It seems like Steven Harrington is always up to something. He’s like our own personal Ryan Adams. The guy is always busy. After pulling off his traveling art show for his Our Mountain book and spending the summer traversing the European continent, the National Forest Design principle is back in the States. That doesn’t mean he’ll be kicking up his feet any time soon. Harrington is set to release Our Mountain domestically, and what book release would be complete without a book release party? Answer: No book release. So in order to celebrate more stellar output, Harrington along with Sixpack France will be presenting their own little shindig at the Subliminal Projects Gallery on L.A.’s Sunset Blvd on Thursday September 4th from 6 to 10 p.m. Steven and book designer John Harrington will be signing copies of their new book. So if you’re in the mood for a good time gathering and getting a sneak peek at some fine work, we recommend being there.

Snowboarders often migrate to the skateboard for the summer. The guys at Blotto Photto are no different — except they also document their efforts with soaring photographs and websites. Summer is about to end and they’ve got some new things to show from their skateboarding season before booking their snowboarding trips. Check out their new website featuring some amazing photographs for skating/snowboarding. If you were a fan of the 28 Days of Winter book we blogged about about a year ago, its the skateboarder’s turn with (UP)Rising Sonz! The book captures the excitement of first stepping on a skateboard photographs of the sport and the culture.

eBoy is everywhere. If you’re a geek, you saw their poster for MakerFaire. If you like beats, you picked up the latest issue of BPM. And if you collect toys, you have an opinion on their Peecol figures. Now eBoy has teamed up with JoshSpear favorite ROJO for the production of a limited edition monographic book entitled Schmock. The 160-page book contains photos and art in the eBoy style. You can pick up a copy for 30 Euros, or indulge in the bookpack where you get all four “new edicions” (Clayton Brothers, Veljko Onjin, eBoy and Robert Hardgrave) for the price of three. Have a look at the rest of the ROJO shop too. Toy fans may want to pick up copies of the mongraphic books by Dalek, Friends With You and Jon Burgerman. All ROJO editions are limited to 500 copies.

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Our favorite minds at Viction:ary have been busy. Earlier this year, they released Printwork, that showcased different designers demonstrating their printing techniques. Now, they’re about to release Musikgraphics, a book that claims to visualize the rhythm of music. And no, hallucinogenics aren’t required (though they might help). For the 288-page book the editors pulled together images and photographs from a variety of record covers, concert posters, and music packaging across many genres of music. You’ll have to make up your own soundtrack.

Being able to fit a book in your back pocket is a dream for urban dwellers. The problem is that that book is probably either a cheesy guidebook or a moleskin. The Cupboard is taking the pocket-size book market very seriously, by inviting an author to write a collection of very short stories that fit in very thin books. We were ecstatic to see they invited Jesse Ball to complete their first edition. We first discovered Jesse Ball in the Paris Review years ago, after which he received much deserved acclaim for his books March Book and Vera & Linus. The stories are one or two pages, which is perfect when you have five minutes to kill. And the literature is good enough for multiple reads.

WARNING: If you’re even a little bit squeamish you might not want to watch the Something Bad is Going To Happen Here trailer. The disturbing visuals, part of a viral campaign for Andrew Davison’s debut novel “The Gargoyle”, provide a do-it-yourself manual for inflicting trauma comparable to the ones suffered by the book’s main character. The plot focuses on a severe burn victim who, after a life (and physique) altering accident, is visited by a woman who claims to have know him over several lives. If you’re not a fan of melting flesh or new authors, you might want to wait until the next post.

If you’re planning on catching some waves while you’re sitting on top of the world this summer, you’ve got to know your fellow surfers’ lingo. There’s nothing worse than boosting through a barrel on your beavertail and not knowing what that means. Thankfully, A-Side studio has done a fine job putting together a guide to everything pantheon pipeliners need to know. The Book of Surfing: The Killer Guide combs the beach for all of the important tidbits of surf culture, covering everything from classic surf graphics to the tunes of Brian Wilson. It’s totally worth hanging ten for … or however much it costs.

Most guide books are, well, dull. And even if you think you’ve picked the “local” spots, you’re likely to end up at the same bar or strip club with all the other tourists. Lame. But check out the new book Art Space Tokyo, and you’ll be able to really find what you’ve been looking for — at least in Japan.

The book introduces you to the neighborhoods that house the most important art galleries in the city by pairing illustrations by artists such as Nobumasa Takahashi and Craig Mod, with insightful descriptions of the areas and suggestions of spots to check out. Follow it, and we doubt you’ll run into any loud, gum-smacking tourists.

Remember the Camp Camp book we were giving away to folks who sent in their pictures of the good ol’ camp days? Oh yeah, that one. Well, it didn’t work. In retrospect we realized the likelihood of having a digital version of your camp year debauchery photos was probably quite low. So with that said, we’re back again with another contest, and this time it’s a hell of a lot easier to enter. Tell us your funniest camp stories, make us laugh or giggle the most and you win. Pranks, first kisses, hazing– we want to hear it all.

Or if you’re just too lazy to tell us stories of your life, go buy the book on Amazon. It’s funny, very funny.

We've talked about Alexandre Orion when he released his first book about his concept of Metabiotics — interaction between his street paintings and the photographs taken of them. A year and a half later the Wooster Special Edition project is releasing a new book, giving Alexandre the attention and space to define his artistic vision, and also display his work on both the street and in galleries. Aside from being a beautifully designed book, it comes with a hand cut stencil, so you can spend your summer outside tagging buildings in promotion of Orion. Copies of the book and stencil are limited to 200 … that means hurry.

There’s no question that Harrison Ford has played two of the greatest roles in film history. While we might have our own personal reasons as to why we think Indiana Jones is much cooler than Han Solo, no one’s ever really qualified their abilities to answer the burning question, “who would come out on top of this character conflict if they ever met in a dark alley?” Unfortunately, this query has been left hanging up in the air for a generation of nerds to ponder … until now. Thanks to the hard work of Jake Kalish, a freelance writer and humorist who’s work has appeared in Details and Men’s Fitness, we now have some idea who would win this epic battle. In his new book Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights, Kalish pits some of the most revered names in history and pop culture in a series of Icono-clashes and manages to crown winners with the assistance of expert analysts, martial arts masters, scientists, social theorists, and pop-culture philosophers. So if you’re the type who’s ever argued that Gandalf could overpower Obi-Wan, you finally have your definitive answer … sort of.

Emoticons are that part of the Internet we make fun of tweens for using, but mockery quickly turns into imitation, and next thing you know you’re trading text messages with your girlfriend by giving her a kiss :*. Until you see a book of typeface focusing solely on emoticons, you won't understand how attractive emoticons can be. Designer Allison Wilton just finished her BFA with a thesis project that takes sixteen hand crafted art books and explores the born digitals with "aspects of the World Wide Web that bombard society daily." The books were on display as a part of her BFA graduate show and hopefully they will see the light of day again soon. The books showcase a well-designed project, but her newly launched website puts her in the category of names we expect to see atop the design world.

Our pal Stinger, the Netherlands-based designer behind Zeptonn Labs, has finally dropped his latest book project, Black & White Freedrawings. So named thanks to the no restrictions given, no holds barred approach to the 160 drawings held inside, the book offers over 132 eco-friendly pages of collab-y art between Stinger and house favorites like Jesse Hora, Undoboy, and Shin Tanaka.

If you were wise enough to get your hands on a copy of Stingermania, you already know that Stinger’s books are more fun than a water slide in the summertime. However, unlike his other publications, there are only 450 copies of the first edition of Black & White Freedrawings, and the heavy beast is unbearably pricey to ship internationally (75 bucksies). In fact, unless you do happen to live in Europe, your chances of ever touching this book are slim to none– which is a crappy thought, especially for those of us who are about to give away one of the only copies of the book to ever touch American soil (that happens to come with some very nice giclee prints as well)… Sigh.

Yes, we’ve got one. For you, from Zeptonn. And you can have it if you are the first person to correctly answer the following question: what philosopher initially inspired Stinger to get his Master’s degree in Philosophy? Leave your answer in a comment to this post, yo.

Site pal and PSFK man-in-charge Piers Fawkes is at it again, this time with his Snapshot San Francisco book series. His team has taken to the streets to put together a snapshot report of what they call the most unique when it comes to events, businesses, organizations and ideas in the most inspirational cities in the world– and they’re starting with San Francisco. Grab one for your nearest coffee table in Softcover for $30, Hardcover for lifetimes to come for $60.

Camp, a favorite (often forgotten) American kids past time. Everyone went — if you didn’t go, you wished you could have. It was the one place on earth where appropriated Native American terminology, competitive sports, social hierarchy, and libido-soaked nights lived in wholesome harmony. From the acclaimed authors of Bar Mitzvah Disco (who hasn’t seen that book?), I give you, Camp Camp, Where Fantasty Island Meets Lord Of The Flies. The book’s a riot — a collection of photos by author and borderline genius Roger Bennett, a founding member of what he calls the Academy of the Recent Past. He’s on a mission to save, catalog, and celebrate the very recent past — things, trends and items that shaped this new generation. You know, like ping pong, bands that tried to rock and failed, and of course, camp.

Fancy a book and don’t want to go buy it now on Amazon? We’ve got three to give away to folks that have great, endearing (and embarrassing) photos to share from their days on the bunk beds and in the pine forests. Send your photo entries to feedback [at] joshspear.com and we’ll pick winners next week.