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Ever feel that the web design market is over-saturated by books, both coffee-table and technical? There’s too much choice, and “What books would you recommend?” is the top (non cheese related) question I get asked. Depending on the topic required, there are various degrees of ‘hmmm well…you could try…” that’s replied.

This is where Mark Boulton’s new PDF book A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web comes in. I’ve been watching the previews on Flickr and now that I’ve actually had the chance to read the full book, I can declare it a triumph. It doesn’t feel preachy or stodgy, or conversely, too light and insubstantial. Mark’s tone strikes the right balance, and is engaging from the start.

To those who don’t know, I’m not a trained designer – my background is firmly in illustration. As part of my 5 years studying illustration, we covered some graphic design, but it was about 20% or less of the curriculum. Since leaving college, and getting my first job as a Junior Designer for Coventry City Council, I’ve been ‘picking up’ the elements of design ever since, but have never had the benefit of formal training.

For me, this book is the equivalent of ‘Zeldmans Orange book’, taking those bits and pieces I’ve learnt over the years and filling in the gaps, finally creating an overall understanding.
However, it doesn’t just cover design theory, as practical business advice is given to complete the picture. Something that I’m sure all those people who ask me for recommendations will love.

It’s left me wanting the physical book, which if I have understood correctly, is on the cards. Yippee!

Thanks to Richard for pointing me toward these new covers for Penguin H.G Wells classics. Penguin have a habit re-issuing books with well-thought out covers (like the recent James Bond series). These are my favourites so far though.

The Gallery of Modern Art in Oxford has this fantastic installation, “The House of Books has no Windows”. A collaboration between Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, it’s constructed from 5000 books. Sadly, I only had my iPhone with me, so the pics aren’t great:

Truly a book sniffers delight. You can see more of the exhibition and the artists on the BBC Culture Show site.

Every now and again, you come across an artist so fresh and exciting, you can’t help but evangelise others about them. One such discovery is Oliver Jeffers, a surpremely talented illustrator who uses realia as the basis for much of his work. Leigh had picked up his book The Incredible Book Eating Boy, and we looked on in awe.

Take a look at these spreads, where you can see how the pages started off as books folded out flat, and then painted on top of:

As a nice touch the back half of the book has the bottom left corner pre-bitten:

Be sure to have butchers at his portfolio and sketchbooks, and the book his highly recommended, whether you have children or not!

In general, I don’t ‘do’ books. Over the last few years, my reading has dwindled to an embarrassing one-per-year, apart from a holiday in Rhodes in which I managed to get through a grand total of three.

The type that I have managed to read, tend to be “humourous travel writing” – Round Ireland with a Fridge, McCarthy’s Bar, Are you Dave Gorman?, Join Me, that sort of thing.

I’ve just finished reading the wife’s copy of The Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman (in just 2 weeks – a personal record!), and I’m absolutely blown away. I’ve not felt so excited about fiction in a long, long time, and I’ve certainly not had that ‘can’t put this down’ feeling before (I also have this unexplainable thing about airships in stories, which was why I read Michael Moorcock’s ‘Oswald Bastable’ Trilogy -but that’s another story). That insatiable need to find somewhere quiet to read just another few pages has never been so stong.

What makes these books really ‘live’ for me is that Lyra’s story is based in Oxford (just down the road from me), at an imaginary Jordan College. The description of the city makes me feel right at home, and I can see the places Pullman describes, and suspend my disbelief that alternative universes actually exist.

Now I just hope that others share my enthusiasm, and that haven’t just made an arse of myself.

Andy Budd’s Blogography is definitely worth a visit. A real pleasure to read, combined with clean, slick design and some beautiful photographs. He was recently linked to by Zeldman but it was through a link on Jeremy Keith’s Journal that I found him. (BTW: Since that Zeldman link, I’ve been getting so many offers from Nigerian businessmen, willing to just give me huge sums of cash in dollars. Fantastic! Looks like I’m not the only one)

Another regular has been Dan Benjamin’s Hivelogic Narrative. I’m about to use Dan’s ‘Image Rotator’ php script on my navbar background, now that I realised it works in CSS (background-image property) as well as normal HTML code. Hurrah!

Book-wise I’m about to start ‘Join Me‘ by Danny Wallace.

Anyway, I’m off now on a much needed 2 week holiday. In the meantime, here’s a little light music…

..talks my kinda talk. My copy of ‘designing with web standards’ finally arrived today – and I am one happy boy.