I've had The Golem and the Jinni on my Amazon wish list for a while. Despite all the acclaim for the book I've heard and read, it took a potentially* spoiler-ish episode of the Technical Difficulties podcast—wherein they interview the book's author, Helene Wecker—for me to finally pick up a copy. I'm only about a third of the way in as of…
Written and illustrated by Nathan W. Pyle, NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette is all about the unwritten rules of society that people in the Big Apple (and cities everywhere, really) often get wrong. The book offers friendly tips and advice to visitors and New Yorkers alike, answering important questions such as: What is a bodega? How do I walk on an escalator?…
If you like maps, this is the book for you. A Map of the World collects the cartographic designs of designers, illustrators, and mapmakers from all around the world. Some are surprisingly detailed and accurate, while others are of the 'artistic interpretation' variety. This is the kind of book you can get lost in for days, taking in all of its whimsical…
The Sketchnote Workbook is the upcoming follow-up to Mike Rohde's popular guide, The Sketchnote Handbook.* In the original book, Mike taught you how to use sketchnotes to visually capture ideas and remember key bits of information. In The Sketchnote Workbook he expands on those concepts, showing how to adapt your sketchnote skills to all sorts of areas outside of boring office meetings…
When I recently recommended 1Password, I mentioned a few of its features but there is so much more to the app than I could possibly cover here. That's why you should pick up a copy of TidBITS senior editor Joe Kissell's eBook, Take Control of 1Password. In this book, Joe takes you from 1Password's initial setup and configuration all the way to…
Perfect Coffee at Home, written by former U.S. Marines Michael Haft and Harrison Suarez and available only on the iBookstore for iPad, is all about the joys and methods of brewing an awesome cup—you guessed it—at home. They explain all the factors that go into every cup, and how you can tweak them step-by-step to get the best results. Haft and Suarez…
Our friend Bradley Chambers updated his iBook and screencast series, Learning to Love Evernote, to version 2.0 today. He has re-recorded every video with new tips, tricks, and workflows to account for updated editions of the Evernote iOS apps. It's a free update for anyone who already owns the book. If you didn't pick up Learning to Love Evernote the last time…
If you're the kind of person that likes to know how the infrastructure all around you works, then you're gonna love Kate Ascher's books. In 2007's The Works: Anatomy of a City, she showed us the myriad factors that keep a city like NYC running every day. You find out all sorts of interesting things: how electricity makes its way from the…
William Zinsser's On Writing Well—much like The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing—is one of those books that gets recommended to all writers sooner or later. And for good reason. Zinsser has been in the writing business a loooong time (nearly 70 years, in fact). He's taught classes and workshops, worked as a journalist, and authored nearly 20 books on…
Ed Catmull, alongside Steve Jobs and John Lasseter, co-founded Pixar Animation Studios. In fact, he played a key role in developing the rendering system used in several of their films and by the wider film industry. And now, he has written a book called Creativity, Inc., which grants the reader a peek into the creative process at Pixar and how other businesses…
The guys at Field Notes have done it again with the latest in their COLORS lineup, the cover of which is actually made of wood. It's called the Shelterwood Edition. As you can watch in their behind-the-scenes video, they've very thinly sliced up some American cherry wood and bonded it with kraft paper to form each cover. Due to the nature of…
The next time you plan on packing some boxes, you might consider using this neat bookshelf masking tape. Made by Etsy shop LightLife, this tape will add a (dare I say) bookish flair to your stuff. Dimensions are 20mm x 5m, and a roll costs $6.75 + shipping from Taiwan.
Fortunately, the Milk is a children's book written by Neil Gaiman—and illustrated by one of my favorite comic artists, Skottie Young—that tells the tale of a father who goes out to buy some milk and returns with a wild story for his kids to hear. The premise sounds silly, and the book is certainly full of silly events. But it's also a…
If you're an avid LEGO "minifig" collector, if you recently developed an interest after seeing The LEGO Movie, or if you're just a kid who never grew up, then you'll definitely want to check out LEGO Minifigure Year by Year: A Visual History by Gregory Farshtey. This full-color 255-page book starts with the detailed origins of the classic Lego Minifigure and follows…
Those of you already familiar with the world of graphic novels likely need no introduction to the excellent Flight series, but it's a great place for newbies old and young alike to dive in. Each volume in the series is an anthology, featuring short stories contributed by various cartoonists. These stories are often warm, inviting, and have the same sense of wonder…
Here's one for the book nerds out there. This upcoming print, titled A Diagrammatical Dissertation on Opening Lines of Notable Novels, is exactly what it sounds like: a diagram of opening lines in famous books. Examples include: Fahrenheit 451, Moby Dick, Gravity's Rainbow, The Old Man and the Sea, Don Quixote, and a lot more. The team at Pop Chart Lab have…
John Frost—who runs TheDisneyBlog.com and whose father was one of the original "Imagineers" that had a hand in the construction of Disneyland—has written a book full of essays that make you feel like you're right there at the park. A lot of the stories are very touching, and there are several examples of "cast members" going to great lengths to make the…
My friend Patrick Rhone has just released another one of his "living guide" eBooks, this one titled Some Thoughts About Writing. In it, he discusses what it takes to be a successful, professional writer, and provides some excellent tips along the way. It's a "living" book because it will likely receive updates with new content in the future, all of which are…
Certain industrial designers, such as Dieter Rams and Jony Ive, get a lot of attention within our community—and rightfully so—but one guy who maybe doesnt get talked about as much he deserves is Naoto Fukasawa. Some readers may recall this beautiful, wall-mounted CD player from 1999, which is arguably his most famous work, but he's designed all kinds of things that any…
Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is one of those books that I've always heard about from other writers, but I didn't get around to reading it until very recently. I wish I'd gotten around to it sooner because it's truly a fantastic book. In it, King talks about the events that led to him becoming a writer, which…