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.

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2000 books

Chocolates on the Pillow Aren’t Enough Jonathan M. Tisch et al. On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Christmas Memory Truman Capote On André Leon Talley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Chroma Derek Jarman On Angus Hyland’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Chrysanthemum and the Sword Ruth Benedict On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Churches in Rock Georg Gerster On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ci sarà un altro mare Manuel Alegre On Cleto Munari’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cindy Sherman: The Complete Untitled Film Stills Cindy Sherman On Todd Oldham’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cinema 1: The Movement-Image Gilles Deleuze On Steven Holl’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Cinema 2: The Time-Image Gilles Deleuze On Steven Holl’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Circles of Confusion Hollis Frampton On Abbott Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cities of the World Georg Braun et al. On Richard Saul Wurman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The City in History Lewis Mumford On Michael Sorkin’s Book List On Carlo Ratti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The City Observed: Los Angeles Charles Moore On Paul Goldberger’s Book List Add to My Reading List	City of Darkness Greg Girard et al. On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List Add to My Reading List	City of Night John Rechy On Ralph Rucci’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Clapton’s Guitar Allen St. John On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Classic Frank Kermode On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Classic Style Judith Miller On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Classical Language of Architecture John Summerson On Barry Bergdoll’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Claude: A Narrative Portrait of Claude Debs Warren Lehrer On list of Books by Warren Lehrer Add to My Reading List	Cleopatra’s Nose Daniel J. Boorstin On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Climate Near the Ground Rudolf Geiger et al. On Antoine Predock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Clock Christian Marclay On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess On David Easton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Closing of the American Mind Allan Bloom On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cloud Atlas David Mitchell On Lisa Jenks’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Cloud of Unknowing Anonymous et al. On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Collapse Jared Diamond On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson On Margaret McCurry’s Book List On Deborah Sussman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Collected Poems, 1909-1962: T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot On Phyllis Lambert’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Collected Short Stories of Jean Rhys Jean Rhys On Hugh Hardy’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer On Enrique Norten’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel Amy Hempel et al. On Deborah Berke’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Michael Ondaatje On Rudy VanderLans’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Collected Works of Jules Verne: 36 Novels and Short Stories Jules Verene On Greg Lynn’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Colossus of Maroussi Henry Miller On Antoine Predock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Comme des Garçons Rei Kawakubo On Akiko Fukai’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Communitas Percival Goodman et al. On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Community and Privacy Serge Chermayeff et al. On Norman Foster’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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What is Universal Everything? edited by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook

What is Universal Everything?

Edited by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook; designed by Spin
Publisher: Unit Editions
Published: June 2019

Matt Pyke, founder and creative director of Universal Everything, calls his studio a “digital art and design collective.” Now, after 15 years of revolutionary work in the digital realm, the studio has its first book. For anyone interested in the future of digital design, the book features a unique cover for each copy of the book (limited to 2,000)—every buyer owns a one-off.

Order from Unit Editions.

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon by Dennis Bernstein and Warren Lehrer

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon

Poems by Dennis Bernstein
Visualizations by Warren Lehrer
Introduction by Steven Heller
Publisher: Paper Crown Press
Published: September 19, 2019

“From a kidnap note for a world held hostage by an A-bomb, to a Holocaust survivor’s tattooed arms where the numbers just don’t add up, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope... Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.” — Bob Holman, poet, poetry activist and chronicler, and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club

Pre-order the book.

Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger

Ballpark: Baseball in the American City

By Paul Goldberger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: May 2019

An illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.

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Charleston Fancy by Witold Rybczynski

Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City

By Witold Rybczynski
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 2019

Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.

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Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller

Teaching Graphic Design History

By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019

An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.

Order the book.