor of a panoramic overview of Buddhist thought, the kind that can take up residence in your life and inform your thinking pretty much immediately. To be enjoyed with tension-relieving tea, open windows, and deep breaths, these quotes come from every conceivable time and place – from the Bhagavad Gita to Thomas Merton.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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Love Listography: Your Love Life in Lists $16.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

A spin-off of the original Listography, Love Listography is your nightstand buddy, in which you can confide about past, current, and future lovers – as well as your own embarrassing faults. The topics go from standard (“Things That Drive You Nuts About Being in a Relationship”) to the exhaustive (“Elementary, High School, and College Crushes”), but the real purpose isn’t just enumerating your life, it’s learning about patterns, how things change (or don’t) in your romantic life. Affirming with plenty of room for humor.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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Learn to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Self-Discovery and Fulfillment $15.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

There are documented health benefits to meditation, but simply becoming more aware of your environment and your way of engaging with it and your thoughts is equally important in improving your quality of life. Learn to Meditate offers an open-ended look at meditation in many forms – from Sufi to Buddhist traditions and beyond – but is grounded in fundamentals like mindfulness, concentration, and breath, all presented in an accessible way. With plenty of information to help you be compassionate with yourself when encountering the pitfalls of your practice, this book is ideal for developing an individual practice while understanding meditation’s many cultural histories.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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Let's Wrestle: $9.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

David Shrigley’s drawings would be precious if they weren’t so frequently disturbing. Let’s Wrestle is an accurate title for this collection of drawings in particular because it’s just what so many of Shrigley’s naked, human figures are up to, although it would be incorrect to call any of these cartoons dark. The drawings collected in this volume, like those in Ants Have Sex in Your Beer, worry the everyday to the point of hallucination, observing the most mundane details with an eye that’s both clinical and slightly insane. Take for instance a line drawing of two tangled boxes, whose caption reads: “I will disentangle them with my hammer.” No explanation is necessary or vaguely possible, but the book comes with built-in joy.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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the little box of i love you: 40 Collectible Postcards

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Description

This is a hard one to describe, in the sense that the idea for the book is just sort of floating out there, the same way that the three-word phrase that names the book does in these photos. “I love you” goes through dozens of permutations in these small images, and although the book is playful, the concept itself and the intention – that simple but undersaid expression – remains the same. The object of love is, of course, never shown, and can just as easily be the reader as it could be their lover or perhaps no one in particular. But it captures the feeling of wild love that we should all spend more time in.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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XXX Porn for Women: $12.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

It would be embarrassing to buy this if you were a single guy, but if you’re with someone or if you buy it for your girlfriend it should be just fine. And in some secret way, it feels like this book was actually made for men – a tongue-in-cheek way of reminding them of their heterosexual responsibilities that doesn’t have the stink of blame or complaint. Dudes could learn a lot from of these one-photo punchlines (“You’re telling me there’s pornography on the Internet?”) but even if you’re not seeing someone, they’re just kind of nice to contemplate.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan $14.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

An introduction to “life hacking,” Urawaza is a Japanese term referring to unlikely solutions to common problems – like buffing your fingernails with a receipt. While many of these tricks refer to home life, many also deal with problems of a more social nature, like how to stop falling over when the bus you’re on grinds to a halt, or how to stop body odor with something more effective than the hippie deodorant you’ve been using. One of the most satisfying things about this book comes from its light-duty lateral thinking – even if you don’t get around to employing one of these solutions, you’ve already started to think about the situation in a different way. And what’s more basically satisfying than that?

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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Stuff on My Cat Presents: Wet Cats: $9.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

Cats are widely considered to lack the outgoing personality of dogs, but any cat lover will tell you their introverted nature is at the heart of their appeal. A big part of the appeal of Stuff on My Cat was exactly the distance between a cat’s bewildered or oblivious disposition and the anthropomorphic props around them. If you’ve ever washed a cat, you know that beyond the animal’s panic to escape what must seem to them a pretty perilous and humiliating situation, there’s a deep sense of grumpiness, a sort of wild hate mixed with sadness, that’s pretty irresistible to humans. Here are pictures of cats looking put-out, frantic, resigned, and uncomplicatedly pissed off, at various points on the wet/dry continuum. If you can’t have a cat, or just one cat is not enough cute for you, Wet Cats will give you just what you need: a picture of a baby dumping water on a cat named Floyd. And much more.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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The New Tea Book: A Guide to Black, Green, Herbal and Chai Teas $16.95 : Chronicle Books

First to recommend

Description

There’s a world of difference between the tea you brew at work to power through an assignment and the stuff you make at home, using your favorite infuser, mug, fixings, and pairing with a pastry. This book provides a healthy serving of factual knowledge about the beverage – from how it’s cultivated and fermented to caffeine content and antioxidant properties – but it’s equally invested in more abstract qualities of the drink. The New Tea Book focuses on the ritual of tea drinking and how it informs our daily routine and creates space for contemplation and relaxation. Featuring information on tea varieties as well as recipes for chai and pastries, this book aims to inform your own tea-drinking customs.

Updated Oct 9, 2008

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