Steve Brawnius

coffee table books, and that's a genre which I think New Zealand has always been fantastic at.

And, yeah, in the illustrated category, I think the X Factor in this one, I don't know if it will win, but the X Factor would have to be this book about native New Zealand flowers.

It comes with a pair of 3D glasses, because the images are 3D, so you put on the glasses...

And you allegedly, Amanda, go, oh, my God, wow, look at these pictures in 3D.

How startling and fabulous.

Not all eyes are created equal, I suppose, Amanda.

I've tried and failed with these goddamn 3D glasses.

I can't make out anything and indeed have tossed them aside in a rage.

I have asked around, and it seems like most people have no problems with it whatsoever.

He gave a public talk about it at Hamlet, which is the beautifully punned Hamlet Writers' Festival, in February, and handed out the glasses, and no one had a problem whatsoever.

No one had a problem.

Everyone was able to see these images in 3D.

That book, with that stunt, you know, has a definite X factor.

It might be the favourite, but then again, there's another book there, Mr Ward's Map, which are reproductions of sheets from 1861, sheets designed by a surveyor of the streets of Wellington.

These original 1861 sheets, and they're terribly specific.

He's got all the buildings.

He's got brothels.

He's got saloons.

He's got the lunatic asylum.

This sort of very immersive experience in that book.