Finding new books is harder than it should be. Independent bookstores are closing shop, and big box stores who only carry whatever bribes their way past the exorbitant stock keeping fees. Databases and libraries become impossible to navigate unless you already know what you're looking for. Even with online resale, you can only search within your own vocabulary. Now rare are the times when one can simply look upon a bookshelf and see some hitherto unknown title.
I know I must not be the only one with this problem. So, I offer a listing of my own shelves, such that anyone may use my listing as reference for their own.
My books get divided into three categories: Fiction, Arts, and Sciences. ... however, what I classify as what depends more on my own idiosyncrasies and opinion of the book than anything else.
I will only list books that I liked, were interesting, or at least not terrible enough to be disowned. Self-authored books are not listed. Multiple copies in different languages are listed only under one entry. Scientific work that risks being quickly outdated are unlisted. Items are listed alphabetically, but not in the order in which I first read them, so inter-related lines of thought between multiple books may be listed in a confusing order.
I take recommendations for others, within reason.
– Robert Bringhurst
One of the masterwork texts in the entire field of typography, (if one of the few I could ever find) covering both the technique and the lettered history of the form. Also covers a more enlightened approach to graphic design.
My first work of Bringhurst's, though I would later discover that he would be considered a heavyweight in the Canadian literary circuit. I almost had the chance to meet him in person one year at a humanities research group, but sickness prevented such. Though, I must admit, I don't always agree with some of the propositions. Perhaps it's just my own personal quirk that I love sans-serif type with justified ragging.