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

Emotionally Durable Design John Chapman On Zoë Ryan’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Emma Jane Austen On Angus Hyland’s Book List On Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Emigrants W. G. Sebald On Sheila Levrant de Bretteville’s Book List On Maira Kalman’s Book List On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Embroideries Marjane Satrapi On Warren Lehrer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration Penny Sparke On Susan Weber’s Book List On Dominique Browning’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Else/Where Janet Abrams et al. On Zoë Ryan’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Elsa Peretti: Fifteen of My Fifty with Tiffany Elsa Peretti On Marion Fasel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry Elizabeth Taylor On Marion Fasel’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Eliot Noyes Gordon Bruce On Niels Diffrient’s Book List On Jeffrey Bernett’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Elements of Typographic Style Robert Bringhurst On Ellen Lupton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Elements of Style (illustrated) William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White et al. On Véronique Vienne’s Book List On Paul Marantz’s Book List On Barry Bergdoll’s Book List On Ellen Lupton’s Book List On list of Books by Maira Kalman On Gail Anderson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Elements of Design Gail Greet Hannah On Tucker Viemeister’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Eléments et théorie de l’architecture Julien Guadet On Cesar Pelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq On Peter Eisenman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Element Ken Robinson et al. On Massimo Pitis’s Book List On Tom Kelley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery On Lisa Jenks’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Elective Affinities Johann Wolfgang von Goethe On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	El Lissitzky Frank Lubbers, ed. On Paula Scher’s Book List Add to My Reading List	El Libro de Levante Azorín On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Either/Or Søren Kierkegaard On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Einstein’s Dreams Alan Lightman On Bruce Hannah’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Einstein: His Life and Universe Walter Isaacson On Enrique Norten’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Einstein, Picasso, Space, Time and the Beauty that Causes Havoc Arthur I. Miller On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Eileen Gray Peter Adam On Jeanne Gang’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen et al. On Niels Diffrient’s Book List On list of Books by Alexandra Lange Add to My Reading List	Edward de Bono’s Thinking Course Edward de Bono On Stefan Sagmeister’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Education of an Architect John Hejduk On Kent Kleinman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Edmund Husserl’s “Origin of Geometry”: An Introduction Jacques Derrida On Greg Lynn’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Edifices de Rome Moderne Paul Letarouilly On Michael Graves’s Book List On Peter Pennoyer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Edifice Complex Deyan Sudjic On Julie Iovine’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Ecstasy of Communication Jean Baudrillard On Stefano Giovannoni’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Economy of Cities Jane Jacobs On Michael Sorkin’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Ecology of Commerce Paul Hawken On Susan S. Szenasy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Eats, Shoots & Leaves Lynne Truss On Shashi Caan’s Book List Add to My Reading List	East of Eden John Steinbeck On Galia Solomonoff’s Book List On Hartmut Esslinger’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods Vincent Scully On Norman Foster’s Book List On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Earth Report Edward Goldsmith et al. On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Earth in Upheaval Immanuel Velikovsky On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Eames Design John Neuhart et al. On Juergen Riehm’s Book List On David Piscuskas’s Book List On Mels Crouwel’s Book List On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Dynamo Julie Houis et Collectif On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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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