Invited designers and commentators have chosen these as the books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.
covers
1650 books
Bleak House
Charles Dickens
On Dominique Browning’s Book List
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Blindness
José Saramago
On Paul Marantz’s Book List
On Cleto Munari’s Book List
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Bloomingdale’s Book of Home Decorating
Barbara D’Arcy
On Penny Drue Baird’s Book List
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Blue Note
Graham Marsh et al.
On Gail Anderson’s Book List
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The Blue Sweater
Jacqueline Novogratz
On Tim Brown’s Book List
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The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
On Nancye Green’s Book List
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Book of Common Prayer
Church of England
On Margaret McCurry’s Book List
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The Book of Daniel
E. L. Doctorow
On Nancye Green’s Book List
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The Book of Five Rings
Miyamoto Musashi
On George Lois’s Book List
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The Book of Games
Peter Arnold
On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List
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The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Milan Kundera
On Jonathan Barnbrook’s Book List
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Book of Psalms
Robert Alter, trans.
On Margie Ruddick’s Book List
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The Book of Tea
Kakuzo Okakura
On Diana Balmori’s Book List
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The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Alan Watts
On Sagi Haviv’s Book List
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Bookmarks (Georgetti, Le Mostre)
Marco Ferreri, ed.
On Michael Maharam’s Book List
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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
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Bossypants
Tina Fey
On Ellen Lupton’s Notable Books of 2011 list
On Todd Oldham’s Book List
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The Bottom Billion
Paul Collier
On Tim Brown’s Book List
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The Bottom of the Harbor
Joseph Mitchell
On Deborah Berke’s Book List
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The Box
Marc Levinson
On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List
On Ada Tolla’s Book List
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The Brain That Changes Itself
Norman Doidge
On Lisa Jenks’s Book List
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Brave New World Revisited
Aldous Huxley
On Steven Heller’s Book List
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Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings
Gary Garrels, et al.
On David Piscuskas’s Book List
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The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even
Marcel Duchamp et al.
On Tom Coward’s Book List
On Daisy Froud’s Book List
On Vincent Lacovara’s Book List
On Geoff Shearcroft’s Book List
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The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz
On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List
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A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking
On Philip Freelon’s Book List
On Victoria Meyers’s Book List
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Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light
Jane Brox
On Paul Marantz’s Book List
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British Textiles: 1700 to the Present
Linda Parry
On Claire Wilcox’s Book List
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The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
On Norman Foster’s Book List
On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List
On Peter Mendelsund’s Book List
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Brunelleschi (Masters of Italian Art)
Peter Gartner
On Alexa Hampton’s Book List
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Brunelleschi’s Dome
Ross King
On Richard Meier’s Book List
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Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann
On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List
On Dominique Browning’s Book List
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The Building Erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition 1851
Charles H. Gibbs-Smith
On James Biber’s Book List
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Building with Nantucket in Mind
J. Christopher Lang et al.
On Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s Book List
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Bureaucrats: How to Annoy Them
R. T. Fishall
On Sam Hecht’s Book List
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By Design
Ralph Caplan
On Nancye Green’s Book List
On Jennifer Morla’s Book List
On Jeffrey Bernett’s Book List
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Calder Jewelry
Alexander Calder
On Marion Fasel’s Book List
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Campo Grafico, 1933–1939
Attilio Rossi (intro)
On Carin Goldberg’s Book List
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The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer
On Norman Foster’s Book List
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Carlo Scarpa: Theory, Design, Projects
Maria Antonietta Crippa
On Juergen Riehm’s Book List
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Best-Selling Design Books at Van Alen Books, New York

1
Building Seagram
Phyllis Lambert
2
Clog 6: Brutalism
Kyle May et al., eds.
3
Project Journal Issue 1
Project
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Newest Designers and Commentators

Matteo Thun
Architect, Interior Designer, Product/Industrial Designer, Lighting Designer; Italy
Michael Maharam
Writer; Executive; United States
Fritz Frenkler
Product/Industrial Designer; Germany
More designers...

Newly Chosen Books

De Kooning: An American Master
Mark Stevens
A Book of Spoons
Jasper Morrison
Hidden Forms
Franco Clivio
More chosen books...

20 Books on Textile Design

British Textiles: 1700 to the Present
Linda Parry
Katsuji Wakisaka: Japanese Textile Designer
Katsuji Wakisaka
Textile Arts of India
Kokyo Hatanaka
More books on textile design...

Recent Books by Our Contributors

Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Lincoln Center Inside Out
Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, and Charles Renfro
Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced
Stephen Burrows
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec: Drawing
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
More books by contributors...

Contributors Who Chose...

Delirious New York
Rem Koolhaas
On 8 lists
Jeanne Gang
Architect; United States
Mohsen Mostafavi
Designer; Educator; United States
Galia Solomonoff
Architect; United States
Adam Tihany
Architect, Interior Designer, Product/Industrial Designer; United States
More...