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Second in an occasional series, featuring the excellent method the 'Grand Theft Auto' games have for signalling your next mission encounter - a giant, glowing pink arrow oscillating above the target. Perfectly visible at speed, driving through dense urban environments, sometimes under fire and/or listening to Foreigner. Remarkably eye-catching. (Arguably, this should be filed under 'information architecture classics', but who cares.)
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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. (*****)
