Tara books

Haven't seen any reviews or pics from Tara books so here's a couple. I got two books from them: The night life of trees, which seems to be their bestseller, and Deep.

Night life came in a cotton bag with a simple yet lovely magnetic closing mechanism at the top, Deep came naked. Both are on the larger side -- Night life is 33x23cm, while Deep is 30x28cm.

The Night Life of Trees is a silkscreen-printed art book of tree lore from the Gond tribe in central India, printed on black archival paper though it does not state which one.

Deep is also silkscreen-printed by hand on recycled cotton paper. From what I understand, they make their own paper for the books. Covers for Deep were made by marbling so each cover is unique. This is a book about two young from the indigenous Warli community in western India going to Japan and then recording their impressions in the form of this book. It's quite unique as it opens bottom to top. This makes is a bit awkward to read/examine, but still an interesting take.

Overall, really lovely books, can totally recommend. What I was perhaps most surprised by was that the price of the books included express DHL shipping and the books arrived from India to mainland Europe in 3 days. Compare this with paying like 20 GBP extra for a book on ebay that has been in transit for a week now from the UK...

Thanks for posting. This is a fascinating book.

Thanks for sharing your pics! We were discussing Tara Books a while back in another thread, but there weren't many photos or reviews. I like their stuff quite a lot and have a number of their titles, including their perennial The Night Life of Trees. I have all four of their Greek Play books, I'll see if I can get some photos up soon, as they are striking works.

>3 Shadekeep: Here ya go: Review of Hippolytos from Tara Books.

The Handmade Books series are typically 'silkscreen-printed on paper recycled from cotton waste'. https://tarabooks.com/product-category/books/handmade-books/
Updated link: https://tarabooks.com/product-category/books/handmade/

I personally find Tara Books to be an extension of the handicrafts movement focused on publishing children's books, indigenous/ tribal artists and contemporary themes all the while employing a local production unit. Their latest venture into 'experimental content' is A Stitch Out of Time - the making of which you can read about here: https://tarabooks.com/blog/hidden-threads-making-a-stitch-out-of-time/
Their website claims to comprise a 'collective of writers, designers and book artisans who favour a non-hierarchical mode of functioning, informed by feminism and other movements for social justice'.
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gita_Wolf

That said, TNLOT is definitely their magnum opus till date.
More here: https://tarabooks.com/blog/tree-covers-the-night-life-of-trees-keeps-growing/

The Deep is a limited production of 2000 copies. Japanese stab binding has been used.
More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KyQGREuPVU

Of the 4 Greek plays, only Antigone comes in a slipcase - made of at least 350gsm cardstock.

ETA: Updated link to Handmade series

>1 filox: I have the deep and love it. I’ve always keep meaning to buy the Night Life of Trees and never get around to it because I get distracted by their other books. You’ve given me a gentle nudge off that fence.

Also, for anyone who’s interested, they also do letterpress at times. Legend of the Fish and Little Girls are Wiser than Men are letterpress printed, maybe there are more but these are the only two I have that are.

Since a number of folks already seem familiar with the Greek works, here are some of their other handmade books I have.

Beasts of India contains animal illustrations done in various indigenous styles.



SSSS is a book of snake folklore and illustrations done in a heavily abstract, almost calligraphic, style. The binding on this one is quite tight so I'm having to hold it open in the photo.



In the Land of Punctuation is especially delightful. It's a poem about the various punctuation symbols rising up and going to war against the semicolons. The artwork uses only punctuation symbols, and the printing is in red and black. The surface area of this one is quite large, even larger than TNLOT.

>7 Shadekeep: My copy of Night Life of Trees is absolutely stunning, and I'm looking at making another order, but I tend to avoid large oblong books since I just can't feasibly shelf many of them.

Are most of the ones pictured relatively small in format like SSSS where I can see your hand for scale, or some of them as massive as Tress?

>8 NathanOv: Beasts and SSSS are smaller books, yes. Roughly as tall as a Thornwillow chapbook, but hardbound. Eyeballing the four Greek play books from my desk, they look a couple inches shorter than Trees.

>9 Shadekeep: Good to know, thanks!

I also have Nightlife of Trees, I was introduced to Tara Books by an article in the magazine Parenthesis which enclosed a sheet of purple hand-made paper printed with a snake, that I have preserved carefully. Have been following them for years.

Thanks for the thread, >1 filox:! I only knew of their existence from their paper; I guess I never looked any deeper than that, for whatever reason.
>9 Shadekeep: I love the very concept of "In the Land of Punctuation" and I looked at Tara's website: what a deal! I like it so much that I may actually buy a book from an active press for a change!
Enablers! The whole lot of you!

>12 DenimDan: Ha ha, happy to enable! I hope you enjoy it, it's one of my favorite picks from them.

Tara is having a notebook sale at the moment. Some cute items! https://tarabooks.com/product-category/notebooks/

From the email: Buy 3, get 1 free on all notebooks! Use code ‘NOTES’ at checkout.

While researching something else, I came across this article in Parenthesis #19 (Autumn 2010, pp. 7-9): Tara Books: India's Fine Press Success Story.

Well, the Fine Press Book Association seems to consider Tara a resident of the Fine Press realm. And they were way ahead of us...by 12 years!

25% off everything for the next 25 hours in celebration of 28 years of publishing at Tara Books.

Now Folio Society should do 75% of for their 75 years celebration, for 75 hours.

>17 fp13:
I’ll hang around for 2047, then!

>16 mr.philistine:

Thank you very much for mentioning the discount here. I decided to complete the set of Greek stories and added The Deep to it.

They write that all taxes and customs are taken care of beforehand, and I hope that will work with German customs.

Couldn't resist. Grabbed a copy of Antigone to accompany my copy of Hippolytos. Used my Tara coins for another $6.50 discount. Helped to take the sting out of the shipping costs. Thanks for the tip-off on the 25%.

>20 Glacierman:

You actually get free shipping at a very reasonable threshold. In my case (shipping to Germany), it was covered by two of the antique-drama books.

>21 SF-72: I know. My budget allowed for the one book.

>17 fp13: Beware what you wish for... Folio Society Summer Sale 2022 now LIVE with up to 75% off selected titles!

Just received my Antigone. It came with a wholly unexpected bonus: an illustrated slipcase! Color me tickled.

>25 Glacierman: It is nice. That's the only one of the four Greek dramas that is slipcased, incidentally.

>26 Shadekeep: Well, darn.

>27 Glacierman: I feel ya. It would be sweet if all four were cased. They are all nice books at least.

FWIW.. One, Two, Free! Get 10% off sitewide and the chance to win festive freebies with every order placed before December 14th (2022).

>29 mr.philistine:

Thank you for mentioning this, I just bought three books from them.

>29 mr.philistine: me too, I ordered two books, plus a flukebook, and some cards. All delivered in a sturdy carton printed on one side with a drawing from the Nightlife of Trees, very quickly, by DHL. The only problem being that I have been charged customs dues. Oh well, that happens sometimes. The quality of the paper and printing is first class; I'm very pleased with the flukebook which has thick creamy blank pages and a ribbon marker.

>31 overthemoon:

In my case, the pre-paid tax option worked without a glitch each time. I'm in the EU in case that plays a role.

>I'm in Switzerland, didn't see anything about a pre-paid tax option. DHL paid what Customs asked for, and have billed me.

Oh, I have just seen that it says on the website "We handle and pay all taxes worldwide". So I'll get in touch with them.

New Year 20-23% SALE at Tara Books

From 20th to 23rd January 2023, we’re giving you 20–23% off everything in our webstore. This is applicable across all our books, stationery, art prints and more—the offer auto-applies at checkout.

Tara Books is offering up 10 out-of-print books that they found additional stock off, at 20% off. The list of links is here: https://msha.ke/tara_books

15% off new title Seed till 29 March 2024. Artwork by Vayeda brothers - same guys who did The Deep.
Link to book: https://tarabooks.com/shop/seed/
Link to blog post: https://tarabooks.com/blog/to-seed/

>36 mr.philistine:

Thank you very much for sharing this. I just bought the book.

25% sitewide discount from 28 July June till 08 July, 2024 to celebrate 30 years of publishing at Tara Books.

>38 mr.philistine:

Thank you very much. I just bought some books for a friend and myself. All the books I have of them so far are beautifully done, very creative, and I love the thoughtful content, too.

>39 SF-72: My pleasure. If you have their Travelling Patterns (set of 4 books?), what do you make of it?

Link to book: https://tarabooks.com/shop/travelling-patterns/
Link to blog post: https://tarabooks.com/blog/journeys-in-print-travelling-patterns/

>40 mr.philistine:

That's one I don't have, sorry. I have and really enjoyed their Greek tragedies, Seed, Sun and Moon, The Deep, and Creation. This time I ordered The Circle of Fate and The Night Life of Trees. Of their non-handmade books, I've got Water and just bought Alphabets are Amazing Animals second hand.

>41 SF-72: Thanks for your recommendations. Are your standard hardback titles (Water etc..) glue bound?

>42 mr.philistine:

No, the two I have are sewn. The quality is still quite nice, just not on the level of their handmade books when it comes to the paper or the ways of printing.

>43 SF-72: Tara Books have confirmed that their 'hardcover books are section stitched and then stuck to the hardcase'.

Based on your recommendation of non-handmade books, I ordered Water and Origins of Art.

Detailed reviews of Tara Books titles are hard to come by. Their YouTube channel, reviews on LT and Goodreads have been my sources. I recently discovered several reviews on The Marginalian including one for Water here: https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/08/29/water-subhash-vyam/

This live chat video on FaceBook dated 15 May, 2020 discusses Origins of Art: https://www.facebook.com/TaraBooks/videos/3239700786081826/

While the product page for this title mentions 'Offset-printed with screen-printed insert', the book designer in the above video shows several pages of screen-printed handmade sheets bound into this 200-page book (at 17:02).

Origins of Art collects various illustrations from past titles - most of which I do not own, and presents them alongside similar photographs from the homes and surrounding forests that the indigenous artists came from.

I look forward to receiving my books.

>44 mr.philistine:

Those reviews are interesting, and I hadn't noticed Origins of Art before. As a result, I just made a second order: Origins of Art, I saw a peacock with a fiery tail (the die cuts look great, and the idea sounds fascinating), A rooster for a pet, and Hic! I became interested in the last two about being quite amused about my recently purchased Alphabets are Amazing Animals. This should be really interesting. You've certainly enable me. Thank you!

There is a review of one Tara Books edition, Seed, at https://www.librarything.com/topic/359666

Here's another for one of the Greek plays: https://www.librarything.com/topic/323076

Someone did a review of Trees on this forum, also.

There was a review of Tara Books back in 2010: Parenthesis #19 (Autumn 2010, pp. 7-9)

Considering the interest in Tara Books, I have reviewed another one of their editions, "A Stitch Out of Time", at https://www.librarything.com/topic/361830

>48 wcarter:

Thank you.

Origins of Art just arrived in my mailbox, it is hardback, 200pp, was on sale and I had some coins to redeem; it was also delivered very quickly with no customs hassle (unlike last time).
I am delighted with it.

15% off art prints and 10% off books till 31 Dec, 2024.