any particular interests to narrow it down a bit?

The Artless Word. read it now

zumthor or eisenman? i tend to read more non-arch books these days, a little philosophy and history when i can find time.

Multifamily Housing Development Handbook

Comes in full color

for depth in easily digestible language, I'll recommend pretty much anything by David Leatherbarrow.

For sparking the fires, like an extended pep-talk/soap-box homily all-in-one (with substance) I'll recommend John Ruskin, esp. the Seven Lamps of Architecture.

To get bit by the phenomenology bug, I'll recommend Juhani Pallasmaa's, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses.

A Place of My Own and Second Nature by Michael Pollan are also very good, general books.

For a mind trip try, Architectural Body by Madeline Gins & Arakawa

To geek out on arch+computers, etopia, or soft architecture machines

also good, easily digestible writing but with real meet behind it and related to technology+architecture is Malcolm McCullough's, Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing or kieran & timberlake's, refabricating architecture

also good, easily digestible writing but with real meet behind it and related to sustainability is will mcdonough's, cradle to cradle

for beautiful prose on architecture, i'm a fan of alberto perez-gomez

too many others to name

hope this is of interest --- make sure you post what you end up reading --- it will be interesting to know what you choose

by Joseph Rykwert

it changed my life !!

Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts

how buildings learn, stewart brand: one of the best takes on architecture by a non-architect.

Framing Places by Kim Dovey is a superb book.

A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander! If you want some universal design principals, this is The Book To Read.

I would supplement this post with another question:

What is the 'architectural canon'? What books/works are indispensible to the life-long education of a contemporary architect?

I would, perhaps, set a limit of ten for this discussion [let's face it, we spend more time drawing than reading, leave the obscure references to specialist theorists.].


I'll start with 5:

'I Quattro Libri dell' Architettura' - Palladio

'De Architectura' - Vitruvius [AKA 10 Books]

'Kindergarten Chats' - Louis Sullivan

'Towards a New Architecture' - Corb

'Delirous New York' - Rem



However to answer the OP I would also add [because I don't yet know if they go in the 'Canon']:

'Capitalism and Schizophrenia...' - Gilles Deleuze
'War in the Age of Intelligent Machines' - Manuel de Landa
'L'architettura Della Citta' - Aldo Rossi

and 2 more, though they may be TOO contemporary:

'Far From Equilibrium...' - Sanford Kwinter
'Drosscape' - Alan Berger

_

I've consciously left out Mumford and Jacobs because I feel their books apply much more to municipal and city planning than canonical 'architecture.'

Curves of Time: Memoirs of Oscar Niemeyer

No academic mumbo jumbo, manifesto, theories, blah blah blah. Just expressions of love and passion. You're welcome.

Good list jplourde

How about you just... I don't know... die in a fire.

The fact that you capitalized "READ" as if reading something about a "visual art" makes you intellectually superior to your peers.

A lot of people READ Danielle Steel but I wouldn't consider her books to be literary masterpieces despite her success.

tut tut, shake ya butt


btw does anyone else like Japanther? or am i the only one?

I'd drop deLanda from any list. And add the writings of Vincent Scully as non-ideological down-to-earth commentary on architecture and urbanism - not canonical because there are lots of changes over time, but important especially because that. And a good read.

@Unicorn, I have no idea what you're babbling on about.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the suggestions, I really appreciate it. I've been trying to respond sooner, but have had massive problems getting my login info recovered.

I've recently purchased the Arata Isozaki hardcover:
http://www.amazon.com/Arata-Isozaki/dp/0714845353/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288556859&sr=1-1

And it's basically exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. The reason is the bulk of it is written by Arata, and it's just him candidly expressing his own experiences, opinions, theories, and perspectives on his craft and the world around him. That's what really interests me.. just listening to vets like this talk through experience.

I'm really uninterested in "academic" books, or anything written by scholars who are only assessing other architects work, and spending countless droning paragraphs framing them in the larger context of history/significance.

these are a couple of my favorite ones:

after the city, lars lerup

delirious new york, rem koolhaas

art and visual perception, rudolph arnheim

the poetics of space, gaston bachelard

steven wards suggestion is also a good one, how buildings learn

digital ground by malcolm mccullough

algorithmic architecture by kostas terzidis (sp?)