One of the things I hoped would dominate a significant portion of my free time outside of the office in 2008 was reading. I’ve always had a real love of books, despite what anyone says about the decline of reading. Considering the sheer number of books purchased over the course of the year, I did ok, but not great. The pile of books never seemed to shrink — in fact, quite the opposite was true, though not for a lack of trying.
- Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far - Stefan Sagmeister
- The Design Entrepreneur - Steven Heller and Lita Talarico
- Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite - Paul Arden
- The Back Of The Napkin - Dan Roam
- Do You Matter?: How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company - Robert Brunner, Stewart Emery and Russ Hall
- How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul - Adrian Shaughnessy
- Print Work: An Exploration of Printing Techniques - Victionary
- Web Form Design - Luke Wroblewski
- Mental Models - Indi Young
- Universal Principles Of Design - William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler
- Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type - Kimberly Elam
- Logo Savvy: Top Brand Design Firms Share their Naming and Identity Strategies - Perry Chua and Dann Ilicic
In order to get off on the right foot in ‘09 though, I’m going to attempt to be a bit more methodical about my reading habits. This means blocking off a specific portion of every day to get through an already growing list of books. 30 minutes to an hour a day is all I really need to make a serious dent. The books shown above, while entirely design or business focused are just a sample of those on “the list”. I’ve got a few trashy novels and the like to break things up such as The Road and the last book by High Fidelity author, Nick Hornby.
What’s on your reading list? Are there any good (design or business) books I should pick up? I’d love to hear your recommendations — just drop a note in the comments. Oh, and happy new year!
So say you…
Those look like good books Dan — Iâ??ll definitely have to check them out. The “Back of the Napkin” book I suspect will have some similarity to the Elements of Persuasion book you mentioned since itâ??s all about using visuals to communicate ideas more effectively.
Oh boy, too many to really list, but here are 2 on my radar. The next book Iâ??ll probably pick up will be Editing by Design, by Jan White. I also just finished The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business by Richard Maxwell, and I canâ??t stop raving about it to everyone.
Hope that helps! Happy 2009!
I read the “Mental Model” book… was not too impressed. It is about how to do user researchâ?¦ which is interesting but I never have clients that want to pay for it. The Luke W book and the Universal Design books are great, though!
As a new designer entering this crazy thing called the real world, reading “How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul” was and extremely useful tool. Unfortunately, I already felt the wrath of the soul-sucking clients, but Iâ??ve learned patience and foresight go a long way.