Point Books During Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Original Title:	Color: A Natural History of the Palette
ISBN:	0812971426 (ISBN13: 9780812971422)
Edition Language:	English

Color: A Natural History of the Palette Paperback | Pages: 464 pages

Present Containing Books Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Title	:	Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Author	:	Victoria Finlay
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 464 pages
Published	:	December 30th 2003 by Random House Trade Paperbacks (first published 2003)
Categories	:	Nonfiction. Art. History. Science. Travel. Art History. Microhistory

Narrative To Books Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Discover the tantalizing true stories behind your favorite colors. For example: Cleopatra used saffron—a source of the color yellow—for seduction. Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue “ultramarine” paint used by Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn’t afford to buy it himself. Since ancient times, carmine red—still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today—has come from the blood of insects.

Rating Containing Books Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Ratings: 3.78 From 62110 Users | 638 Reviews

Notice Containing Books Color: A Natural History of the Palette

I picked this up on a whim at my local library, as it sat on a display of rainbow colors. (I have to plug my amazing local library here for a moment -- they always have the most engaging displays, some books chosen for their subject matter and others for their aesthetic.) I made sure that it was okay that I was "ruining" the librarian's display, and she of course told me I was welcome to check out the book. On her very first page, she recounts the story of when she was taken to Chartres

The disclaimers "I imagine", "perhaps", "possibly", "it could be that" appear in this NON-FICTION book far more times than they should. While I liked the content of about three-quarters of the book, it infuriated me at times when the author would suddenly start presenting the material through the eyes of a character, "imagining" their experiences, travels, and accomplishments. This first rears its head around page 81, when the tone of her book changes to speculate about an imaginary Corinthian

Funny story with this book - got to page 112 and discovered that pages 113 to 146 were missing! Thankfully, Random House (publisher) came to the rescue and sent me a replacement copy. Until it came I was in suspense about how ladies used to poison themselves (by accident) with white cosmetics that were made from lead.This book was interesting not only for the information about colors, but also for the author's travels. She went to great lengths to get to the source of some colors, and along the

This book too me an inordinate amount of time to get through. And although I'm not primarily a nonfiction reader, this time it had nothing to do with the book itself or really nothing to do with the quality of the book. The quality was awesome. Finlay's writing was engaging and humorous and her journeys around the world to some of the most random and strange in an out of the way sort of places to discover the history of color were enlightening, educating and very entertaining. The reason it took

As a part-time quilter (impartial to scrappy rainbow quilts) part-time scientist with a dream to travel the world one day, I loved Finlays Colour. I really enjoyed the mix of travel stories, snippets from history and personal anecdotes while Finlay travelled the world to discover how each colour of the paintbox came about. Rather than reading it all in one go, this book was great to have on my bedside to pick up and read a chapter or story between fiction novels, if I only had a short time to

If I were a history buff, I'm sure I'd have found it at least a little bit lovely. But a history buff I am not, and the first 28 pages were some pretty dry reading and gives non-fiction a bad name.

The disclaimers "I imagine", "perhaps", "possibly", "it could be that" appear in this NON-FICTION book far more times than they should. While I liked the content of about three-quarters of the book, it infuriated me at times when the author would suddenly start presenting the material through the eyes of a character, "imagining" their experiences, travels, and accomplishments. This first rears its head around page 81, when the tone of her book changes to speculate about an imaginary Corinthian