Current Reading

These are the books that our invited designers, commentators, and guest contributors are currently reading.

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135 books

The Social History of the Machine Gun John Ellis On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Silence Shusaku Endo On Peter Mendelsund’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	The WPA Guide to New York City: The Federal Writers’ Project Guide to 1930s New York Federal Writers Project; introduction by William Whyte On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	The Diagrams of Architecture Mark Garcia, ed. On Jürgen Mayer H.’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	The Planning Game Alexander Garvin On Hugh Hardy’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Fictions and the Figures of Life William H. Gass On Peter Mendelsund’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Le piccole virtù Natalia Ginzburg On Louise Fili’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Blink Malcolm Gladwell On Philip Freelon’s Current Reading list On Wendell Castle’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Triumph of the City Edward Glaeser On Justin Davidson’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Cino Zucchi’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	What Are You Looking At? Will Gompertz On Craig Dykers’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Caravaggio Andrew Graham-Dixon On Gijs Bakker’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths John Gray On Anthony Dunne’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	The Swerve: How the World Became Modern Stephen Greenblatt On Jens Holm’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Clement Greenberg: A Critic’s Collection Bruce Guenther On Reed Krakoff’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Food Designing Marti Guixé On Daijiro Mizuno’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Architecture’s Desire K. Michael Hays On Florian Idenburg’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List
Reinventing the Wheel Jessica Helfand On list of Books by Jessica Helfand On Gail Anderson’s Current Reading list On Dan Formosa’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Born Modern Steven Heller et al. On Gail Anderson’s Book List On list of Books by Steven Heller On Louise Fili’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961 Paul Hendrickson On Greg Lynn’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	The Map and the Territory (La Carte et le Territoire) Michel Houellebecq On Nathalie de Vries’s Current Reading list On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Age of Insight Howard Hughes On Wendell Castle’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	On the Origin of Teepees: The Evolution of Ideas (and Ourselves) Jonnie Hughes On Cino Zucchi’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	On the Grid Scott Huler On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson On Alissa Walker’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Gail Anderson’s Current Reading list On Carola Zwick’s Current Reading list On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List On Temple St. Clair’s Book List Add to My Reading List
After London, or Wild England Richard Jefferies On Anthony Dunne’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Cherry: A Memoir Mary Karr On André Leon Talley’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Keep Your Brain Alive Lawrence Katz et al. On Lisa Jenks’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Delirious New York Rem Koolhaas On Terence Riley’s Book List On Adam Tihany’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On Jeanne Gang’s Book List On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List On Galia Solomonoff’s Book List On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list On Aric Chen’s Book List On Michael Rock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Project Japan Rem Koolhaas et al. On Justin Davidson’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Neil Denari’s Current Reading list On Florian Idenburg’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Alan Balfour’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Aric Chen’s Notable Books of 2011 list Add to My Reading List	The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri On Temple St. Clair’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Bird by Bird Ann Lamott On Gail Anderson’s Book List On Lisa Jenks’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List
The Devil in the White City Erik Larson On Galia Solomonoff’s Current Reading list On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Kissing Architecture Sylvia Lavin On Galia Solomonoff’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Neil Denari’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Greg Lynn’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Pasta by Design George L. Legendre et al. Add to My Reading List	Imagine Jonah Lehrer On Ken Carbone’s Current Reading list On Wendell Castle’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories Nikolai Leskov On Peter Mendelsund’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	The Ecstasy of Influence Jonathan Lethem On Neil Denari’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	A Geography of Time Robert Levine On Emanuela Frattini Magnusson’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement Zhongjie Lin On Winka Dubbeldam’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

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Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

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Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

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Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

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Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

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Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

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