Bookshelf: Animator Julia Pott treats us with her funny, sweet book selection

What a selection! It is written in blood on the It’s Nice That Rules and Regulations list that the chosen one for Bookshelf must choose five books and five books only, but Julia’s gone and picked seven like it’s no big thing. That’s fine by us though, as her selection includes a Buffy the Vampire Slayer study guide and the Rookie yearbook – two titles you’d be mad not to purchase off Amazon immediately. Julia is an animator and once warmed our hearts with this First Crush animation. She’s now living it up in Brooklyn being all creative and great. Here’s her top seven titles…

Death – A Picture Album

This book is based on the exhibition at the Wellcome Gallery in 2012 of Richard Harris’ extensive collection of all things morbid. It includes text on the rituals, causes and hang-ups we have about death. If you don’t want to be reminded of your own mortality you can look at all the bloody brilliant photos, drawings and sculptures of skulls and skeletons that fill the book.

Pool Postcards

A book of Stéphane Bataillon’s collection of pool postcards. Looking through it will make you incredibly nostalgic for summer but you also stumble upon strange treats like a crowded pool in a snowy mountain landscape. This book has created a strange hobby for me where I am trying to collect all of the original postcards off eBay.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Critical Study

Never have I felt such a mixture of shame and pride when reading a book on the subway. Buffy The Vampire Slayer: A Critical Reading of the Series, picks apart the 1990s TV show series by series, citing cultural and historical references and making someone who enjoys the show a little too much feel a little bit like they’re a part of something intellectual.

Rookie Yearbook One

If Rookie Mag had been around when I was a teenager I think I would have turned out quite a lot differently. There is nothing these teens don’t produce that I don’t instantly fall in love with.

Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle

I write down lines from books that strike a chord with me. When I begin a new project I read through this notebook of quotes and take inspiration from them. Kurt Vonnegut is one of my most loved authors because he creates these rich, fantastical yet completely believable worlds that you can get lost in. One of my favourite lines from Cats Cradle is: “Maturity, bokonon tells us, is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists.”

I treasure this particular copy of Cats Cradle because of its glorious jacket design by Carin Goldberg.

ET Playing Cards

Not technically a book but the design of this card set blows my mind. Whoever was in charge of the merchandise associated with ET back in the 1980s had something special going on in his brain. I am not ashamed to say that I welled up a little the first time I saw ET hugging Elliot in the ‘STAY’ playing card.

Betty and Veronica

We would visit my grandparents every summer in the states and the first day was always spent buying as many Archie comics as I could find from the ice cream sundae shop in Maine. You can’t get more American than that and I loved it. Whilst visiting my parents last Christmas I stumbled upon the collection and took them back to New York with me – I am still completely in love with the colours and design.