“ Although there are several good design websites that occasionally have book reviews, there didn't seem to be a single place online where you could get constant updates and reviews of new (and sometimes old) design books. Design books are often expensive and contrary - sometimes the book is worth having for the physical production values alone, sometimes for the images, sometimes for the words and, occasionally, for all three. We wanted to cover those elements in our reviews so that you know whether it's worth owning. ”

The Designer's Review of Books

A post on New Zealand birds via BibliOdyssey :

Birds of New Zealand

At the bottom of the page a link to NZTEC - “free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials, which offers an ever expanding, fully searchable, set of images and full-text books, manuscripts and journals [..] contains over 2,600 texts (around 65,000 pages)”

A book in PDF format by Massimo Vignelli on understanding typography in graphic design (via AisleOne):

The Vignelli Canon (pdf)

In his 2-volume work, 'Décorations Polychromes', artist Ernst Ewald assembles what amounts to a grand tour through some of the most important elements from the decorative arts output of the Renaissance, found in buildings from Europe (and North Africa).

Décorations Polychromes

“ From this place, and from this day forth begins a new era in the history of the world, and you can all say that you were present at its birth.”

Savage Wars of Peace

Via India,Ink.:

“ Penguin's just announced a new series of My Penguin classics with naked front covers - white art-quality paper, blank save for the Penguin logo. It's up to you to clothe them, in illustration or collage or whatever, and if you e-mail it to Penguin they'll post it to their online gallery.”

Draw your own

A nice idea.

“ Early in the 19th century, the need for speed, simplicity, and economy in book production led to the introduction of cloth as a binding material and casing as a binding process. This exhibit chronicles the growth of English and American publishers' binding from its infancy in the 1830s to its decline in the early 20th century.”

Publishers' Bindings 1830 - 1910
via India,Ink.

Beautiful pictures of Libraries:

Libraries are the keepers of human history, the shape of men efforts to understand and remember, they bring perspective to human history and enable anyone to learn and keep learning.

Library Smut

From The British Library :

" Digitised Renaissance festival books (selected from over 2,000 in the British Library's collection) that describe the magnificent festivals and ceremonies that took place in Europe between 1475 and 1700 "

Renaissance festival books

• Gifts of learning
• Book Aid International

Codefetch :

“ Codefetch's code excerpts connect users of open source software with great books about those software products”

Basically it lets you search for a piece of code and brings it back with an excerpt of the book is in, a shot of the book itself and where to buy it. An interesting idea. It could be used to look for books starting from a phrase in a online Library, for example.