The House of Glam

Gestalten, approx. $150

Too much, even as the vaguest of quantities, seems as if it does not exist in this book. Yet there is something measured, even precise, in the interiors it contains. From a library with a gold-leaf ceiling to an apartment with a style dubbed ‘exotic futurable’, they have all required a well of wit, in the sense of imaginative thinking and shrewd intelligence. The pocket of young designers pushing this maximalism forward has, in turn, found ingenious ways to make rooms feel like more than rooms, as if the spaces were, instead, identities or extensions of identities. 

The House of Glam is a rip-roaring ride into an assortment of visual feasts from homes around the world, serving insights on expressive decoration from some of its foremost masters (Dimorestudio, Nina Yashar and David Alhadeff included). 

Novel Houses: Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings

Christina Hardyment, Bodleian Library, $69.99

There’s a cool satisfaction in visiting the 20 fictional homes included in Novel Houses, after they’ve slid off the pages of one book and into the pages of another. Amidst the pangs of nostalgia for the likes of J.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Bag End and Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, they emerge forcefully as characters, primed by plot outlines and backgrounds on the real-life places that inspired them. 

Treasures: The Vintage & Secondhand Shopping Guide to the World

Edited by Hannah Canham, This Era Archive, approx. $49

This little guidebook is a travel companion for the collector, the finder, the taste-maker. Twenty-three creatives each recommend their five favourite vintage stores, second-hand shops and flea markets in a city of their choice. The result: a handsome guide spanning 25 cities. For Auckland finds, turn to page 162 where the owners of Ponsonby clothing boutique Wixii are among the book’s contributors.