I read a lot. 
If I could do only two things in my life, it would be making art and reading books.

Art books, specifically, are one of my biggest sources of inspiration. And while I read other genres too, I want to reflect here only on books that are either about art or directly inspire my art. 

Usually, I read a book, log it on Goodreads, maybe write a short review, and move on straight to the next one. But then I thought – why not include reading reflections here on my blog? 

First, because this is my curated little space where I want to have all things art related.
Second, because writing a review makes me stop and reflect on what I‘ve read. Instead of just moving on, I can ask: What did I like? What moved me? What did I learn from it? Did it spark some new ideas?

So here is my first attempt – a recap of the books I read in August:  

1. Dynamic Bible Vol. 1 by Peter Han

As someone who’s done Peter Han’s Dynamic Sketching courses, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. I guess I wanted to have a summary of the courses in a written form, and that’s exactly what it turned out to be.

Everything felt familiar, but still there were some concepts I was able to understand better through this book than I did in the course, which reminded me how useful it can be to return to fundamentals every now and then. 

On the other hand, the book doesn’t guide you on how long to spend on exercises, while in a course each exercise would take a week to practice. I guess this can be confusing for someone who only decides to read a book. So for me, going through this book felt more like a refresher of things I learned before than a deep dive. I may have rushed through it a bit. 

What did shift for me, while reading, was how I approached studying other artist’s work. Instead of just reading or watching tutorials, I started getting closer to the work itself – really observing the lines, tracing them with my eyes, and trying to reverse engineer the techniques. Basically trying to understand more by myself, rather than just hear how artists did it. 

The book starts with basic exercises and quickly progresses to amazingly advanced sketches that are far beyond my current level. But that’s ok. I see it as a showcase of things that could be possible one day. 

I appreciate Peter Han’s work. He is a very good artist and teacher. So, maybe one part of me just wanted to have this book as a collector’s piece, rather than trying to learn something new. 

2. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright

It explains how the meaning of art can shift based on who’s looking at it. Artists might intend to present one message, but the viewer brings their own history and perspective, so ultimately the original message is transformed. This idea really stayed with me. 

It made me think more deeply about intention and interpretation, and how both are part of the creative output. 

3. Remains of the Journey by Jörg Asselborn 

Technically it’s more a sketchbook than a traditional book. Minimal text, not much to read, just page after page filled with sketches. And it’s amazing! 

Something about these sketches completely pulled me in. I held the book literally 2 inches from my eyes, trying to absorb every line and every brush stroke. I’ve seen quite a few sketchbooks from different artists, but this one really stood out for me. Maybe because I’m obsessed with old buildings and architecture, so seeing how Asselborn captures them in such an expressive way made me almost jealous but also deeply inspired. 

What amazed me the most is how loose and sometimes scribbly drawings looked up close, yet how solid they felt as a whole. 

It made me think that actual mastery isn’t about creating clean lines or perfect rendering, but when you can make something feel real without trying to prove that it is. A kind of mastery beyond realism. 

There is no “how to” in this book, you have to figure it out on your own, if you want to. And that’s the beauty of this sketchbook. Here the art speaks for itself and it’s saying some very inspiring things. 

I found this book by accident on a French art book website, and it came with a few postcards that I thought were very nice additions. I’m definitely keeping those for myself. 🙂

It even inspired me to start my own Sketchbook section here on the blog – coming next week! 🙂 

4. Indonesian Heritage: Architecture

As I was preparing for my Bali trip, I wanted to find something to read about Indonesian culture. While browsing I stumbled upon this beautiful secondhand book.

It’s part of an Indonesian Heritage series, and this volume focuses on architecture, mostly traditional but also modern. It shows how house designs vary by region, how they are constructed (often not using nails, only jointing techniques), and how spiritual and cultural meanings are part of their form. 

I learned a lot – like how the positioning of the house uphill is reserved for senior members of the family, while downhill for younger generations. How rituals are performed after construction. It showed me that even private buildings are deeply rooted in belief and religion, not just temples. 

But more than anything, I was inspired by illustrations. The roof structures, materials, carvings… I found myself wanting to recreate some of these in 3D. 

Final thoughts

Books are one of the most constant things in my life. They inspire me, teach me, comfort me, and often shift how I see the world. 

I’m planning to keep doing these monthly reading recaps. Partly for myself, to reflect and absorb better what I’ve read. And partly for anyone else looking for unusual, inspiring, art related books to explore and add to their own reading list. 

*All book images and excerpts are shared here under fair use, for the purpose of commentary and review.
All rights belong to the original authors and publishers — I’m just a grateful reader sharing what inspired me.