Books for holiday giving
“So many books, so little time.” – Frank Zappa
Whether searching for a gift, or for your own education, exploration, total immersion zone-out or entertainment, a book is often the perfect solution.
Below are links that will help you find the right book – lists and websites sorted into rough categories with a focus on architecture and design, and links to purchase, borrow, or download books.
General
NPR’s Book Concierge – Every year National Public Radio curates an interactive year-end reading guide. Hundreds of staff favorites are tagged into over two dozen categories to help with the searching. Goes back to 2013.
100 Notable Books of 2020 (New York Times) – Selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. Browse by fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry, and stories.
Design
Designers & Books – Great site for anyone looking for design-related reading. Everything from interviews to themed book lists to Book List of the Week, often featuring favorite books of a guest designer.
18 Captivating New Books to Spark Inspiration (Architectural Digest) – A good selection of interiors and interior decoration, some architecture (Studio Gang, Tom Kundig, Postmodern) and an unexpected one on the artist Ruth Asawa.
The Best New Design Books to Buy This Fall (House Beautiful) – A few dozen new books “from designers, stylists, and historians, giving us eye candy—and design advice—aplenty.” Updated monthly.
Holiday Gift Books 2020: Design (Wall Street Journal) – Accessible to WSJ subscribers.
With Covid Restrictions Still In Place, These Design Books May Satisfy Wanderlust (Forbes) – Three interior photo books that offer a glimpse of high style at home.
77 Best Lighting Design Books (ArchDaily) – Covers both old and new, from the technical to the philosophical.
Fall 2020 Featured Design & Architecture (artbook) – Includes recent and upcoming books; “titles on architecture, design, urban studies” from “the world’s largest distributor of art books and museum exhibition catalogues.”
A summary of the best all round architecture books for 2020 (archisoup) – A mix of inspirational and technical, with many classics, on a site geared toward students.
Cooking & home
Cookbooks and Home Economics (Internet Archive) – Over 10,000, free and downloadable. “These fascinating books take us back to an America in the early decades of the 20th century covering topics on cookery, textiles, family and home, budgeting, domestic sciences, and many other delightful topics.” Read more about it here, discovered via the always interesting newsletter ResearchBuzz.
Children’s books
The Children’s Book Review – “Named One Of The ALSC (Association For Library Service To Children) Great Web Sites For Kids, Is A Resource Devoted To Children’s Literature And Literacy.”
The Best Graphic Novels for Kids Right Now (Scholastic) – “Graphic novels tell intricate and action-packed stories through both words and images — helping kids improve their reading comprehension, visualization, and critical thinking skills along the way.”
Where to get books
William Stout Architectural Books – One of the great architectural book stores still in business, “carries over 70,000 titles in the fields of architecture, art, urban planning, graphic and industrial design, furniture and interior design, and landscape architecture.”
Independent bookstores in the U.S. and Canada (NewPages) – Search for brick and mortar stores by state. Another source is IndieBound.
Bookshop.org – “Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores.” You can select a specific independent bookstore to receive the profit from your purchase or “your order will contribute to an earnings pool that will be evenly distributed among independent bookstores (even those that don’t use Bookshop).” United States only as of this writing.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Open Bookshelf – Download open-access titles from a range of categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Children’s Books, Young Adult, Textbooks, Literary Classics, Spanish, French, Other Languages, Plague and Pandemic: Historical Perspective, Impeachment Papers and Mueller Report. While you’re there check out the rest of the site.
Public Libraries, U.S. (LibWeb) or Online Libraries Worldwide (LibWeb) – Public libraries are under-appreciated treasures. They offer a world of reading on every topic imaginable in hard-copy, e-book, or audio-book formats. Many offer books in Braille. If your local library doesn’t have what you want, ask if they can do interlibrary loan. Support your local library!