Mid-Century Books: Your Mid-Century Modern Book Store

Photo source: www.midcenturymodernbooks.com

If you've ever thought: "It would be really nice to have a 100% MCM bookstore that I could shop at." Well, now you have it. Are you aware of it though? That's the real question.

Mid-CenturyModernBooks.com offers a large selection of books for the mid-century modern design and culture enthusiast. In fact, they have a site that's really well put together, and full of easy to use categories. Thru their categories, you can refine your search options by books on on topics such as culture, design, people, and places. If these four general categories are to broad for you, you can refine your search thru the book index they have on the site, use the search field, or use the tag registry on the left of the site.

Here you will find a well stocked library of books on architects, designers, and the places that immortalized the MCM style. Books on people such as: A. Quincy Jones, Albert Frey, Marcel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames, Craig Ellwood, Eero Saarinen, Oscar Niemeyer, and many others are available and easy to find.

Many designers even have multiple books available thru the site, offering you the ability of view carefully view your options before purchasing. For each book you will find a well written description of the book present so you know what you are looking at. Making it easier to decide on your purchases before you make them. 

Photo Source: www.midcenturymodernbooks.com

Another important feature of Mid-Century Modern Books.com is the film selection. Here you will find films on a few of the famous designers of the Mid-century Modern Era, as well as some films on the likes of Julius Shulman and a couple other topics. 

It is important to understand that Mid-Century Modern Books.com is not, by any means, the be all end all source for mid-century books and films. Put simply, it is a simple to use, well maintained, but somewhat limited reference source/library, where one can link to books for sale. From what I noticed, it seems all the books and films are being sold thru a third party store that you are linked to for final purchase. Please don't let this deter you. This site has been well maintained and some amount of work has gone into the referencing of the information provided. So, it's still a valid site to visit.

While, there are a good number of books on the Mid-Century Modern Books.com site, as I mentioned before, it still does not cover all the books available.  If you are interested in other Mid-Century design oriented books that Mid-Century Modern Books.com is not promoting, then you may want to look at the books I have found on Ebay.com that my be of interest to you. Below you will find books on Blenko Glass. There are however, many other mid-century modern books that are not featured in this app.

Chimay Bleue: Perspectives That Keep Me Intrigued

Some time back, when I was much more active on Flickr, I found a stream that followed with a keen eye. This stream belonged to Darren Bradley of Chimay Bleue fame. Chimay's, or Darren's, flickr was incredible to me, because every time I search a Mid-century topic on google or on Flickr, his photos came up very quickly. On top of that, they were really good.

A number of month went by with me watching Chimay's Bleue's photo stream, and I started to realize just how deep his interest in, and enthusiasm for Mid-century design went. This, his photostream. All the travel, detail, investigation, and hours of photo editing were done for one reason. Passion for design. That really impressed me. So, I decided to ask him to do an interview with me, and he did. Since that interview, some 2 (more or less) years ago, he's just keep on going.


So, a week or so ago, I asked our inspired friend to select some of his favorite photos for me to do another post with. I asked him to do so, because when it comes to Chimay Bleue's photos, I just can't seem to make up my mind which ones I like best. Well... It seems Darren is in the same fix. Being as such, he kindly went thru and selected some of his works, and even put them in a special set for Amidst Mod. A appreciated that very much. As that's the case, the photos you see on the post are all his, and they are spectacular!

Now, just a little information about Chimay Bleue (Darren) and his photos. While not a professional photographer, he takes his photography seriously. As you can see in the photos. Also, he does a good job of labeling his photos so that you know what you are looking at. You'll see that he has a number of William Krisel* homes featured and his own house is, indeed by Mr. Krisel*. However, he's not a architect snob. No... He has taken photos of any number of buildings and houses by the likes of Viljo Revell*, Albert Frey*, Risley and Gould, Lautner*, and many other Mid-century modern architects*. While you'll see a nice grouping in this post, that's not all there is to see. Check out more here. Also, don't forget to read the interview with Chimay Bleue here.

Amidst Mod, a set by Chimay Bleue on Flickr.