POSSIBLY the Best of 2006

Yesterday I received a Fedex envelope from Mexico, and within it was a bright yellow giftwrap containing a shrinkwrap containing Mark Alor Powell's book V.I.P. (Mark is also known as "locaburg" on flickr). It's only March but I'm considering it a Best of 2007 already.

At least I managed to pull-open the shrinkwrap! Far too often in 2006, I compulsively purchased books that never had much of a life past the point of purchase. This is especially true of art books that I purchased while traveling. I like the idea of buying local-artist books, but when it comes to taking the time to dig into them.... they often get the short shrift.

Part of this may be that when I'm heading home they get buried in my luggage, then once home they go straight to the bookshelves where they're forgotten. But I'm making excuses. A lot of them sit out in plain sight for a long while.

Here are some of the books that I bought in 2006 that I was sure I wanted to read but still haven't done so. Most I probably paged through for two minutes... some, sadly, are still in the bag.

• Absolut Viking - Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty (okay, it's in Norwegian)
• Swedish NationalMuseum Catalog
• Small Wars - An-My Lê
• Excuse Me - Keisuke Nagoshi (text in Japanese)
• Capturing Light - Drew Heath Johnson (okay, a gift)
• Saga - Arno Rafael Minkkinen
• Pop Surrealism , The Rise of Underground Art - Kirsten Anderson
• Daido Moriyama's Fondation Cartier monograph (found, of all places, in the remainder bin at the Norwegian Nasjonalmuseet for about $8!)
• Using History - Grett Pratt (still in the shrinkwrap)
• The Photobook: A History Pt II - Martin Parr & Gerry Badger
• Working - Stephen M Dahl
• Lake Street USA - Wing Young Huie
• Photo Brava 06 catalog
• Marketing Guidebook for Photographers Fall '06 - Mary Virginia Swanson (just skimmed, keep getting interupted every time I sit down with it)
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
• The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals - Charles Darwin
• Making Comics - Scott McCloud
• Happy End of the World - Una Hunderi
• After the Water - Sam Portrera
• Collapse - Jared Diamond
• Holiday - Michio Yamauchi (Japanese, still shrinkwrapped)
• Riot - 01 (various, Japanese)
• Mole Unit No 5 (Japanese mag) and many other magazines including stacks of unopened subscriptions to PDN, Camera Arts, Modern Painters, BJP, Cinefex, Adbusters, New Yorker, Alert Diver, B&W, and a bunch of others
• Innovation Happens Elsewhere - Goldman/Gabriel
• Camp - Shomei Tomatsu
• Window-Pain - Wataru Hayakawa (Japanese, still shrinkwrapped)
• Chigo to Daibutsu - Masahiko Taniguchi (Japanese, still shrinkwrapped)
• Tone Deaf & All Thumbs - Frank Wilson
• The 33 Strategies of War - Robert Greene
• Ready for Anything - David Allen

I won't even start on the stack of unplayed video games....

Maybe someone can tell me what I've missed.