An Obsession With The Book

Everything’s In PDF format or can be downloaded these days. So what is the compulsion to go to the bookstore? A personal reflection. (…)

Everything’s In PDF format or can be downloaded these days. So what is the compulsion to go to the bookstore? A personal reflection.

I hold in my hands a slate-gray volume that was published by Rockport and I bought today. The title? 100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers, written and designed by Plazm. Bought at Powell’s Books, the legendary bookstore here in my hometown of Portland, Oregon.

It’s a beautifully done book. So very inspirational.

Gutenberg really hit onto something when he finally perfected type

Ever since I was a child, I’ve had a voracious appetite for books. Not just for the content (although
that, indeed is like gold) but just the look and feel of a book itself. I love type, I like the way the desginer leads me around the content, the pictures chosen to communicate, the opportunity to see into the mind of someone else. And so many arts combine to produce it; typography, illustration, manufacturing. Gutenberg really hit onto something when he finally perfected type.

Orignally, I had a decided jones for art how-to books. I have books on how to start drawing, how to perfect your drawing technique, even how to fix problems in the drawings you make. Today, I also aquired a book on how to draw landscapes in pencil. Since I’ve trained in graphic design, I’ve come to look at books at an even more enlightened way, and since I’m never happy with what I know and have to lear more, now books on design and designing are emptying my wallet.

Turning around to look at my bookshelf, the following titles call out to me:

Science Made Stupid
Cvltvre Made Stupid
The Big Book of Logos
The New Big Book of Logos
The Big Book of Logos 3
Meggs’ History of Graphic Design
Elements of Cartography
General Cartography
How To Lie With Maps
Icon Design
Design Sense
The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success
How to Draw on the Right Side of The Brain
Celtic Knotwork
How to Draw What You See

I could go on, but oh, I fear I’m losing you.

Maybe I’ll find it the next time I go into the stacks, with gun and camera

I’ve got all these books but I’m never satisfied. I always have to find out more, find a book that I don’t have yet that’s unique and exciting, that teaches me something that I don’t yet know or helps me look at something in a new and different way. The problem is, now that I’ve trained in design, I’m a much more demanding consumer than ever before But, like I said, at least I share a hometown with Powell’s Books.

Which is lucky, because if there is that book, the volume, the Last Book I’ll Ever Need to Buyâ„¢, then I’ll find it there. But the signs of finding it…they don’t seem promising. Maybe I’ll find it the next time I go into the stacks, with gun and camera.

26 April 2006

Samuel John Klein

Designorati

Sam -

First of all, thanks for mentioning my book on your list. I’m now working on book number two - with several more already lined up.

I’m with you when it comes to books. Since I was a kid I’ve surrounded myself with printed volumes. My partner dreads walking past a bookstore with me as I simply MUST go in. Powells City of Books is heaven to me - and I lived four blocks away for five years. When I was on vacation in St. Croix a couple months ago I read 15 books just for pleasure. I love the texture and smell of books. I just received a box of four new design books to review. Opening the box was almost as good as sex!

- J.

Jeff Fisher

27 April 2006
Jeff:

You’re welcome. Your book is a very inspirational one, and I have it on the shelf next to Arden’s It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be. I’m hoping for some synergy, obviously B-). But it is very insipring.

Those 15 books you mentioned sure are meaty. I get very narrowly-oriented when I go looking. I love art ‘how-tos’ and design books. Occaisionally I do remember you can read for pleasure!

The best thing about books is, indeed, they need no power. They keep putting up these e-books but I’m not buyin’. Not yet, anyway.

Samuel John Klein
DESIGNORATI

27 April 2006
Jeff said:

Since I was a kid Iâ€™ve surrounded myself with printed volumes…I love the texture and smell of books.

I’m with you there. The genre in which I usually write, technical books on creative software, is beginning a serious shift toward e-books. Although that shift excites me for a number of reasons, it saddens me for just as many. I love the smell of books, and there’s no feeling in the world like turning a pulp and ink page. The visual aspects of books appeal to me with equal strength–the perfectly smooth trim edges, the subtle way in which the paper grain texturizes the ink of letters (especially in paperback novels), and, of course, the design and layout dictated by a finite live area and color gamut.

For all their advantages, ebooks will never be able to provide the sensory experience of holding a pulp and ink book.

My next two books will be ink on paper, but they may also appear in some form of PDF ebook (we’re still discussing that). Whereas with those, paper is the primary form and electronic a secondary form of publication under consideration, my fourth book will be entirely electronic, with paper being a potential secondary format. It won’t carry the personal sensory satisfaction of a printed book, but, as a PDF, I’m excited to do things with it that just aren’t possible in print.

Pariah S. Burke
DESIGNORATI

03 May 2006