On Assouline’s website, there’s a picture of a bookshelf packed with the luxury publisher’s iconic destination books. Quintessential travel titles like Tuscany Marvel, Tulum Gypsey, and Mikonos Muse are nearly as sumptuous as the colorful covers themselves. Most depict flowers or an abstract-yet-pleasant element.
The new Metaverse Dream, written by Paul “The Profit” Dawalibi and Gregory Landegger, plays along, fronting purple, orange, and silver colorways on its cover that feel right at home with Assouline’s traditional travel volumes. But the cover bears no foliage. Instead, a QR code features prominently under the title, taking the user to a page with a brief video of a Decentraland Assouline store.
Is it a clever marketing ploy – or a subversive commentary on the hyper-commercialism that actually awaits us within the Metaverse? Do the book’s photo previews, which feature The Matrix and Bladerunner 2049 references scattered amongst its mind-bending art, foretell the real story of the Metaverse?
Dawalibi would argue we have nothing to fear. As CEO of Holodeck Media and a fixture of the Esports and technology world, the venture capitalist offers more insight than most. After all, he created the world’s first Esports NFT, and his CNBC Arabia gaming and Metaverse business show reaches 50 million homes in the Middle East. Either way, the $105 Metaverse Dream is now available for coffee tables stranded in the real world.
For another recent release from Assouline, check out ‘Paris Saint-Germain Closer to the Stars’.