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RECENT READING
Martti Kalliala, with Tuomas Toivonen and Jenna Sutela: Solution 239 - 246: Finland - The Welfare Game
Lovely little Sternberg Press book speculating imaginatively on possible future Finlands and so generating deep insight into today's Finland. (*****)Michael Frayn: Skios: A Novel
Enjoyable, and very funny in places. (***)David Lodge: The Campus Trilogy: Changing Places; Small World; Nice Work
Great fun, and actually fascinating as a document of the time, and often prescient indication of what was to follow. But primarily, great fun. (*****)Ken Kalfus: Equilateral: A Novel
A wonderful, wonderful small book. As deep as the night sky is vast, yet also humourous and accessible. (*****)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. (****)
