Chosen Books

Invited designers and commentators have chosen these as the books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.

title z–a

Fiction

covers

view as:
covers
list

329 books

Howards End E. M. Forster On David Piscuskas’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The House of Spirits Isabel Allende On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	House of Leaves Mark Danielewski On Warren Lehrer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hollywood Charles Bukowski On Bruce Hannah’s Book List Add to My Reading List	High-Rise J. G. Ballard On Michael Sorkin’s Book List Add to My Reading List	High Fidelity Nick Hornby On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Herzog Saul Bellow On Cleto Munari’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone J. K. Rowling On Stephen Burrows’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World Haruki Murakami On Rocco Yim’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift On Tom Coward’s Book List On Daisy Froud’s Book List On Vincent Lacovara’s Book List On Geoff Shearcroft’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Guermantes Way Marcel Proust On André Leon Talley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald On Michael Bierut’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Gravity’s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon On Elizabeth Diller’s Book List On Peter Eisenman’s Book List On Ricardo Scofidio’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck On Margaret McCurry’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Goodbye, Columbus Philip Roth On Richard Meier’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Golden Bowl Henry James On Dominique Browning’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) Hermann Hesse On Richard Saul Wurman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Ginger Man J. P. Donleavy On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Germinal Emile Zola On Sagi Haviv’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Giogio Bassani On Emanuela Frattini Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Front Runner Patricia Nell Warren On Debbie Millman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Frankenstein Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley On Michael Sorkin’s Book List On Jorge Silvetti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Fountainhead Ayn Rand On Michael Bierut’s Book List On Adam Tihany’s Book List On Deborah Sussman’s Book List On Chip Kidd’s Book List On Stanley Tigerman’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Foucault’s Pendulum Umberto Eco On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Flaubert’s Parrot Julian Barnes On Alexander Cooper’s Book List On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Flatland Edwin A. Abbott On Elizabeth Diller’s Book List On Nancye Green’s Book List On Ricardo Scofidio’s Book List On Shashi Caan’s Book List On Michael Maharam’s Book List On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Finnegans Wake James Joyce On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List On Dominique Browning’s Current Reading list On Coralie Bickford-Smith’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges On David Piscuskas’s Book List On Jorge Silvetti’s Book List On Cino Zucchi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Favorite Greek Myths Mary Pope Osborne et al. On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Fall Albert Camus On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury On Mark Fox’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer On Billie Tsien’s Book List On Tom Geismar’s Book List On Warren Lehrer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Exodus Leon Uris On Margaret McCurry’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Evil Under the Sun Agatha Christie On Stephen Burrows’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer On Deborah Sussman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Eva Luna Isabel Allende On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card On Nancye Green’s Book List On Philip Freelon’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Empty Canvas Alberto Moravia On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List

comments powered by Disqus

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.”

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.