[.ca] Paris living rooms (ISBN 2843233844)

limited appeal:
When you found this book, I hope you were not expecting beautiful photos of French Country or Classic styles of interior design. Instead, this book is the equivalent of a bad art house movie. It has out-of-focus pictures of grungy looking rooms taken at unflattering camera angles in bad lighting. If you are someone who likes to polish up "diamonds in the rough," you may like this book. Because I think only people that can look at junk and find some intrinsic value in it will like this book. However, those people will probably like the book titled Big City Junk better.

Original coverage, second in series:
This book is an original. Ms. Nabokov uses special film (purposely chosen, from a lot of film no longer available) to document various creative people's living rooms--people who are rich and some who are not so rich. She did a similar book called "New York Living Rooms." The rooms have no people in them, and Ms. Nabokov prefers owners would do no touch up of their spaces, when notified that she will be photographying their living rooms. The people covered are jazz players, designers, literary people--many names one would recognize. There is a subtlety to her technique. When I saw "NY Living Rooms," I snatched it up, and could not wait for "Paris Living Rooms." I was not disappointed. Going through the book puts me in a reverie of sorts. Some rooms are natural and show they are not the work of design "experts," whereas others are worthy of design magazines. The common element is that the personality of the owner shows through, even without the person being present. The combination of high end and low end makes for interesting viewing, and also makes me feel a bit like a voyeur, looking into someone's living room, unobserved. I will buy any future volumes by Ms. Nabokov.