A working library is an exploration of—and advocate for—All books
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Design Is a Job
Mike Monteiro
Mike Monteiro’s writing is as ruthless as it is wise. A love letter to web designers everywhere, Design Is a Job catalogs the many and varied mistakes one can make on the path to being successful, and generously warns you away from them. The result is a book that is personal and profound, and which you’ll be waving around to friends and colleagues before you even complete it. “So I wrote you a book,” Mike says. “It has a spine and by the time you’re done reading so will you.”
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Love, An Index
Rebecca Lindenberg
When a friend publishes a book, it is cause for celebration. When the topic is the loss of the man she loved, the celebration is heartbreaking. Rebecca’s words touch on darker days, but the form and style are extraordinary even if held apart from the event that triggered them.
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The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual
Frank Castronovo, Frank Falcinelli, Peter Meehan
From one of my favorite local restaurants comes a lovely and instructive manual. An entire chapter is devoted to making Sunday sauce, complete with a timeline for the day. Do make the braciola.
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How to Fix Copyright
William Patry
Patry is senior copyright counsel at Google, and despite the upfront disclaimer, this book defines a vision of copyright that clearly benefits the world’s biggest search engine. That bias aside, the vision is clear-headed, practical, and scientific—quite refreshing in light of the current SOPA/PIPA frothing-at-the-mouth coming from other corners. A solid complement to Hyde’s Common as Air.
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Books as History
David Pearson
If you can get past the absolutely reprehensible cover design, Books as History is a smart study of books’ physical form, and a defense of its value independent of the words on the page. Whether or not the printed book “survives” is a less interesting question to me than what we can learn from books as they have been and are now becoming, and Pearson’s text is a succinct tale of the former. As for the latter, we’ll all know in time.
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The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Ted Chiang
As a novel, The Lifecycle of Software Objects suffers from expository writing, flat characters, and uninspired prose. But as a thought experiment, it’s surprisingly (if incompletely) compelling. Chiang explores how we might teach an artificial intelligence, and what happens when (or if) it grows up. The ideas outshine the story.
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Community and Privacy
Christopher Alexander, Serge Chermayeff
A precursor to Alexander’s A Pattern Language, in which he and Chermayeff define what’s wrong with the design of the suburbs, and outline the principles behind a more human (and urban) environment. As interesting for its approach to the problem as it is for any of the proposed solutions.
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The New Brooklyn Cookbook
Brendan Vaughn, Melissa Vaughn
I use this less as a cookbook than as a guide for where to eat; but the recipes and photography are as lovely as the neighborhoods. A few favorites: the celery salad from Prime Meats; pickled eggs with jalapeño from Beer Table; and the pecan pie sundae from Buttermilk Channel.
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Living and Eating
Annie Bell, John Pawson
A minimalist’s manifesto, with simple recipes and beautiful, spare photography. Keeping it on my coffee table for perusing before heading to the farmer’s market.
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On Writing Well
William Zinsser
I’m only just now reading this book, but it was a bit like discovering an old friend you didn’t know you had. Zinsser’s is the kind of casual, unassuming writing that sounds effortless, but isn’t. I tend not to read (or recommend) books on writing, as the best education you can have is just to read great books. But I’ll make this an exception.
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Mobile First
Luke Wroblewski
The sixth book from A Book Apart features data-driven techniques and best practices for designing for mobile from the inimitable Luke Wroblewski. It also represents the best kind of short book: packed with information and a delightful read.
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Designing for Emotion
Aarron Walter
Aarron Walter joins the A Book Apart rainbow of knowledge with this short book on designing for humans. A mix of psychology and case studies show how designing for emotion works, with guidance on the small or large steps you can take to start doing it. Aarron’s enthusiasm is charming, and a compelling example of the book’s principles in action.
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Working
Studs Terkel
Terkel interviewed people of all walks of life (though mostly the working kind) about what they do and how they feel about it. The result is a massive collection of failed dreams, despair, hope, and pride. Each of us wants to work and work hard, but so much of modern American life thwarts that simple need.
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I Read Where I Am
Geert Lovink, Mieke Gerritzen, Minke Kampman
A collection of short reflections on the future of reading, including those from Ellen Lupton, James Bridle, Erik Spiekermann, and N. Katharine Hayles. Independently, none of the essays are especially compelling; but collectively, they reveal our shared unease (the loss of print, increased distraction, information overload) and make clear that none of us has any idea what the future will bring. Which, of course, is what makes the future interesting. Unfortunately, the typesetting (words are colored in different shades of gray depending on their frequency of use) is interesting in theory but incredibly annoying in practice; perhaps it is an attempt to prove that a stubborn reader will suffer through even the worst of reading experiences in order to get at the words?
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Trickster Makes This World
Lewis Hyde
Hyde exceeds the terrain of “creative nonfiction” (a term I always find slightly disparaging) to write academic tomes that feel alive, unlike the usual ivory tower fare. Trickster shows how our most playful, devious stories are also (perhaps not surprisingly) our most revealing.
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The Information
James Gleick
Glieck’s loosely organized tome details the many ways we’ve organized and communicated information over the ages; or, as is more often the case, failed to do so. Less a catalog of solutions than a long, unfinished tale of struggle.
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Managing Oneself
Peter F. Drucker
An essay turned pamphlet, short enough to reread regularly. Drucker’s advice comes down to knowing yourself well enough to make the right decisions: your strengths, your relationships, and your environment all add up to success or failure. Perhaps the smartest counsel he gives is to start a second career before you’ve completed the first. Less a backup plan than a means of succession.
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The Names
Don Delillo
A dense novel, concerning a small group of American ex-patriots and a series of cult murders. Strange and beautiful. I intend to read it again.
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Responsive Web Design
Ethan Marcotte
It was my privilege to edit this, the fourth book from the nascent publishing empire that is A Book Apart. Ethan’s methods are smart, and his storytelling and guidance even smarter. This book will change the way we design for the web—for the better.
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What Technology Wants
Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly (one of the founders and a former executive editor of Wired, and a veteran of the Whole Earth Catalog) argues that technology (or, as he calls it “the technium”), has evolved into something like a co-dependent existence—an extension of humankind, with as much if not more intelligence. Kelly is an apologist for many of the same things that Jaron Lanier warns about, and I find myself disagreeing with much of what they both have to say. But where the first two parts of What Technology Wants prattle on at length, the latter half is more than worth the cover price: Kelly’s analysis of technology’s needs vis-à-vis our own is an insightful approach to making choices about technology in our own lives, now and into the future.
