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The Library at Night

Alberto Manguel

A series of meandering essays on the subject of the library. more

Life Inc.

Douglass Rushkoff

A passionate, well-written text that argues that our centralized currency system is the key to the corporatism that has infected not only our government but our daily lives. more

Limbo

Bernard Wolfe

A bizarre dystopia in which the elite voluntarily amputate their limbs and have them replaced with high performing machines. Deeply misogynistic. more

Linchpin

Seth Godin

Godin’s newest work argues that what the economy needs are artists—“people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done.” These people are linchpins—indispensable people that hold organizations together. A spirited yet pragmatic call to arms for workers everywhere. more

Linked

Albert-László Barabási

A fascinating take on networks that looks for and finds similarities among people, computers, cells, and atomic particles. more

Literary Theory

Terry Eagleton

The classic introduction to literary theory and a capable and somewhat subversive argument for Marxism. more

Made by Hand

Mark Frauenfelder

A chronicle of one man’s attempt to become a DIYer. Frauenfelder learns that making things yourself means mostly making mistakes, but those mistakes can be a source of joy. He also charmingly demonstrates the old adage that the best way to learn is to get in way over your head. more

Man’s Search for Himself

Rollo May

A work of existential psychology—a movement which I make no claims to understanding. But May’s text is intelligent and engaging, with prose as lovely as the insights are profound. Written in the middle of the 20th century, his guidance is no less relevant today. more

Mediated

Thomas de Zengotita

de Zengotita investigates the ways in which our experience of the world is mediated both through traditional media (television, newspapers) but also the ways in which we self-mediate—whether through photographs or status updates, we’ve come to think of our lives as a narrative, with ourselves always at the center. Written before Twitter came along, but relevant nonetheless. more

Minima Moralia

Theodor Adorno

Modern typography

Robin Kinross

A rare object—a book on typography that is as beautifully written as it is designed. more

My Bread

Jim Lahey, Rick Flaste

Lahey’s simple method for bread making (which trades kneading for time) is worth the hype. Once you get a feel for how the dough should come together, it’s foolproof and absolutely delicious. more

1984

George Orwell

The classic novel of authoritarianism. Also, the Bush administration’s how-to manual. more

Nudge

Cass R. Sunstein, Richard H. Thaler

A compelling little book arguing for “libertarian paternalism,” a doctrine that nudges people towards the decisions most likely to improve their lives, while maintaining their freedom to do as they choose. Most interesting for their discussions of “choice architecture,” which describes how we create the conditions under which people make choices, with obvious parallels to usability design. more

Orality and Literacy

Walter J. Ong

Ong’s is perhaps the only book I’ve discovered that carefully and thoroughly addresses the differences between oral and literate cultures. In pointing out that Plato used writing to deliver his objections to the written word, he says “Once the word is technologized, there is no effective way to criticize what technology has done with it without the aid of the highest technology available” (page 79). more

Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Alain de Botton

A lengthy and wonderful photo essay with stories of various kinds of work, from biscuit manufacturer to rocket scientist; a welcome companion to Theriault’s How to Tell When You’re Tired. Alas, de Botton finds many more sorrows than pleasures in the modern workplace. more

Proust and the Squid

Maryanne Wolf

Wolf addresses the ways in which the brain adapts—or fails to adapt—to reading. An excellent history, as well as a compelling glimpse at the ways in which reading on the screen may yet create a new kind of literacy. more

Reading Pictures

Alberto Manguel

Manguel—author of A History of Reading—turns his eye to how we “read” art. A welcome correlative to Berger’s Ways of Seeing. more

Rework

David Heinemeier Hansson, Jason Fried

On making work better, from the founders of 37Signals. If you’ve been reading Signals vs. Noise, there’s not much new here. But the combination of short, well-written chapters, large type, and clever illustrations make for a charming and persuasive read. more