Mundane is beautiful
Submitted by sirilyan on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:00
Tags:
- The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman: Life is difficult, but most of those difficulties are self-inflicted. A good introduction to industrial design, if kind of didactic at times.
- Inconspicuous Consumption, Paul Lukas: If you have ever wondered what the name of that shoe-measuring thing is, get this book. (Brannock Device. You're welcome.)
- The Straight Dope (and sequels), Cecil Adams: The real lyrics to "Louie, Louie", what happened to channel one, how they get the toothpaste in the tube... it's all here.
Author Comments:
There's a whole wide world around us, and we look at some of the neatest parts so often we just don't see them. These books are (mostly) about the inobtrusive, the trivial, the constant-thereness of things that are constantly there.
The Design of Everyday Things was great. I'd love to learn Python one of these days, but I think PHP is slowly overcoming it on my "to learn" list. And my favorite Dave Barry book . . . tough choice . . . is probably Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs (his "collection of columns" books are all excellent, but they don't count).
(This comment was relevant when this list was my shopping list at Indigo, but I've retitled and edited. Now Jim looks like he's playing nonsequitur games on me. Funny weird, or funny ha ha? You be the judge.
The Python book that was on this list, by the way, is Learning Python by Mark Lutz.)
Hey, long time no see! Welcome back!