Alexa Chung |

Now that the end of year celebration is behind us, I thought what better way to start 2014 than with a book review. Yes, I said book review. Fear not, dear reader, I won’t ramble on about Sartre or Camus (though “L’étranger” is a marvelous book!); instead, I decided to review a book that most fashion fans wanted to get their hands on last year.

Tadaaa! Alexa Chung’s pink IT book!

Now I have to ‘fess up – I wasn’t a huge Alexa Chung follower prior to this book. I knew she was a model and attended all the cool parties. If I saw a picture of her, I’d commend her for her style. But apart from that, nada.

I had the chance to get my hands on “It” on my way back from Scotland, and got rather excited to have such a pretty book as my travel companion. Its 192 pages offer readers both visual delight (with a vast collection of doodles and photographs), and random bits of stories.

“It” is most definitely not written like a biography, and I’m sure this may bother some people. I, however, am not one of those people. Once I finished the book I actually thought I had a pretty good idea about what Alexa was all about. She likes dinosaurs and she swears. She counts Wednesday Adams and Jane Birkin amongst her style influences, and listens to some pretty cool music. The pictures definitely helped me refine my idea about her, as it felt like you were given a mood board throughout the book.

One of my favourite bits was when she spoke about heartbreak, as it’s a topic I have spent thinking about for far too long in my life.

“Sometimes when I need answers I like to take my questions to Google. I have googled ‘how long does heartbreak last?’. The result more popular than that was ‘how long does heartburn last?’. This implies people suffer from heartburn more than they do heartbreak which is a good thing because heartbreak sucks way fucking more than acid reflux ever could.” (p.128)

Now try and tell me that’s not a wonderful way of looking at it.

All in all, “It” is one of those really beautiful books you want to keep on your awesome (and very public) bookshelf. Its pretty pictures lure you back every once in a while, for a little peek, and boom – back you are on the Alexa bandwagon. And what’s changed for me after reading this book? Well, it feels good to know that someone like her is actually just like you; a normal twentysomething girl (minus the having a better career than you part). And I now follow her on Instagram and Twitter, because… I’m actually interested in what she’s up to.

Well done, Alexa!