Boston Book Notes

[cityrecord]

I just returned from the New England Mobile Book Fair, where I saw forty or so copies of The Image of Boston: Perception and Change in the Modern City on sale for $4.98. For those of you who haven't seen the book, it is the exhibition catalog from a 1995 MIT exhibit of the photos of Nishan Bichajian, who took hundreds of photos of downtown Boston for a study led by Kevin Lynch and Gyorgy Kepes. This work culminated in Lynch's groundbreaking study The Image of the City. Some of the photos have modern day photos of the same views by Peter Vanderwarker, most do not. The photos are rarely seen and are phenomenal--Washington Street, Scollay Square, the North End, Copley Squre, and Chinatown are all represented. Everyone interested in Boston should have this on their bookshelf.

Building 19 has a number of Phaidon books on architecture and design but none specifically related to Boston.

No, I don't get a cut from New England Mobile Book Fair. However, I am selling some Boston books myself if anyone wants to email me for a list they can.