Jacobson - Carry This Book

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Abbi is a visionary. She is fiercely creative, and her voracious imagination is pal- pable on these pages. Her illustration is a world I want to literally jump into and live in, and Im closer to it than ever before with Carry This Book. Its interactive and voyeuristic, and the most delicious part is seeing inside Abbis curious, ro- mantic mind. Ilana Glazer

Weve been asked whats in our wallets. Weve been told whats in a name. Now Abbi looks at whats in the bags and suitcases of real and fictional people. Homer Simpson? Check. Michael Jordan? Check. Anna Wintour? Check. Looking at these illustrations and trying to guess who they belong to is like an inside-out game of Wheres Waldo? You know whats amazing? After I was done reading, I emptied out my own Kipling bag, and this book was in it. Questlove

Abbi is very smart. And she can write. And she can draw. She conquers all. Abbisolutely. Maira Kalman

Using a comedic, ingenious blurring of reality and fantasy, Abbi has created a wondrous peek into secret worlds. Her work captures something essential about her subjects, allowing us to revel and delight in an imagined space. Carry This Book is visually enchanting and a joy to read. Carrie Brownstein

The hilarious and lovely Abbi Jacobson is in book form. Fantastic!

Aziz Ansari

Viking

Hi.

I wonder how this book made its way into your hands. You might have bought it because you are into Broad City , or someone gave it to you as a gift (solid friend), or maybe youre sitting in a dope waiting room full of cool books. How- ever you stumbled upon it, youre here and Im glad. So... What the fuck is this book? Is it a coffee-table book? I think so... I always wanted to make a book people would display on their coffee tables. You might be at some interesting, attractive persons house and THIS IS ON THEIR COFFEE TABLE!? Probably. Obviously. Thats gotta be a high percentage of you.

So, welcome to my book. Let me give you a bit of an introduction to what youre about to get into:

I have always been intrigued by what people carry around with them. It can tell you everything. I like how people organize their things, their wallets, their cars, their bags, etc. We are curating our worlds almost constantly with the items we choose to bring with us.

How many tiny choices do you make every single morning before you leave for work? SO MANY. Are you going out after? Is it going to rain? Are you run- ning any errandsdo you have any coupons or cards for specific stores you need to bring? Do you have to mail anything? Is there a big presentation today? Do you have to get fancier at some point during the dayput on makeup or change shoes? Hot dateis sex a possibility? When you add up all these little questions and all their little answers, you get to the stuff that separates one day from the next. The way we approach and react to all these questions is what interests me. I wonder what you carry around with you.

So, what is this book?

Every page is someones stuff: I made a list of famous people and fictional characters and imagined what they might carry around with them. This book is my own sort of fan fictionfull of objects I think make people refreshingly inter- esting or refreshingly normal. We all have a lot more in common than we might know, and to think some of the worlds greatest makers and shakers also have to remind themselves to buy more toilet paper is something I find worth noting.

Why these people?

The people included in this book were chosen for a variety of reasons. When I first pitched this idea, I wanted to explore my fascination with the fact that by simply seeing someones belongings, you could gather so much information about them. I wanted to pick people that you would know in some way, people who have a historical influence on our cultureinvolved in politics, a prolific writer or musician, a known celebrity. I wanted to include famous fictional char- acters as well, as I thought it would be fun to explore what I knew about them while breaking the mold a bit.

I did some basic research and some deep Internet dives and chose facts I wanted to comment on in some way. I didnt include everything, and obviously all these people are more multidimensional than these illustrations. These are just a slice of them, and what I wanted to highlight, to poke fun at, to expose. Some of it might not make total sense, but it might spark some curiosity.

Introduction

For instance, Einstein hated to wear sockshe never wore them. So when you see on his page that he carries a pair (in case anyone gives him shit), it might not make total sense to you at first. But now it will and this was a HUGE SPOILER ALERT by the way.

My callouts throughout the book are from me directly to you. Youll see. Youll get it.

So I say, let this book wash over you like a spring breeze. Open yourself up to looking through peoples fake bags and be a voyeur into my colorful land of fake shit. The world is a scary fucking place and maybe this will take your mind off something terrible for a little while. Honestly, if thats the case then Ive done my job.

Introduction