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Art & Culture

Culture and art is many things and at Tales you find a wide selection of art and culture books. If you enjoy a trip to the museum or an evening at the theatre this is the place for you. If you are more into architecture or a well written song, fear not you also find books about that. Lastly design and fashion is also part of our art and culture selection, so what are you waiting for? Set your inner creativity free and get inspired by some of the world’s best artists, musicians, designers or architects.
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  • Save 21%
    by Carla Sonheim
    £14.99

    Carla Sonheim is an artist and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students recover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating. Her innovative ideas are now collected and elaborated on in this unique volume. Carla offers a year's worth of assignments, projects, ideas, and techniques that will introduce more creativity and nonsense into your art and life. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists offers readers a fun way to learn and gain expertise in drawing through experimentation and play. There is no right or wrong result, yet, the readers gain new skills and confidence, allowing them to take their work to a new level.

  • by Pauline Oliveros
    £10.99

    Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice offers an exciting guide to ways of listening and sounding. This book provides unique insights and perspectives for artists, students, teachers, mediators and anyone interested in how consciousness may be effected by profound attention to the sonic environment.Deep Listening is a practice created by composer Pauline Oliveros in order to enhance her own as well as other's listening skills. She teaches this practice worldwide in workshops, retreats and in her ground breaking Deep Listening classes at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Mills College. Deep Listening practice is accessible to anyone with an interest in listening. Undergraduates with no musical training benefit from the practices and successfully engage in creative sound projects. Many report life changing effects from participating in the Deep Listening classes and retreats. Oliveros is recognized as a pioneer in electronic music and a leader in contemporary music as composer, performer, educator and author. Her works are performed internationally and her improvisational performances are documented extensively on recordings, in the literature and on the worldwide web.

  • Save 30%
    by Andy Saunders
    £41.99

    AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERDiscover space as you've never seen it before, with these awe-inspiring, breathtakingly restored images of our first missions to the Moon'The next best thing to being there' Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 astronautIn a frozen vault in Houston sits the original NASA photographic film of the Apollo missions. For half a century, almost every image of the Moon landings publicly available was produced from a lower-quality copy of these originals.Now we can view them as never before. Expert image restorer Andy Saunders has taken newly available digital scans and, applying pain-staking care and cutting-edge enhancement techniques, he has created the highest quality Apollo photographs ever produced. Never-before-seen spacewalks and crystal-clear portraits of astronauts in their spacecraft, along with startling new visions of the Earth and the Moon, offer astounding new insight into one of our greatest endeavours. This is the definitive record of the Apollo missions and a mesmerizing, high definition journey into the unknown.

  • Save 15%
    by Kate Bush
    £10.99 - 13.49

  • Save 13%
    by Simon (Textile Designer and Stylist Seivewright & Richard (Kingston University Sorger
    £22.49

  • Save 22%
  • by Åse Balko
    £13.99

    Color in this intricate collection of patterns with a creature hidden in each detailed page, getting more difficult to spot as the book goes on.Get lost in detailed patterns in this complex, beautiful, and playful coloring book. Each page has a creature hidden amid the linework, leaving both beginner and expert coloring fans guessing. By the end of the book, the creatures may even be too well hidden to spot!    Color them to blend and have your friends try to spot them, or make them stand out in the swirls, shapes, and leaves. However you choose to color them in, The Hidden Creatures Coloring Book will provide a fun spin on your typical coloring book!

  • Save 10%
    by Anthony Reynolds
    £8.99 - 51.99

  • Save 15%
    by Simon Singh
    £10.99

    Some have seen philosophy embedded in episodes of The Simpsons; others have detected elements of psychology and religion. Simon Singh, bestselling author of Fermat''s Last Theorem, The Code Book and The Big Bang, instead makes the compelling case that what The Simpsons'' writers are most passionate about is mathematics.He reveals how the writers have drip-fed morsels of number theory into the series over the last twenty-five years; indeed, there are so many mathematical references in The Simpsons, and in its sister program, Futurama, that they could form the basis of an entire university course. Using specific episodes as jumping off points - from ''Bart the Genius'' to ''Treehouse of Horror VI'' - Simon Singh brings to life the most intriguing and meaningful mathematical concepts, ranging from pi and the paradox of infinity to the origins of numbers and the most profound outstanding problems that haunt today''s generation of mathematicians. In the process, he introduces us to The Simpsons'' brilliant writing team - the likes of Ken Keeler, Al Jean, Jeff Westbrook, and Stewart Burns - who are not only comedy geniuses, but who also hold advanced degrees in mathematics. This eye-opening book will give anyone who reads it an entirely new mathematical insight into the most successful show in television history.

  • Save 23%
    by Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg
    £15.49

    Bring life into your home and soul through the gorgeous photography, inspiring story, and creative restoration in White and Faded from Janet Parrella-Van Den Berg, interior designer and founder of popular lifestyle brand White and Faded.

  • by George Lawrence Stone
    £14.99 - 27.49

  • Save 25%
    by Timothy Samara
    £20.99

    Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop (Third Edition) is the ultimate resource for designers who want to understand the rules of the grid, so they can get better at breaking them.

  • Save 21%
    by Krista Ritchie
    £13.49

    Addicted for Now was originally self-published, in different form, in 2013.

  • Save 10%
    by Wilbur Smith
    £8.99

    Titans of War, eng, Wilbur Smith, 2023-05-11, Bonnier Books UK

  • Save 10%
    by Adam Kay
    £8.99

  • Save 29%
    by Emma Baxter-Wright
    £35.49

    Containing the stories of four legendary fashion houses, this collectable box holds a beautiful set of covetable style guides.

  • Save 20%
    by Marie Kondo
    £11.99

  • Save 23%
     
    £15.49

    This book explores colour palettes in graphic design that surprise, engage, challenge and grab our attention. Colour is one of the essential elements of many branding designs. It can help give an identity personality and warmth, express emotion, communicate messages in an unconscious and subtle way and it can keep or navigate the viewer's interest, drawing the eye and making elements stand out. This book explores colour palettes in graphic design that surprise, engage, challenge and grab our attention - the combinations that maybe shouldn't work but just do. These are palettes that break the established rules and laws we have been taught about colour theory and remind us that colour can be fun as well as meaningful.

  • Save 24%
    by Wim Pauwels
    £45.49

    Forty new residential projects from all over the world, in a timeless style. Text in English, French and Dutch.

  • Save 11%
    by Alexis Hall
    £7.99

    "From the acclaimed author of BOYFRIEND MATERIAL comes a deeply moving romance about losing the life you always thought would be yours...and finding something beautiful in the wreckage of the past. Quietly heartbroken, Edwin Tully lives alone in the house he used to share with the man he once loved. He tends to damaged books and faded memories, trying to build a future from the fragments of the past. Then the weather turns, and the river spills into Edwin's quiet world, bringing with it Adam Dacre from the Environment Agency. An unlikely knight, this stranger with roughened hands and worn wellingtons offers Edwin the hope of something he thought he would never have again. As the two men are drawn together in their struggle against the rising waters, Edwin slowly lets down his guard as he comes to accept he can't shield his heart from everything-and perhaps he doesn't even need to try. Because love doesn't only leave scars...sometimes, it heals them, too. This lyrical, moving LGBTQIA+ romance contains never-before-seen content and exclusive bonus material-including a NEW novella, Chasing the Light, following Marius as he rediscovers love and the complicated joy of being truly alive"--

  • Save 26%
    by Rick Barba
    £19.99

    "Explore a universe run amok with savage beasts, bloodthirsty bandits, and the biggest bad of all-corporations, in this full-color hardcover encyclopedia of Gearbox's beloved video game franchise! The universe of Borderlands is an inhospitable wilderness that spans every biome conceivable. It's also a land full of opportunity, but only if you have wits, skill, and guns. Lots of guns. Many come to Pandora in search of the Vault in the hopes of finding wealth, fame, or power. This is the definitive guide to the bold people who live there and in the surrounding galaxy, the mercenaries, monsters, and wilds they contend with, and the ridiculous arsenal they employ. Dark Horse Books and Gearbox present The Worlds of Borderlands-a bombastic guide to Pandora, its surrounding planets and the characters who live there. This volume is filled with art and trivia relating to the guns, vehicles, ships, companies, and adventurers of the worlds-spanning universe-and the aliens who would eat all of them"--

  • Save 26%
    by Tessa Bailey
    £19.99

  • Save 14%
    by Ashlee Vance
    £9.49

  • Save 10%
    by Chie Kutsuwada
    £8.99

    Create over 50 adorable kawaii characters in 10 simple steps! If you love the Kawaii style but don't know where to start, this is the book for you! Both novices and advanced artists can greatly benefit from this title filled with whimsical and adorable Kawaii drawings.- Library Journal Get past that blank page by turning simple shapes into cute drawings in this popular style in just 10 easy steps! Create over 50 different characters from a cuddly penguin to a cheeky bubble tea, or a princess to a unicorn, by following the instructions inside. It even includes handy color palettes for getting the right shades in your drawing. Packed with handy hints and prompts, learning to draw has never been so simple!

  • Save 10%
    by Dav Pilkey
    £8.99

  • Save 10%
    by T. Kingfisher
    £8.99 - 13.99

  • Save 23%
     
    £38.49

    Part memoir, part document of the DIY, punk-infused subculture of skateboarding as it came of age in the 1990s and early 2000s, Ed Templeton’s Wires Crossed pulses with the raw, combustive energy of Templeton’s image-making from the last twenty-plus years.Illustrated by photographs, collages, texts, maps, and other ephemera from Templeton’s journals, Wires Crossed offers an insider’s look at a subculture in the making and reflects the unique aesthetic stamp that sprang from the skate world he helped create. Templeton occupies the rare position of having been a professional skateboarder, a two-time World Skateboarding champion, as well as a photographer and artist working within the skateboard community as it gained increasing cultural currency in the 1990s and beyond. His work first gained recognition as part of the Beautiful Losers collective loosely gathered around Aaron Rose’s Alleged Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.This work, much of it previously unpublished and unseen, explores Templeton’s own journey as an image maker, as well as the lives of professional skateboarders as they spent long hours crisscrossing the world on tour, reveling in their newfound status as rock star–like figures and the eternal search for new terrain to skate. Interviews between Templeton and fellow pro-skaters and friends add compelling detail about the pressures and pleasures of life on the road, and what it’s like to obsessively pursue an art form—whether on their decks or behind the camera.

  • by Elliot Page
    £18.99

    Introducing 'Pageboy', a riveting masterpiece crafted by the brilliant Elliot Page. Published in 2023, this book has already started making waves in the literary world. It's a unique blend of genres that promises to keep you hooked from start to finish. The story unfolds in a way that only Elliot Page can narrate, making it a must-have addition to your collection. 'Pageboy' is brought to you by Random House UK Ltd, a publishing house renowned for its diverse and high-quality publications. This book is available in English. Don't miss out on the chance to dive into this captivating world created by Elliot Page. Grab your copy of 'Pageboy' today!

Culture
What defines culture you might ask? The answer is culture is what defines you. It is what makes us humans human and differentiate us from all other species on the planet. Art and culture is what we share with others, whether it is so called high culture or pop culture. High culture is typically associated with the ‘finer’, classical art forms such as opera, classical music, visual art, ballet and plays. Works that often have a certain age and artistic acknowledgement begin it, but fine culture is also sometimes seen as “high-brow” and not something everyone can understand and that’s sad, because culture and cultural books are for everyone no matter the kind. On the other end of the spectrum we have pop culture that typically is associated with more modern, popular and mainstream forms of culture. It can be pop music, cartoons or big blockbuster movies. We have cultural books from each side of the spectrum, but the best thing is that a change between the two concepts is coming and people are more open about mixing high culture and pop culture, because they are not that different at all. The most important thing about culture is that it connects us and is part of who we are. It can create communities and friendships, but also let us reflect upon ourselves. You can get wiser on that topic in some of our selection’s culture books. 

Art
In our selection you find some of the finest art books featuring some of the greatest artists in history and now. Art is a very important part of our culture. In art you have the possibility of getting engrossed in a wonderful painting, a provocative sculpture, a brilliant play or a beautiful ballet. 
In art you can get lost in the most wonderful stories and themes and identify yourself with someone who doesn’t necessarily look and act like you. By experiencing that you improve your ability of empathy. At the same time you can learn about yourself through art and art books especially when it comes to feelings that can be difficult to describe. In art the themes and problematics are universal and that’s why we feel recognized when experiencing a play, listening to a symphony, studying a great painting or reading a good art book. The art books are best enjoyed in a relaxed setting giving the art room to speak. 
Another beautiful thing about art is that it needs interpretation. When a person meets a well painted painting, a classical sculpture, or a provocative installation it makes us reflect about what it means, and what the art will tell us about society, life or yourself. Everyone can get something different out of a good artwork, because it speaks directly to you and functions as a dialog, where you will have to finish the sentence with your interpretation taking our own life and experiences into the artwork.
We also have a lot of artist books. One of the most talented and popular artists right now are the world famous Dane Vilhelm Hammershøi. Hammershøi has a very significant way of painting giving voice to the melankolic side of the world and of us humans. The painter is famous for his artworks of especially white doors in his apartment in Copenhagen. In the paintings Hammershøi plays with light and shadow in a brilliant way giving room to both sides, which also could be seen as a reflection of life that contains both. The motive also makes the art watcher wonder what is on the other side of the doors or corridors making them compose a continuation of the painting. You can read about Hammershøi in an European context in the artist book Hammershoi and Europe

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