Shashi Caan

Architect; Interior Designer; Product/Industrial Designer / United Kingdom; United States / Shashi Caan Collective

Shashi Caan’s Book List

Intrigued with interactions, phenomena, and life’s pervasive yet seemingly intangible aspects, I love pondering experience and language. Words are our expression and our power. Communication fosters connection and exchange. Thinking gives meaning to the subject of pondering, which utilizes words. . . . View the complete text
10 books
William Faulkner

This story reminds me of life’s journey and the conditions we encounter. By association, it reminds of the potential for interpretation and alternate possibilities—and our solemn responsibility for our deeper consideration of the consequences of our actions within society and culture.

Yogananda Paramahansa

An extraordinary life story, this factual and well-written book is often hard to believe or imagine. It reminds me to remain open to incredible possibilities and that there is much in life which remains a mystery and unknown.

Lynne Truss

A clever and easy to read book on "how to better punctuate" in the English language, this is an essential companion for improving one’s writing ability. Delightful and witty in its delivery, it is as good a read as it is educational.

Edwin A. Abbott

Written with simplicity and imagination, this satirical parable is entertaining and educational. It challenges us to expand our capacity to rethink the possibility of other-dimensional life within our vast universe, and inspires the cultivation of greater conceptual prospects. Implicit in the story is the human acceptance of limitations and the status quo. These ideas are required to be rethought and possibly challenged by the designer.

Roland Barthes

Short chapters that are magnificent in their breadth of subject matter and depth of meaning. Exploring the ordinary and everyday objects and happenings, Barthes provides a critique that is intriguing in its consideration of the shaping of changed meanings, by design, in society and culture. He also inspires the questioning of myth, our reality, and the related significance.

William Morris

Grounded in his thoughts of the shaping of a better English society, this book presents Morris’s image of a superior future though his personal lens of an idealized version of the past. It is especially relevant now given the current resurgence of interest in craft and the importance of local expression in many nations around the world.

Juan Rulfo

Storytelling at its best, this brilliant book simultaneously stimulates the imagination and intellect. The narrative flattens dimensional time and human existence, while seamlessly flip-flopping between the real and the surreal. It also provides a view into an aspect of the psyche of the uniquely Mexican/Latin imagination.

Rabindranath Tagore

While depicting life in the society and era of a bygone India, these captivating and vivid stories shed insight into our commonly shared human nature.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This accessible color theory book is both illuminating and surprising. Since the book is devoid of pictures, reconstructing the experiments by following the writing results in experiential learning. This is a “must read” for anyone interested in better understanding human response to our physical world. It explains the phenomenological interactions of light, color, and form that help to shape our daily experiences. This book and the writings of Johannes Itten and Josef Albers, other equally important color theoreticians, are foundational reading for anyone interested in architecture and design.

Umberto Eco

Not the easiest of reads, this book is exemplary in the expression of ideas through observation and the dissection of contemporary society and culture. Eco is inspirational in his multifaceted exploration of writing from different vantage points, including scholarship, mass media (newspapers and magazines), and fiction.

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