Craig’s Friday Countdown Office Books
Not saying these are my favorite books. That’s easy to prove because P.D. Eastman’s canine day in the life masterwork isn’t number one. Am I the only one always surprised about where the dogs end up while reading Go Dog Go?
Am saying the lack of a television affords sufficient evening hours to rank the top 100 books on my office bookshelf.
100. The Dilbert Principle – Beware the Carols.
99. The Fiscal Impact Handbook – Ask Vernon Hills, Il. (no property tax, AAA bond rating) if this stuff works.
98. Santiago Calatrava – Had an interesting meeting with him once wherein he proposed a spire anchoring a cable-stayed pier in Davenport, as the “masculine” Mississippi River counter-poise to Saarinen’s St. Louis Arch. More than a little fearful a twenty million dollar change order would follow to “animate” the spire.
97. Tallgrass Prairie – Big grass, big pictures.
96. Founding Brothers – Thanks, guys.
95. A Time to Fight – Been a Jim Webb fan since his first novel.
94. The Death and Life of Great American School Systems – Diane Ravitch strikes back at education fads.
93. Rise of the Creative Class – Florida starts a bandwagon.
92. Getting to Yes – Interests, not positions.
91. Back of the Napkin – A neat little guide to sketching ideas.
90. Shaker Built – Aspirational woodworking, via pictures.
89. Forever Open, Free and Clear – The battle for Chicago’s open lakefront, well told.
88. American House Styles – A more concise and updated (though not necessarily better) version of #15.
87. Communist Manifesto – Can’t find it. Guessing Mayor Gluba borrowed it.
86. City Limits – Grad school text in urban politics.
85. The Competitive City – Another grad school text, focused mainly on efficiency.
84. The Boulevard Book – Who needs efficiency? Let’s just make the place beautiful.
83. TND Series I and II – Plan books for decent homes.
82. Jens Jensen – Biography of my favorite dead landscape architect.
81. It Worked For Me – Colin Powell offers up suggestions.
80. Classics of Urban Politics and Administration – Urban policy geek alert.
79. The Power Broker – Caro biogs Moses.
78. American Pharaoh – Choen and Taylor biog Daley #1.
77. Known and Unknown – Rummy’s hawking an app these days. Better than hawking a destabilizing war, I suppose. Still … the press briefings were brilliant.
76. Good to Great – Be the Frisky Dingo (inside joke, requires reading the book and being a CFC devotee).
75. Views of Seaside – The one in Florida.
74. Wrightscapes – FLW’s buildings, in landscape context.
73. The Next Hundred Million – A view to America’s demographic future.
72. The New Geography of Jobs – Turns out, companies value skill.
70. Team of Teams – Don’t direct. Enable.
69. Home From Nowhere – Kunstler offers up hope (kinda strange for him).
68. New Urbanism: Comprehensive Best Practices – As described.
67. Action Inquiry – Ask people what’s good. Do more of it.
66. The Art of Explanation – Visual learners, unite!
65. A Better Place to Live – Life beyond Levittownism.
64. Developing Sustainable Planned Communities – Which tend to be not so diverse. Let’s work on that.
63. The Next American Metropolis – Calthorpe weighs in on the New Urbanist revolution, fairly early on. Good stuff.
62. A Clearing in the Distance – Rybcznski biogs Olmsted.
61. Masterpieces of Chicago Architecture – Growing up in a place where this stuff was happening = permanent sense of wonder.
60. Landscapes and Gardens – From my favorite living landscape architecture firm – Hargreaves Associates.
59. The Communist Manifesto bit was a joke. Mainly for folks in Davenport.
58. The Mind of War – Hammond biogs Col. Boyd (OODA loop mentor).
57. A Whole Different Ballgame – The business of baseball.
56. At Home in the Heartland – Exacerbating homesickness? Curing it? Depends, I guess.
55. Men at Work / A Nice Little Place on the Northside – George Will writes (at least about baseball) tolerably.
54. The Powers to Lead – Nye says hard plus soft equals smart. I thought it equaled just right. Maybe that’s The Three Bears.
53. Triumph of the City – Cities rule.
52. Rural By Design – But if you’re not going to be a city, at least have some class.
51. Redesigning the American Dream – Hayden says mix it up.
50. What Knot? – Can you be dyslexic only on certain topics? Knots and phones, then.
49. The City in a Garden – Black and white pictures of Chicago parks. Gorgeous.
48. Chicago – Paeyga biogs the birthplace.
47. Social Statistics – The book from the class that killed a half dozen grad school careers, and nearly me. Was ok with the book, but the professor was nuts, a sadist and inexplicably proud of being a Poison fan. Terrible teacher, psychotic tyrant, hair metal aficionado and gate-keeper to a Masters Degree. Strange days.
46. The Lonely Crowd – Because of the two first full paragraphs on page 306.
45. How Not to be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking – Math is handy.
44. Habits of the Heart – A latter day “Democracy in America”.
43. Yard, Street, Park – Parks are important. Spread the word.
42. The Experience of Place – Tony Hiss’ thoughtful survey.
41. Chicago Metro 2020 – Because gift. Because of the middle paragraphs on page xv of the foreword.
40. Parliament of Whores – PJ O’Rourke goes to a plan commission meeting.
39. Shoeless Joe – Is this heaven? No, it’s Iowa.
38. Shopcraft as Soulcraft – Makers gotta make (more here).
37. The Master Trend – The Baby Boom, and its impact on the planet.
36. Small Group Decision Making – A grad school text. Here’s a highlight: “…in many respects, the least knowledgeable source of information about any specific person is that very person …”. Seems about right.
35. The Audacity to Win – David Plouffe’s look back at the first modern campaign of this century.
34. Public Produce – From Darrin Nordahl, one of my favorite dreamers I’ve worked with.
33. Heartland: The Photography of Terry Evans – Mistake #5,096,542 in life? Not getting the UV shielding glass for her burr oak picture.
32. Nature’s Metropolis – Chicago, as natural resource consumer / conveyor.
31. The Signal and the Noise – My money’s on Nate Silver. Because math.
30. Deep Survival – Who lives, who dies and why. Takeaways #1 and #2? Stay calm. Take action.
29. HOK / Hargreaves – From the folks who drew the plans for what became America’s best minor-league ballpark and the ever-more awesome riverfront it sits in.
28. Transforming Paris – Haussmann remakes Paris. Nice try, but Chicago still has better architecture (and food).
27. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks – Get your kid some Froebel blocks. And a cape.
26. On War – Clausewitz writes the game plan. God ponders the outcome.
25. The City in History – Mumford’s magnum opus.
24. The Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jane lets loose.
23. Great Streets – Streets are the skeleton. Get em right.
22. Chicago Architecture and Design: 1923 – 1993 – Those were the days (225 N. Columbus is pretty good, too).
21. The New Urbanism – Second best new urbanism book to the Charter itself? High praise.
20. Chicago: Then and Now – A gift from Mayor Daley.
19. The Charter of the New Urbanism – Manifesto for a return to community.
18. Davenport 2025 – Transformed a city. Won an award. Wears its heart on its sleeve, and not by accident.
17. Towns and Town Making Principles – DPZ, on the record.
16. American Masterworks – Antidote to the diminishment of the soul that is production housing.
15. Slide:ology / Field Guide to American Houses - Better presentations. / Encyclopedia of domestic residential style.
14. Siftings / Great Political Thinkers – Jens Jensen’s namesake for this corner of the interweb. / A favorite book from the undergrad days.
13. Three Nights in August – The ending could have been better, but a terrific, insightful plunge into ballcraft.
12. The Social Production of Urban Space – Hated this book in grad school but grew to respect it.
11. Kennedy School Binders – They’re next to dad’s flag for a reason.
10. Why Architecture Matters – From Blair Kamin. Chicagoans breath architecture like mortals breath oxygen.
9. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership – If Marty Linsky writes it, I read it.
8. Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills – Several lifetimes of knowledge packed in here, and a 50 year late start for me.
7. Our Kids – Robert Putnam’s most recent book, and the most important collection of words currently in circulation.
6. Northern California Hiking – Family gift, to be put to good use.
5. The Language of Landscape – You know how to tell it’s a great book about landscape? Not a single picture in it.
4. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information – I live in mortal fear Dr. Tufte will find an unnecessary pixel on my Powerpoints.
3. The Physics of Baseball – They can be made to curve. Deal with it.
2. A Pattern Language / Plan of Chicago – Wonderfully quirky little book that also happens to be the best design book ever. / Daniel Burnham not so bad either.
1.5. The Right Stuff – Wolfe says cool dudes.
1. Democracy in America – De Tocqueville says cool nation.
