I’m so happy to have received my beautiful copy of Mundo Mendo, Book One. by the wonderful Luis Mendo. It’s a fantastic collection of stories, illustration and wisdom from his subscriber-funded website mundomendo.com

Based in Japan, Spanish designer and illustrator Mendo’s book is a collection of visual musings – ranging from the importance of personal projects to a book festival in Tokyo, from lunch with author Craig Mod to avoiding doom scrolling.

The 272 page book, published in a limited edition of 1,000 and signed by Mendo, is in the Japanese bunkobon size (more or less A6) – dead easy to carry around. And as he says on his website, you don’t buy the book, you support the artist.

It’s a really beautiful thing, and quietly inspirational. Mendo’s illustrations have a timeless quality about them, and he captures light exquisitely (check out the stunning prints available on his luismendo.com website, and his Home Stayer series of faux magazine covers.)

It’s illuminating to ponder how the book format differs from the experience of reading Mendo’s posts on his Mundo Mendo site. I came to them fresh, having not yet subscribed to the site. They don’t enjoy the benefit of size that they do online, but they do have a permanence in book form that no website can match, and the format of the book has a friendly presence that can’t be replicated by the agnostic screen of a mobile device or computer. And although I’m sharing the book here digitally, I’ll feel far happier sharing the book with people in person.