Design has been a hobby of mine for a long while. In fact, there was a time in my life, pre-Capitol Hill, where I supported myself by whipping up website mock-ups for a variety of small clients. It was great work (except for the clients). My latest design obsession is book covers. There's a small neighborhood book shop in Park Slope that features an array of books in their front window that I'm pretty sure are picked on the basis of how awesome the covers look. I love to walk over to the shop and study them. I love the colors, the variety of styles, and the way that the designer is forced to work within the four bounded corners of the cover.

Anyway, my very good friend Lindsey (who recently surprised me by saying that she reads the blog so, um, hey Lindsey! You rock.) gave me a book on the cultural history of absinthe for my birthday yesterday. Since I'm not completely sure about the legality of that drink in the U.S., lettttt's just say that we have two very good friends, named Schmancy and Schmindsey, who may or may not be pursuing the importation and subsequent consumption of absinthe. I loved the book, and in particular loved the simple yet striking cover design, which isn't conveyed all that well here, but still looks pretty great.