famous people reading: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

This looks like a great way to spend a birthday—reading and sunbathing on a car bonnet in Martha’s Vineyard. The pic is from New York Jackie: Pictures from Her Life in the City and was taken on her 60th birthday.

She’s reading The Most Beautiful House in the World, which I gather is a bit like a cerebral version of Grand Designs! The author is architect and prolific author, Witold Ryczynski—a man of forthright and strongly held opinion, including:

“Television watching should more properly be called television staring; it engages eye and ear simultaneously in a relentless and persistent way and leaves no room for daydreaming. This is what makes watching such an inferior form of leisure.”

“The most beautiful house in the world is the one that you build for yourself.”

Hard to disagree with either of those!

P.S. Three of our favourite picture books about home for the younger people in your life: Home, The Journey Home, Milo: a moving story 

New York Jackie: Pictures from Her Life in the City and The Most Beautiful House in the World are linked to Book Depository—but Amazon might be cheaper for North American readers.

Photo credit: Huffington Post