Ken Carbone’s Book List
Print is not dead in my life. I’m a certified book junkie. I have shelves of books still in their shrink-wrap and I need to attend the bibliophile’s equivalent of AA.
When I begin a new book I commonly make a reduced color copy of the cover to use as a bookmark. When I finish a book, I glue this into my journal and add notes, comments, and memorable passages as a way of reflecting on what I enjoyed about the book. (For two examples, see the journal entries for The World Without Us and Art & Fear in the related blog post.) I’ve been doing this for years and will occasionally look at a past journal entry, and read my notes. It’s like reading the book all over again.
There are hundreds of books I can recommend for this site but I suggest the following 11 titles dedicated to culture, art history, literature, and the natural world. These works offer insight into the wonders and intricacies of life—true fodder for inspiration and entertainment.
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This catalogue was published in conjunction with an exhibition that appeared at the Drawing Center in New York in 2004. It is an outstanding collection of drawings and renderings of objects from nature from the mid-19th century. Most of the images pre-date photography, but the series of “cyanotypes” (early photograms) are magical. This book is a visual tour de force and one of my favorite examples of great design.
This book is 122 pages of valuable advice. It’s like a microscope that lets you examine in great detail the complex challenges that confront artists and by exposing them offers possible solutions. It is one of the most annotated books that I own and taught me lessons that I can use every day.
I read this wonderful 32-page essay at least once a year. It’s a thrill to have such an eloquent champion of creativity remind me of why choosing a career in the arts was a wise decision. This is Churchill’s paean to finding one’s muse and it is a masterpiece. It has been out of print for years but if you find one, consider it a lost treasure.
This well-designed book is worth having for the visual timeline alone. Eco traces beauty and power, from antiquity to the present day. The visual gallery of “Face and Hair of Venus and Adonis” is very witty and entertaining.
This is a tour de force of storytelling. Gombrich wrote this in the 1930s as a history primer for children, but it is so deftly constructed that you get a comprehensive look at the development of human civilization without oversimplification. Xerxes, Charlemagne, Galileo, Lao-Tzu and hundreds of others come alive when Gombrich tells you how they have shaped our world.
A national best seller, this book has been widely acclaimed for identifying and defining the core knowledge without which no literate American should be. I have found this to be an invaluable resource covering everything from mythology, fine arts, and American history to anthropology, earth sciences, and technology. This book will make you smarter.
Brownjohn’s career lasted only a little over 20 years (he died in 1970 at age 44), but in it he attained a notorious position in design and advertising, bridging the fields of still and moving imagery. Best known for his sexy title sequences for the Bond films “From Russia With Love” and “Goldfinger,” he also produced influential work when he was in partnership with Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar in the 1950s. This monograph on his life and work, thickly illustrated in black-and-white and color, traces the cult designer’s story decade by decade and piece by piece.
It is almost impossible for me to look at a work of modern art—or design for that matter—without reflecting on what I learned from this book. Varnedoe, who died a few years ago, was the former Director of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA and a brilliant teacher. The principles he outlines in this book are profound. They are based on solid research and offer insight into what inspired great modern art.
The World Without Us is a book I highly recommend. I think it is a profound work. It makes a convincing case that the planet is not in peril, it’s just waiting for us to go! It states that in a relatively short period of time after we’re gone—100,000 years or so—there will be very little or no trace that we ever existed. Maybe a fossil or two.
“A flâneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the place and in a covert search for adventure, aesthetic or erotic.” That’s White’s definition and I wonder how I can sign up for the job. If you have been to Paris, this book is like a sensorial guide that brings you back to the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feeling of this great city. If you plan to visit Paris in your lifetime, buy this book first and discover places that are off the beaten path.
This is an insightful and articulate book by one of the foremost conservationists of our time. Wilson tells you about the wonderful planet that is currently under our stewardship, why it may not be wonderful for long, and what positive changes are underway to save our world. Wilson believes that the 21st century will be the century of the environment because soon we will have little choice but to be more environmentally responsible.
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.
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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Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman
Love Letter to a Garden
By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025
From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.
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.”
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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