A working library is an exploration of—and advocate for—All books
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The Elements of Content Strategy
Erin Kissane
The third title from A Book Apart, and the one closest to my heart. Kissane explores the roots of content strategy, as well as the methodologies behind the work. You won’t find exhaustive examples of deliverables, but you will learn what makes good content, and why we do the things we do to make it better. And her writing is so charming and engrossing, you almost regret the book is so short. Relevant to anyone who works with content—from editors to strategists to designers and developers.
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The Shock Doctrine
Naomi Klein
Klein expertly and devastatingly reveals the history behind a model of capitalism that first fed on disaster, then fomented it.
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My Bread
Jim Lahey, Rick Flaste
Lahey’s simple method for bread making (which trades kneading for time) is worth the hype. Once you get a feel for how the dough should come together, it’s foolproof and absolutely delicious.
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Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
Personal musings on the life of the writer. Lamott is primarily a novelist, but I find her writing advice to be just as relevant to nonfiction. As with the best books on writing, she expertly dispels any notion of romance.
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You Are Not a Gadget
Jaron Lanier
Lanier’s manifesto brings attention to the many ways in which human behavior is being mechanized by technology. One point stands out: that the internet as it is today is not biologically determined, but a result of decisions people made in the recent past. We needn’t accept it as it is; it is within our power to make it better.
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The Vintage Book of Amnesia
Jonathan Lethem
An eccentric collection of short pieces that touch on the subject of memory loss, from writers as varied as Martin Amis, Jorge Luis Borges, and Oliver Sacks.
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The Big Short
Michael Lewis
Infuriatingly good. There isn’t another writer alive who could take the obscurities of subprime mortgages and credit default swaps and deliver a page-turner like this one. Lewis’ storytelling abilities come at a price, however: I now fully understand the extent to which Wall Street is completely and unforgivably fucked.
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A History of Reading
Alberto Manguel
Manguel’s lifelong dedication to reading plays itself out in a work that follows reading from clay tablets to present day. No apology is made for a reader-centric view: “We cannot do but read. Reading, almost as much as breathing, is our essential function.” (page 7)
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The Library at Night
Alberto Manguel
A series of meandering essays on the subject of the library.
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With Borges
Alberto Manguel
A slim volume, with Manguel’s youthful memories of evenings spent reading to Borges in his home in Buenos Aires.
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Reading Pictures
Alberto Manguel
Manguel—author of A History of Reading—turns his eye to how we “read” art. A welcome correlative to Berger’s Ways of Seeing.
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A Reader on Reading
Alberto Manguel
A series of essays from the author of A History of Reading that explores the reader’s perspective. The section called “Memoranda” approaches the politics of reading and is worth the cover price alone. Manguel’s skill at connecting true events with their fictional counterpart—and so making them both appear more clearly—is both keen and profound.
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Against the Grain
Richard Manning
A revisionist history that argues that we traded away much of our humanity in exchange for the little bit of security that agriculture promised. This book completely changed the way I think about food.
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Responsive Web Design
Ethan Marcotte
It was my privilege to edit this, the fourth book from the nascent publishing empire that is A Book Apart. Ethan’s methods are smart, and his storytelling and guidance even smarter. This book will change the way we design for the web—for the better.
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Man’s Search for Himself
Rollo May
A work of existential psychology—a movement which I make no claims to understanding. But May’s text is intelligent and engaging, with prose as lovely as the insights are profound. Written in the middle of the 20th century, his guidance is no less relevant today.
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The Courage to Create
Rollo May
An approach to creativity from an existential psychologist. May sees creativity as the ultimate goal of all people (not merely those traditionally deemed “creative”) and links creativity to well-being and a desire to make the world a better place.
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Deep Economy
Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben indicts the current economic system for it’s single-minded pursuit of “more” without regard for whether or not it is (or can be) “better.” The contemporary companion to Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful.
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The Comedy of Survival
Joseph Meeker
Meeker argues that the destructive aspects of western civilization are founded on the tragic mode, while the comic mode offers a path for redemption. The foundational work of ecocriticism.
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Boxed In
Mark Crispin Miller
An academic thesis that applies the traditional methods of close reading to television commercials.
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Book Typography
Michael Mitchell, Susan Wightman
A thorough and beautiful guide to typography and typesetting, worthy of any designer’s desk.
