Apologies for the break in service yesterday/Friday. There may have been user error involved, but I prefer to blame Network Solutions - in trying to open a mailbox (to resurrect dan at cityofsound.com, which I'm not able to check at the mo) all the domain forwarding etc just disappeared, with little warning. I'm mystified by their service sometimes, I really am. Anyway, hopefully everything's working OK now ...
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RECENT READING
Warren Ellis: Gun Machine
Hugely enjoyable police procedural set in several alternate New Yorks. (****)Natalini: Superstudio: The Middelburg Lectures
Some choice excerpts in here. (****)Alex Coles: The Transdisciplinary Studio
Invaluable research, and smartly-written. (*****)Roger Crowley: City of Fortune
Traditional history book, but a good one. The stories are so good, it can hardly fail. (****)Bruno Munari: Supplemento al Dizionario Italiano
Just a beautiful little book. Wonderful conceit, perfectly executed. Some further brief thoughts here. (*****)Geoff Dyer: Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room
(Still reading, but...) Dyer—in my top five, fwiw—does a kind of written (non-Director's) commentary through every scene of Tarkovsky's "Stalker". Absolutely hilarious, with sudden blooms of insight. (*****)Dan Hill: Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary
By me! An e-book on design practice, with a strategic bent. Read all about it here, and buy the thing here.Steven Johnson: Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age
Steven kindly asked me for comments on his draft of this, which is what I read. There's so much in here; I don't fully buy the premise and promise of networked politics, as Steven knows, but I do buy a lot of it. Excellent survey of current progressive thinking about political systems and cultures, and so highly useful. (****)David Brooks: The Social Animal
Was hoping it would have more on the psychology underpinning decision-making (at personal and institutional levels); decent, readable primer on behavioural and cognitive psychology nonetheless. (****)Viktor Mayer-Schönberger: Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
A sobering yet insightful read, though a little one-sided. I drew from it in my review of Facebook Timeline for Domus. (****)John Lanchester: Capital
I prefer Lanchester's non-fiction, such as the brilliant "Whoops!/IOU" and his essays for LRB, but this is still a compelling little tale of a London street and by extension, contemporary London. (****)Hari Kunzru: Gods Without Men
Highly enjoyable non-linear multi-character southern-fried desert epic. (*****)Sergio Los: Scarpa
Not much room for deep analysis, but beautiful work beautifully displayed. (****)Paul Mason: Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions
Brilliant survey of what fuels Arab Spring, Occupy etc., and how they are fuelled. By BBC Newsnight economic editor. (*****)Rory Hyde: Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture
Fabulous, inspiring book by Rory on possible trajectories for architecture and related. (I was kindly asked to write the foreword, about which more here.) (*****)Jeffrey Schnapp: The Electric Information Age Book: McLuhan/Agel/Fiore and the Experimental Paperback (Inventory Books)
Sharp little book on adventurous publishing in the '60s and '70s, centred on McLuhan's work with Agel and Fiore. Wonderfully designed. (****)Diego Marani: New Finnish Grammar
One of the most affecting books I've ever read, and a hook for living in Helsinki. More thoughts here. (*****)Natalini: Superstudio: The Middelburg Lectures
Good collection of reflection on the work of Superstudio, in the context of that particularly fertile period for Italian radical architecture. (*****)Ian McEwan: Solar
An odd book. Somewhat humdrum affair from McEwan. Engaging in places, funny in places, but curiously lacklustre overall. But McEwan is always worth reading to some extent. (***)Steven Holl: Urbanisms: Working with Doubt
Wonderful projects, beautiful book. (*****)
