A review by clairelorraine
The Selby Is in Your Place by Lesley Arfin

4.0

This book is kind of the point of coffee table books - jumping in anywhere is beautiful and interesting and inspiring. Sure, it was annoying that a couple subjects had bogus claims to creative fame, like "muse," but whatever, they had cool spaces and that's the whole point. One criticism - what's up with all the taxidermy?? Sometimes I felt like all the people were "creative" with their spaces in exactly the same trendy, hipstery ways. All the vintage toy collections? Enough! That's one of the only reasons why I wouldn't give this 5 stars - it sometimes seemed like everyone was being different in the same way and that Selby was trying to capture people's spaces just because they were good-looking and cool and "a huge player in the scene" (his words, not mine!). That popularity-contest way of picking subjects seems kind of shitty/boring. It reminded me of a hipster version of how only the popular kids showed up frequently in the "candids!!" in high school yearbooks. But maybe I'm just jealous???? Ha. Individuality did still shine through and I love the questionnaires and Selby's little info bits on the stuff! And most importantly, the photos are gorgeoussss.