Books I Read: A Few Collectors

I’m in love with A Few Collectors by Pierre Le-Tan. It is a wunderkammer of a book, an extraordinary collection of small essays about collectors that Le-Tan knew and / or admired and / or encountered. I’m not even sure what this book is about, because I don’t think collecting is it. Perhaps how to live one’s life, or the importance of beautiful things, or the inherent transience of existence. I actually read it slower and slower because I didn’t want it to end. Also, the printing is beautiful. It’s a coffee table book in miniature.

Books I Read

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Life in CA (B2B)

From Burbank to Berkeley, a few recent photographs. Follow me on Instagram for more of my photography.

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L.A. Triptych (Blue)

A triptych in blue (mannequin | fog | monster). Follow me on Instagram for more photos from my life in L.A.

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Data Baby and the story behind it featured in The New York Post

The New York Post has a profile on me and the investigative story behind my new memoir, DATA BABY: My Life in a Psychological Experiment: “How One Woman Tracked the Researchers Who Tracked Her for Decades.” You can buy DATA BABY here, order a signed copy here, and read more about it here. (Photo credit: Roger Kisby)

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I Regret

An array of magnets, postcard art, and stickers. Follow me on Instagram for more photos from my life in L.A.

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This Smells Like My Vagina

Fascinating. How is this real? Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop is selling a candle called This Smells Like My Vagina. It costs $75, and here’s the backstory:

“This candle started as a joke between perfumer Douglas Little and GP—the two were working on a fragrance, and she blurted out, ‘Uhhh..this smells like a vagina’—but evolved into a funny, gorgeous, sexy, and beautifully unexpected scent. (That turned out to be perfect as a candle—we did a test run at an In goop Health, and it sold out within hours.) It’s a blend of geranium, citrusy bergamot, and cedar absolutes juxtaposed with Damask rose and ambrette seed that puts us in mind of fantasy, seduction, and a sophisticated warmth.”

The Cut has some very funny reviews.

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Interior Designer I Am Not

Recently, I've been trying to decorate my home office. So far, that means cool artwork, fun pops of color, and the resultant effect of looking like someone stumbled into a half set up booth at a flea market. Over the years, I guess I spent so much time appreciatively admiring others' interior design that I somehow confused the ability to recognize it with the ability to do it. I can't do it. Or maybe I have to give it a chance. Either way, I did buy these bold orange Bisley filing cabinets from The Container Store which are awesome and way better than having papers all over the floor.

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Git It Lubed

I just want to know who bought this ten-foot LUBRICATION sign and what they're doing with it.

[1stdbs]

$$$

I ended up in this $8M house today, for reasons that are neither here nor there. It had a lovely pool, and a massive master bedroom that led to a deck that looked over the pool, and the guy made some comment like your 60-foot boat in the dock would be the same size as your pool, or what have you. Across the street, homes were going for five and six times as much. It was the middle of the day. Mostly, the people driving and walking around the area were workers: lawn care specialists, housekeepers and children-minders, huge teams of men building castles bigger than I've ever seen facing the ocean.

Notes

Notes. pic.twitter.com/KWdNFXpwQr

— Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) January 25, 2015

A Writer's Desk

A couple weeks ago, I bought a new desk. Previously, my desk didn't look unlike my new desk. Except it was cheap. It had cheap drawers, and a cheap feel, and when I got too excited, it would wobble. Since writing is my occupation, it doesn't seem like a very good idea to have the bedrock of one's career consist of something as unstable as sand or reeds in the wind or poorly made furniture. It took me a long time to find this new desk. It is not my dream desk, but I sat down at it in the store, and it seemed to work. I said to the saleswoman, "It's kind of like that guy you meet, who has a good job and probably won't break up with you. It will do."