A list with over 100 books that any designer should have in his personal library, recommended by worlds greatest minds.

I’m personally obsessed with gathering all sorts of knowledge. My simple plan is to read at least 1 book per month besides plenty of articles and videos online to broaded my horizons, improve skills and knowledge.

Even thought it’s just 1 book per month it’s still a big challenge and sometimes it’s just not possible because I’m busy with my projects. I “cheat” and ease the “bad feeling” by adding more great books to read later to my library. That feels great, almost like I’ve read that book already.

All the books in my library are carefully handpicked from what I stumbled upon online in comments on design related websites by highly respected people in the design industry and on Twitter. I simply just don’t go to iBooks store and pick something from the top charts.

Here’s my personal library in no particular order (majority of the books I have already read or at least started a couple of chapters):

The classics

• The Vignelli Canon by Massimo Vignelli
• Less But Better by Dieter Rams
• Thoughts on Design by Paul Rand
• Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann
• Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
• A5/05: Lufthansa and Graphic Design: Visual History of an Airplane by Jens Müller
• The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems by Josef Müller-Brockmann
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte
• The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
• The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
• The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
• TOKUJIN by Tokujin Yoshioka
• Where Good Ideas Come From Steven Johnson
• Change by Design by Tim Brown
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• The Monocle Guide to Better Living by Andrew Tuck
• Living with Complexity by Donald A. Norman
• The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
• Paul Rand: Conversations with Students by Michael Kroeger
• An Alphabetical Book About Nokia Pure by AAPO BOVELLAN
• Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
• The Geometry of Type by Erik Spiekermann
• Information is Beautiful by David McCandless
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec by Ronan Bouroullec

Startups, design, business, ideas, thinking

• Visual Grammar by Christian Leborg
• Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky
• 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design by Steven Heller
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• Naoto Fukasawa Bill Moggridge
• Knowledge Is Beautiful by David McCandless
• Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty by David Kadavy
• Graphics Standard Manual New York City Transit Authority (MTA 2014 Limited Edition Facsimile Reprint) by Massimo Vignelli
• Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships by Gail Greet Hannah
• Geometry of Design by Kimberly Elam
• How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy
• Information Graphics by Sandra Rendgen
• Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice by Armin Hofmann
• A Designer’s Art by Paul Rand
• Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture by Casey Reas
• Visual Miscellaneum by David McCandless
• The Next 100 Years by George Friedman
• Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine by Donald A. Norman
• Designed for Use by Lukas Mathis
• Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Don Norman
• Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages by Alex Wright
• The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
• The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump
• D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself by Ellen Lupton
• Color: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Colorsby Betty Edwards
• I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards
• Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type by Kimberly Elam
• Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender
• Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions by Edward R. Tufte
• Paul Rand by Steven Heller
• Philographics: Big Ideas in Simple Shapes by Genis Carreras
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
  Peter Thiel
• Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks
• Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible by Sophie Lovell
• Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams by Klaus Klemp
• Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design by Bill Buxton
• Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried
• Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City by Brad Feld
• Reissue of the 1975 NASA Graphics Standards Manual
• Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur by Brad Feld
• Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age by Paul Graham
• Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff by Mark Hughes
• Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
• TM: The Untold Stories Behind 29 Classic Logos by Mark Sinclair
• How to by Michael Bierut
• Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
• Logo Modernism by Jens Müller
• Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
• The Best American Infographics 2014 by Gareth Cook
• Graphis Design Annual 2015 by B. Martin Pedersen
• Typography 35 by Type Directors Club
• D&AD 2013 by D&AD
• Patterns of the Universe: A Coloring Adventure in Math and Beauty by Alex Bellos
• Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
  Philip E. Tetlock
• Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock

History, sci-fi and the weird stuff

These books are not exactly related to design per se, however I find these books extremely captivating and worth reading.

• Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals by John LeFevre a.k.a. @GSElevator
• Computer Lib/Dream Machines, Revised Edition by Ted Nelson
• Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age
  Alex Wright
• Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald L. Barlett
• Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans by Malachi Martin
• Pieces of the action by Vannevar Bush
• Fry The Monkeys Create A Solution: The manager’s and facilitator’s guide to accelerating change using Solution Focus by Alan Kay
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• From Memex To Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind’s Machine by James M. Nyce
• Possiplex Ted Nelson
• General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates by Charles Captain Johnson
• Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays by Stephen W. Hawking
• The Day After Roswell by Philip Corso
• The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
• A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno by Joseph Bonanno
• Chariots of the Gods: Unsolved Mysteries of the Past by Erich von Däniken
• The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• The Theory Of Everything by Stephen Hawking
• The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle
• Remember, now be here, now here be by Ram Dass
• Custodians Of Truth: The Continuance Of Rex Deus by Tim Wallace-Murphy

Enjoy.

I hope you find your next favorite book.

This article originally appeared in Design Pttrns