I like to keep a pile of books handy on my livingroom sideboard. New or worth a revisit. These are the ones are the current beauties keeping me inspired and interested.

• Maus by Art Spiegelman. I’m late to Maus and not sure why I waited so long. Half way through it now. Wow it’s good.
• People by Blexbolex. I bought this is the children’s section in my local book shop, Little Apple Books, York. Not sure what the kids think of the dead body, demon and executioner. I love it.
• The Specialist by Charles Sale. I found this a few months ago in a charity shop. It took me a while to realise it was the story of a outhouse carpenter. Beautifully illustrated by William Kermode
• Space Race by Tom Clohosy Cole. Nobrow can do no wrong. I love the concertina format and story through bold illustration.
• Bricks and Brickwork by The Brick Development Association in 1974. I found this at my Mum’s at Christmas. An old architecture book that belonged to my Dad at the period when he was most inspired by his profession.
• Passages by Mark Steculorum. I picked this up in a supercool bike shop in Bruges last year. The photographs document crowds that gather to watch cycling in the spring.
• New York Drawings Adrian Tomine. A decade of Tomine’s illustrations mostly for The New Yorker. It includes some great comic strips based on his life.
• Wilder Mann by Charles Freger I’m a fan of collections and also photos that document and become a collection (think Bernd and Hilla Becher) Freger documents the costumes of people that traditionally dress as the ‘savage’. Beautifully photographed in a lovely designed book.
• The Pot Book Edmund De Waal. My brother bought a copy for my aunt, who is a potter. It’s so good went out and bought myself a copy.
• Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco. Spotted this one at Page 45 in Nottingham. It’s next on the pile to read, I’m looking forward to it.

I enjoyed York Book Fair this year. I treat it more of a visual indulgence than a shopping experience, an art gallery where I am allowed to handle the pieces of work. I came away with a modest Puffin Picture book and lots of photos of the unique book seller’s signs.

Richard J Hodgson told me that he went to get a sign made but after he left the sign maker thought that he could do something a little more exciting than the one ordered. When Richard turned up to collect his sign he found this wonderful book shaped one waiting for him.

Thinking of today’s festivities I was reminded of the book ‘Haunted Air’ by Ossian Brown, published in 2010, it contains a collection of found Halloween photographs c1875-1955. It’s simple in design and you feel like you are leafing through the photos themselves. Illustrating a bygone Halloween without mass produced plastic bloodshed, the monochrome homemade costumes and anonymous forgotten people make it a beautiful and haunting book.

Letters from the People is a large scale beautifully designed book. Beginning with single letters and numbers and ending with graffiti and found words. Friedlander captures ephemeral typography and the written word in his wonderfully warm documentary style.

I’ve just returned from a perfect weekend in Staithes on the North Yorkshire Coast. Sunshine though-out the day and surrounded by books in the evening. These are just a few that caught my eye.

It’s national book day. I love books with a mild obsession. ‘Glass in domestic building’ is a recent purchase from Janette Ray books in York. Published in 1957 by Pilkington Brothers it promotes modern glass design while selling all their wares in the back of the book – handy that! I particularity like the illustrations and blocks of bright fresh yellow – a taste of modernity.

‘Tied up in Tinsel’ by Ngaio Marsh. Cover design by George Critchard. 1973