Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design

Debbie Millman

“If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don’t compromise, and don’t waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now.”

Debbie Millman’s fantastic illustrated essays of wisdom on the creative life – a timeless treat halfway between philosophy and design:

Make Good Art

Neil Gaiman

“Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before.”

Neil Gaiman’s fantastic commencement address, adapted by design legend Chip Kidd

No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood

Women writers and comedians on the choice not to have children

A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary

Brian Eno

“Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.”

Music pioneer Brian Eno on the essence of art in excerpts from his diary

Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America

Jon Mooallem

“Maybe you have to believe in the value of everything to believe in the value of anything.”

What an obscure endangered butterfly teaches us about parenthood, legacy, and being human

How to Worry Less about Money (School of Life)

John Armstrong

“This book is about worries. It’s not about money troubles. There’s a crucial difference.

Troubles are urgent. They ask for direct action. … By contrast, worries often say more about the worrier than about the world.

[…]

So, addressing money WORRIES should be quite different from dealing with money TROUBLES. To address our worries we have to give attention to the pattern of thinking (ideology) and to the scheme of values (culture) as these are played out in our won individual, private existences.”

Fantastic, essential read:

Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits

Debbie Millman

“Maybe the modern version of introspection is the sum total of all those highly individualized choices that we make about the material content of our lives.”

Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Dan Pink, and other cultural mavens on how and why we define ourselves through what we consume, be it the books we read or the brands we buy – a must-read.

Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology

Caroline Paul & Wendy MacNaughton

“You can never know anyone as completely as you want. But that’s okay, love is better.”

A spectacular illustrated meditation on love, loss, and what it means to be human:

Einstein on Peace

Albert Einstein

“Every man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full of promise.”

Einstein and Freud’s little-known correspondence on violence, peace, and human nature

Cosmic Apprentice: Dispatches from the Edges of Science

Dorion Sagan

“A good scientific theory shines its light, revealing the world’s fearful symmetry. And its failure is also a success, as it shows us where to look next.”

Dorion Sagan, son of Carl, considers the vital relationship between science and philosophy

A Natural History Of Love

Diane Ackerman

“What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings. How can love’s spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable? If we search for the source of the word, we find a history vague and confusing, stretching back to the Sanskrit lubhyati (“he desires”). I’m sure the etymology rambles back much farther than that, to a one-syllable word heavy as a heartbeat. Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days.”

A natural history of love:

How to Find Fulfilling Work (The School of Life)

Roman Krznaric

Fantastic read on the art-science of “allowing the various petals of our identity to fully unfold.”

Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything

Philip Ball

Fascinating read on the difference between curiosity and wonder:

Martine’s Hand-Book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness (Classic Reprint)

Arthur Martine

“In disputes upon moral or scientific points, ever let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.”

A timeless and timelier than ever 1866 guide to the art of conversation:

This is Henry, Henry Miller from Brooklyn: Conversations with the author from the Henry Miller Odyssey

Henry Miller

“What are we here for if not to enjoy life eternal, solve what problems we can, give light, peace and joy to our fellow-man, and leave this dear fucked-up planet a little healthier than when we were born.”

Henry Miller on the mystery of the universe and the meaning of life