Synopses & Reviews
Fevered notes scribbled on napkins after first dates. Titillating text messages. It's-not-you-it's-me relationship-enders. In
Other Peoples Love Letters, Bill Shapiro has searched Americas attics, closets, and cigar boxes and found actual letters-unflinchingly honest missives full of lust, provocation, guilt, and vulnerability-written only for a lovers eyes. Modern love, of course, is not all bliss, and in these pages youll find the full range of a relationship, with its whispered promises as well as its heartache. But what at first appears to be a deliciously voyeuristic peek into other peoples most passionate moments, will ultimately reawaken your own desires and tenderness…because when you read these letters, youll find the heart youre looking into is actually your own.
• "i think UR great. wanna have wine & Tequila again sometime?"
• "I can't believe you're real, and I think about you constantly in some way or the other all day. I haven't given the finger to anyone driving since I met you."
• "With you I learned how to fight cleaner, how to talk things out better, and how to make a strong loving family out of nothing. These are priceless gifts that I will carry with me the rest of my life. One more thing you did for me: you left, and I had to get through it."
• "P.S. I look forward to your letters too much to call. Also, where do you stand on chains?"
Synopsis
Bill Shapiro is the former editor of LIFE magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Synopsis
When New Yorkandndash;based graphic designers and long-time friends Timothy Goodman and Jessica Walsh found themselves single at the same time, they decided to try an experiment. The old adage says that it takes 40 days to change a habitandmdash;could the same be said for love? So they agreed to date each other for 40 days, record their experiences in questionnaires, photographs, videos, texts, and artworks, and post the material on a website they would create for this purpose.
What began as a small experiment between two friends became an Internet sensation, drawing 5 million unique (and obsessed) visitors from around the globe to their site and their story since it was launched in July 2013. 40 Days of Dating: An Experiment is a beautifully designed, expanded look at the experiment and the results, including a great deal of material that never made it onto the site, such as who they were as friends and individuals before the 40 days and who they have become since.
Note: 40 Days of Dating has a special binding that allows it to open very flat by attaching the endpapers to the inside covers.
About the Author
Jessica Walsh is a designer, art director, and partner in the New Yorkandndash;based design firm Sagmeister and Walsh. Timothy Goodman is a designer, illustrator, and art director based in New York City; he runs his own studio. Walsh and Goodman have each won awards for their work from the Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club, SPD, Print, and Graphis.