I just read Taking Things Seriously:75 Objects with Unexpected Significance by Joshua Glenn & Carol Hayes today. [you can get a lot done when you get to school 7 hours before a class!] It was such an interesting book with amazing stories. I was expecting more heart wrenching, emotional stories with the objects but most were just random. It was just the book I needed to read for inspiration. It was an easier read than the essay/ deeper thinking art books; it was a breath of fresh air compared to some of my other readings. Sometimes it's nice to read something that you don't have to reread several times to try and understand what the heck they are saying. Another refreshing, inspirational book was The Uncommon Life of Common Objects: Essays on Design and the everyday by Akiko Busch. Busch picked out several objects in her life and studied them as more than an ordinary object.