Showing titles in Aesthetics

Bloomsbury presents Restaurant by Brian Duff, read by Chris Gaines Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. In the last few decades, restaurants and food culture have achieved extraordinary cultural presence. Chefs are heroes and thought leaders...

Bloomsbury presents Videotape by Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy by Noe Nishizawa Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Over the span of a single decade, VHS technology changed the relationship between privacy and entertainment, pried open the closed...

Bloomsbury presents Burger by Carol J. Adams, read by Noe Nishizawa Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The burger, long the All-American meal, is undergoing an identity crisis. From its shifting place in popular culture to efforts by investors...

In Form eines Dialogs reflektiert Kleist, warum Puppen – frei von Selbstbewusstsein – manchmal anmutiger wirken als Menschen. Daraus entwickelt sich eine tiefgründige Überlegung: Könnte die Rückkehr zur Unschuld – jenseits von Reflexion – der Schlüssel zur Vollendung sein? Ein stilistisch feiner, gedankenreicher Text zwischen Ästhetik, Philosophie und Poesie.

The Wager We Never Won is a meditation on the human obsession with control—our endless attempts to gamble with chaos, to negotiate with fate, to turn risk into meaning. Through lyrical prose and quiet revelation, the book traces the lineage of ambition from the explorers who defied the sea to the modern dreamers who believe progress will save them. It asks whether courage and arrogance have ever truly been different, and whether survival itself might be the most dangerous illusion of all.

'Terrifically lucid and compact . . . an unassumingly intuitive and insightful brief history . . . will tell you more about [Lynch's] life and filmmaking than a thousand academic studies' PETER BRADSHAW, THE SPECTATOR The loss of David Lynch in January 2025 produced an extraordinary outpouring...

Bloomsbury presents Metronome by Matthew H. Birkhold, read by Chris Gaines Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. When the metronome was invented in 1815, it transformed the music world. Composers and musicians now had a tool that could help them...

Au fil d’une trentaine de textes lumineux, mettant en scène ses propres expériences esthétiques, Laurence Devillairs tente d’élucider le mystère de la rencontre avec la beauté et nous invite à réapprendre à voir le beau, qui nous échappe souvent par manque de temps ou conformisme. Elle propose pour cela des « exercices d’esthétiques appliqués » - tenter d’apprécier ce qu’on n’aime pas, voyager comme Bouvier sans attentes ni plans, accomplir non pas une bonne action mais un beau geste.

An informative, fun and rather charming essay on the nature and history of one of life’s most desirable assets, Charm, by renowned culture and design critic, Stephen Bayley. Aiming to wound, a schoolmaster wrote on future design-guru Stephen Bayley’s last ever school report “Charm alone...

よりよい“世界制作”のために、私たちの家を考えよう――。哲学の一分野である美学の中でも、とりわけ新しい学問領域「日常美学」初の入門書。

Las ideas artísticas de Ayn Rand que completan su sistema filosófico En su filosofía moral, Ayn Rand ensalza la virtud del egoísmo, y en su concepción del arte no es menos radical. Este libro contiene su original y audaz teoría estética, que estipula los principios indispensables para...

What part of your beautiful self were you taught to hate? We spend a lot of time trying to improve our 'defects', according to society's ideals of beauty. But these ideals that are often reductive, tyrannical and commercially entangled, imposed upon us by oppressive systems and further strengthened by our conditioned self-loathing. This book encourages unruliness, exploring the ways in which we can rebel against and subvert the current system.

‘Wide-ranging, witty and fresh … a stimulating read. Authentic fun’ Tim Harford, Financial Times Best Summer Books 2022 ‘Brilliantly witty, profoundly illuminating, Alice Sherwood is a master storyteller’ Simon Schama ‘Thought-provoking and beautifully written’ Adrian Wooldridge...

Bloomsbury presents Hood by Alison Kinney, read by Rachel Handshaw. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. We all wear hoods: the Grim Reaper, Red Riding Hood, torturers, executioners and the executed, athletes, laborers...

Bloomsbury presents Earth by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, read by Rachel Handshaw and Mack Gordon. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. In Earth, a planetary scientist and a literary humanist explore what...

Bloomsbury presents Bookshelf by Lydia Pyne, read by Rachel Handshaw. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Every shelf is different and every bookshelf tells a different story. One bookshelf can creak with character in a bohemian coffee shop and...

Bloomsbury presents Blackface by Ayanna Thompson, read by Rachel Handshaw. A New Statesman essential non-fiction book of 2021 Featured in Book Riot's 12 best nonfiction books about Black identity and history A Times Higher Education Book of the Week 2022 Finalist for the Prose Awards (Media and...

Bloomsbury presents Stroller by Amanda Parrish Morgan, read by Rachel Handshaw. The Best Books of 2022, The New Yorker Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Among the many things expectant parents are told to buy, none is a more visible symbol of...

Bloomsbury presents Souvenir by Rolf Potts, read by Adam Sims. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. For as long as people have traveled to distant lands, they have brought home objects to certify the journey. More than mere merchandise, these...

Bloomsbury presents Shopping Mall by Matthew Newton, read by Mack Gordon. Object Lessons is a series of short books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. The mall near Mat thew Newton’s childhood home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was one of the state’s first enclosed shopping malls...