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346th out of 519 books
—
237 voters
The Principles of Uncertainty
by
Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman paints her highly personal worldview in an inimitable combination of image and text.
The Principles of Uncertainty is an irresistible invitation to experience life through the psyche of Maira Kalman, one of this country's most beloved artists. The result is a book that is part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman....more
The Principles of Uncertainty is an irresistible invitation to experience life through the psyche of Maira Kalman, one of this country's most beloved artists. The result is a book that is part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman....more
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published
October 18th 2007
by Penguin Press HC, The
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Feb 28, 2009
Meen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone should have this experience.
Recommended to Meen by:
It was on the $1 shelf at Page & Palette
I'm not sure how to categorize this book, but it was such an awesome experience. Definitely not just a "read." I was "reading" it in the Barnes & Noble Starbucks, and this old man came up to me as he was leaving and said, "It was a joy to watch you reading that." I was smiling, and laughing, and almost crying. It was definitely an interaction beyond just consuming text.
:)
:)
18 likes · like · see review
view all 14 comments
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, Octhober 2007: In 2005 Maira Kalman brought a fresh vision to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, filling the pages of the reference classic with her whimsical illustrations. And much like its multi-talented creator--who has illustrated children's books and New Yorker covers and collaborated on fashion projects with Kate Spade and Isaac Mizrahi--her new book, The Principles of Uncertainty, defies easy classification. Is it philosophy? Art? Memoir?...more
Amazon Best of the Month, Octhober 2007: In 2005 Maira Kalman brought a fresh vision to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, filling the pages of the reference classic with her whimsical illustrations. And much like its multi-talented creator--who has illustrated children's books and New Yorker covers and collaborated on fashion projects with Kate Spade and Isaac Mizrahi--her new book, The Principles of Uncertainty, defies easy classification. Is it philosophy? Art? Memoir?...more
5 likes · like · see review
The Principles of Uncertainty is a visual journal that Maira Kalman kept for a year. It's full of musings and questions, glimpses of her travels and simply things that moved her in some way. She talks and paints about her father-in-law, who collected insults by writing them down in a little book that he kept with him.... her suitcase (and other) collections... paints about a visit to the Deyrolles shop in Paris... the hangover of lingering bad dream malaise.
She records both big and small, remark...more
She records both big and small, remark...more
1 like · like · see review
i came across this last night at the enormous used bookstore. it was laying on its side and the spine immediately caught my eye. the dustjacket is a nice heavy paper. the weight of the book. i opened it to perfect drawings and photographs. i want to unstitch this book carefully, saving every thread in a ball jar and staple them to telephone poles in succession. or populate a bleak city wall with them so day workers, away from their babies and lovers and family and friends can slow their walk. bu...more
4 likes · like · see review
How can anything be any more lovable than this little book? How can I not have loved it all along? How can I not have seen it, or read it, or perhaps just heard about it? How can such charm and sweetness and wit be unread for so long? This book is like Agnes Varda's later films in book form. But less something. And more something else. She has that same creative-no-boundaries-super-smart-but-not-academic kind of thing. How can I have just heard about it today, checked it out of the library, and...more
5 likes · like · see review
Sincere thoughts and observations nicely illustrated. I read through it two times, I think the narrative arrangement of the ideas is the best part.
Before I finally read up on the author, she seemed to be a sweet and curious peripatetic who was usually weighed down with a few too many questions about the meaning of life. I didn't realize she has illustrated some of my favorite New Yorker covers, AND designed for Kate Spade. Better to know her as a NY Times columnist first, and then encounter her...more
Before I finally read up on the author, she seemed to be a sweet and curious peripatetic who was usually weighed down with a few too many questions about the meaning of life. I didn't realize she has illustrated some of my favorite New Yorker covers, AND designed for Kate Spade. Better to know her as a NY Times columnist first, and then encounter her...more
1 like · like · see review
I just finished this book. To be fair, I put it down somewhere in the middle and didn't pick it up for a few weeks (bad habit), so maybe I lost the momentum of the flow of the book or something....
but I was generally un-impressed. I thought I would love it, because it just seemed like my kind of thing...constant journal-er and picture snapper that I tend to be.
But I was not blown away as I expected I would be. Most of the "profound thoughts" that the author seemed to document ended up seeming p...more
but I was generally un-impressed. I thought I would love it, because it just seemed like my kind of thing...constant journal-er and picture snapper that I tend to be.
But I was not blown away as I expected I would be. Most of the "profound thoughts" that the author seemed to document ended up seeming p...more
No.
I might have loved this most for Kalman's excellent illustrations (which maintain a rare child-like quality while still depicting complex images) than for her text. Her writing really is the least important element, to me - this is an easy book to pick up and read through in very little time, however the images require more exploration. I also feel that this book (novel? journal? artwork?) is an acknowledgement that "profound" is too often associated with complex and overwrought writing - Kalman...more
Maira Kalman keeps an image journal blog for 1 year for the NY Times. She travels. She makes lists. She makes pictures. She illustrates collections. She misses people who have died. She celebrates people who are alive, especially their wonderful hats. It is very charming, a very good picture of someone's year.
The journal blog is made into a book, the principles of uncertainty, and eventually finds its way into my hands, courtesy of the glorious Olympia Public Library. I spend a day reading it, o...more
The journal blog is made into a book, the principles of uncertainty, and eventually finds its way into my hands, courtesy of the glorious Olympia Public Library. I spend a day reading it, o...more
Feb 05, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
Reviewers were not faint in their praise of The Principles of Uncertainty, even if they spent most of their energy attempting to describe it. And no wonder: the list of items that Maira Kalman describes in the book could almost fill a book itself, even without her illustrations. Readers who are unfamiliar with Kalman's work but respond to even a few items on that list should probably take a look at Principles. Those who know her children's books or illustrations will be excited to see her take o
...more
I'd almost forgotten about this book, read in the nearly hallucinatory state caused by a flu bug on Christmas day at my parents house after everyone had left for the big meal at my cousin's. A silent, crisp Southern California day, flipping past Kalman's crisp colors and unsteady but sure lines that bridge naivete and sophistication. What brought it back to mind was Kalman's marvelous debut posting (about the inauguration) for her new blog in The New York Times, 'And the Pursuit of Happiness.' A...more
This book really moved me. It inspired me to remember what I think is so important about life....which I think is finding the connections between things and then using them to create humor, conversation, feeling. This book draws on the train of thought kind of everything is connected kind of thing. It is a year in the life of a woman painting and writing and trying to figure out the whys of things. I photocopied some pages that touched me and with touch my penpals. Mine is: "And then all-clear s...more
This is one of those quote-end-quote categories that I've recently discovered, explored and fallen in love with (along with so-called «narrative non-fiction», which combines all the fun of rigorous investigation with the joys of multi-layered narrative): illustrated books. Surely, you're thinking, looking at the thumbnail, you mean children's books? If a book has pickshures and drawrins in it, it's for kids, or, much the same, art and design students; even if the drawrings are by the same person...more
The Principles of Uncertainty is the most interesting and thought provoking book I have ever read, my favorite to be specific. It is a book full of beautiful illustrations accompanied by alluring words written and drawn by Maira Kalman, my idol. It is a journey of her daily thoughts, realizations, philosophies and appreciations. The book is written as an inner monologue, allowing the reader to go along with her on the journey of thought. I like the inner monologue because it makes it feels like...more
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Jul 11, 2010
Adam Kranz
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Adam by:
Emily Houser
Shelves:
auto-biography
I bought this book this morning at the Pea-Pickin' Flea Market in St. Croix Falls, WI, to complement "Nickle and Dimed" in my two-for-a-dollar set. Emily Houser, another summer volunteer at Community Homestead, recommended it, saying she'd bought it for her mother once.
It is a book made of a journal by a painter. It's very artsy and pseudo-philosophical in its tone, and left me feeling very pseudo-philosophical and artsy myself. The pictures are all very nice, the author is quite intellectual a...more
It is a book made of a journal by a painter. It's very artsy and pseudo-philosophical in its tone, and left me feeling very pseudo-philosophical and artsy myself. The pictures are all very nice, the author is quite intellectual a...more
I re-read this as a balm to my soul after a terrible week (starting with the bombing in Boston), and it strangely did not offer the same profound experience I had when I first read it. It started off very well, with the quirky stream of consciousness of both words and visuals that matched my mood, but by the end of the week, I found I wanted something more settled and grounded.
It was an interesting experience of how my reading changed because I have changed. I think. Or how being in a different...more
It was an interesting experience of how my reading changed because I have changed. I think. Or how being in a different...more
Oct 11, 2011
Patty
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
2011,
art,
autobiography,
biography,
memoir,
travel,
women-writers,
paris,
israel,
family,
graphic-novel,
graphic-non-fiction,
philosophy,
essays,
whimsy,
inspirational
When I encountered this title in a Shelf Awareness column, the author did not sound familiar. But once I got the book and started to look through it, I knew exactly who the author is and why I wanted to read it.
This doesn't take long to read, but Kalman left images in my head that may be with me for a long time. She apparently takes pictures and then paints images from them - this gives her some very interesting paintings to write about. Kalman is telling us something about her life view and I f...more
This doesn't take long to read, but Kalman left images in my head that may be with me for a long time. She apparently takes pictures and then paints images from them - this gives her some very interesting paintings to write about. Kalman is telling us something about her life view and I f...more
A thick book that's a quick read, since most of it is paintings. An enjoyable look into the artist/authors thoughts and musings. It touches on art, science, history, cooking, and travel. I finished it in one subway ride and a few hours. It was good enough and revisitable enough that I might buy it.
1 like · like · see review
This is a wonderful book. Maira Kalman paints her musings, which are always funny and insightful. To give you a taste, I'm adding my favorite quote from the book, but I have to reassure you that not all of the book is so pseudo-intellectually annoying.
"We could speak about the meaning of life vis-a-vis non-consequential/deontological theories, apodictic transformation schemata, the incoherence of exemplification, metaphysical realism, Cartesian interactive dualism, revised non reductive dualism...more
"We could speak about the meaning of life vis-a-vis non-consequential/deontological theories, apodictic transformation schemata, the incoherence of exemplification, metaphysical realism, Cartesian interactive dualism, revised non reductive dualism...more
I was introduced to Maira Kalman through the Pursuit of Happiness blog, and so I was already familiar with her style. This is a similar collection of paintings, photos, and musings. Reading it is like having tea with an erudite, philosophical, well-traveled, loquacious friend who may have spiked her own tea just a bit! The text itself is very quick to read, but of course, you want to take time to really savor the thoughts and explore the pictures. My friend got this as a library book and loaned...more
This book cost me about 30 cents at Barnes and Noble and took me less than an hour to read... but what an enjoyable way to spend 30 cents and an hour! In this humorous, illustrated memoir of sorts, Maira Kalman intertwines the minutia of her life (pages dedicated to her empty box collection, candy collection, and unusual hats) with philosophical questions about LIFE and HUMANITY. The effect is quirky and thought-provoking, rather than pretentious. I particularly liked her freehand embroideries o...more
3 likes · like · see review
This is the visual journal made by the author, an illustrator who lives in New York City, over the course of a year. In addition to charming little paintings of historical figures, authors, the subway, Jerusalem, and spectacular cakes, she muses over the uncertainty of life and the ambiguity of circumstances that one finds oneself in time and time again. Sometimes she's melancholy, other times full of joy. I found this little book to be utterly charming.
(I especially loved the caption of a pain...more
(I especially loved the caption of a pain...more
Maira Kalman’s illustrated memoir, despite being whimsical and colorful enough for any child to enjoy, is a sweetly melancholy book for adults, an artist’s day book whose musings take the long view of life. Kalman enjoys and draws life’s little pleasures, directing our attention to the charmingly dilapidated furniture in a friend’s apartment or to the towering pastry displays in a Paris restaurant; but while celebrating the sheer delight of everyday curiosities, Kalman never loses sight of their...more
I hated this when I started it. When I got to the bit where she says she follows after old people on the street and imitates their walks I thought, "No you don't, you're justsaying that you do." Then I thought, "And if you do, that's really mean."
But, you know, the book had a lot of pictures, so it was easy to keep turning the pages. After I had turned most of them, I felt kind of.... good. Kind of...hopeful. Once I would have been too cool for that. But not anymore. These days, being able to bo...more
But, you know, the book had a lot of pictures, so it was easy to keep turning the pages. After I had turned most of them, I felt kind of.... good. Kind of...hopeful. Once I would have been too cool for that. But not anymore. These days, being able to bo...more
This is a wonderful little book that is hard to classify. I came across it at the public library while browsing through the graphic novels section. While the book contains a large number of painting and pictures, I certainly wouldn't classify it as graphic novel. The author's painting and accompanying musing on a year in her life range from the mundane to the profound. I absorbed (I say absorbed because you don't really read this book in the traditional sense of the word; rather, you allow yours...more
This book consists of twelve chapters each of which is a short rambling record of thoughts and actions, though not without thematic organization. They are handwritten words and rough, naive (deliberately so?) paintings. Kalman throws onto the page thoughts about things she reads and sees, family, New York City, encounters, shopping, doubts and fretting... How enjoyable this kind of thing is largely depends on whether the author makes good company, and I would say that Kalman pretty much does. So...more
Kalman uses image and text in a very enchanting way to explain her world. This journal of sorts is a great friend, and Kalman is not simply ranting about life, she is exploring it and asking you often to converse with her. like a true friend she lets you into her kitchen, introduces you to her friends and lets you know what she is reading and what is on her mind. The images are simple, but sometimes very astute and complex. The same can be said for her uncertainties. After a lot of heavy reading...more
What a marvelous, charming, and thought-provoking book! "The Principles of Uncertainty" is artist Maira Kalman's illustrated year-long journal in which she ponders, paints, and celebrates life: its wonders, questions, and uncertainties. Here are glimpses of New York and Paris; here are portraits of Russian writers, German thinkers, and the everyday unfamous; here are favorite friends, foods, and fancies (hats, beds, flowers, tassels)--all sumptuously rendered in bright, lush paintings that are a...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Maira Kalman Fan ...: Kalman's refreshing take on just about everything | 1 | 2 | Feb 28, 2013 04:28pm |
Maira Kalman was born in Tel Aviv and moved to New York with her family at the age of four. She has worked as a designer, author, illustrator and artist for more than thirty years without formal training. Her work is a narrative journal of her life and all its absurdities. She has written and illustrated twelve children's books including Ooh-la-la- Max in Love, What Pete Ate, and Swami on Rye . Sh...more
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“My dream is to walk around the world. A smallish backpack, all essentials neatly in place. A camera. A notebook. A traveling paint set. A hat. Good shoes. A nice pleated (green?) skirt for the occasional seaside hotel afternoon dance.”
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112 people liked it
“if something does go wrong, here is my advice... KEEP CALM and CARRY ON.”
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12 people liked it
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