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The incomparable bell hooks once said “reading will lift you up out of the world that other people are apposing on you.” Reading elevates our spirits and eleviates our loneliness, with each book providing a new perspective on our diverse, perverse and fascinating world. Good Book Catalogue is above all an ode to the love of reading. It equally acts as one small step to repaying friends, strangers and serendipity alike for all of the book recommendations over the years.
Good Book Catalogue is curated by the design studio Doing Me Doing You. Well-written words and storytelling are central cavets to the studio’s practice.
In 2017, Creative Director Emma set a book target for the course of the year, sparking a yearly habit of reading her fair share of books. In 2020 Good Book Catalogue was born, to share the reads she enjoyed. Not always great reads, but cataloguing many good books. There are a handful of design books, a few fantasy and sci-fi tales, some classic fiction reads and a whole lot of non-fiction ranging in subject from history and sociology, to philosophy and physics.
TOP TEN –
1. The Years by Annie Ernaux
2. All About Love by bell hooks
3. Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke
4. Too Much and Not The Mood by Durga Chew-Bose
5. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
6. To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine
7. The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel
8. The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
9. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
10. The Odyssey by Homer
1. The Years by Annie Ernaux
2. All About Love by bell hooks
3. Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke
4. Too Much and Not The Mood by Durga Chew-Bose
5. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
6. To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine
7. The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel
8. The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
9. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
10. The Odyssey by Homer
If you too love to share your favourite reads, send a recommendation to goodbookcatalogue@gmail.com
Index
Use Cmd-F on desktops to search for Fiction, Poetry, Graphic Novels or Non-fiction catergories:
Art & Design, Biography, Environmental, Essays, Grief, History, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Politics, Psychology, Queer, Society & Travel
︎ = Favourites
Natives: Race & Class in The Ruins of Empire ︎
Akala
Non-fiction: History & Society
Interaction of Colour
Josef Albers
Non-fiction: Art & Design
Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys ︎
Viv Albertine
Non-fiction: Biography
To Throw Away Unopened ︎
Viv Albertine
Non-fiction: Biography & Music
White Girls ︎
Hilton Als
Non-fiction: Society
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ︎
Maya Angelou
Non-fiction: Biography
It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be
Paul Arden
Non-fiction: Art & Design
The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood
Fiction
Giovanni’s Room ︎
James Baldwin
Fiction
Image Music Text
Roland Barthes
Non-fiction: Philosophy
Foreign Soil ︎
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Fiction: Short Stories
Ways of Seeing
John Berger
Non-fiction: Art & Design
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry
Poetry
Now You See It
Michael Bierut
Non-fiction: Art & Design
Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain ︎
Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie & Suzanne Scafe
Non-fiction: Society and Culture
The Unnatural Art of The Garden
Roberto Burle Marx
Non-fiction: Art & Design
The Myth of Sisyphus
Albert Camus
Non-fiction: Philosophy
The Outsider
Albert Camus
Fiction
Granite Island: A Portrait of Corsica
Dorothy Carrington
Non-fiction: Travel
Too Much and Not the Mood ︎
Durga Chew-Bose
Non-fiction: Essays
On Anarchism ︎
Noam Chomsky
Non-fiction: Politics
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis
Fiction
Adieux
Simone De Beauvoir
Non-fiction: Biography
She Came To Stay
Simone De Beauvoir
Fiction
The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Fiction
Blue Nights
Joan Didion
Non-fiction: Grief
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
Non-fiction: Grief
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race ︎
Reni Eddo-Lodge
Non-fiction: Society
What is the What
Dave Eggers
Biographical Fiction
Art Sex Music ︎
Cosey Fanni Tutti
Non-fiction: Biography & Music
Catch and Kill
Ronan Farrow
Non-fiction: Society
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Paulo Freire
Non-fiction: Society
The Future We Choose
Christiana Figueres
Non-fiction: Environment
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fiction
Hunger ︎
Roxane Gay
Non-fiction: Biography
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know
Malcolm Gladwell
Non-fiction: Psychology
Girl in a Band
Kim Gordon
Non-fiction: Biography & Music
The Shortest History of Germany
James Hawes
Non-fiction: History
The Book of My Lives
Aleksandar Hemon
Non-fiction: Biography
Colouring The Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives – Life Stories and Essays by First Nations People of Australia ︎
Dino Hodge
Non-fiction: Queer
The Odyssey
Homer
Fiction
All About Love ︎
bell hooks
Non-fiction: Culture, Love and Relationships
Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope ︎
bell hooks
Non-fiction: Society and Teaching
Dubliners
James Joyce
Fiction
No One Belongs Here More Than You
Miranda July
Fiction: Short Stories
The First Bad Man
Miranda July
Fiction
She Said
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
Non-fiction: Society
Border: A Journey to the Edge Europe
Kapka Kassabova
Non-fiction: History
Failed It!
Erik Kessels
Non-fiction: Art & Design
Wabi-Sabi: Further Thoughts
Leonard Koren
Non-fiction: Art & Design
I Love Dick
Chris Kraus
Non-fiction: Biography & Art
Infinity Net ︎
Yayoi Kusama
Non-fiction: Biography & Art
Women Together/Women Apart
Tirza True Latimer
Non-fiction: Queer History
Decolonizing Solidarity
Clare Land
Non-fiction: Society
The Whitsun Weddings
Phillip Larkin
Poetry
A Wizard of Earthsea ︎
Ursula K. Le Guin
Fiction: Fantasy
Searoad
Ursula K. Le Guin
Fiction
Tales From Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin
Fiction: Fantasy
Tehanu
Ursuka K. Le Guin
Fiction: Fantasy
The Farthest Shore
Ursuka K. Le Guin
Fiction: Fantasy
The Other Wind
Ursuka K. Le Guin
Fiction: Fantasy
The Tombs of Atuan
Ursuka K. Le Guin
Fiction: Fantasy
A Grief Observed
C.S. Lewis
Non-fiction: Grief
How Democracies Die
Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt
Non-fiction: Politics
So Real it Hurts
Lydia Lunch
Non-fiction: Biography & Music
Revolting Prostitutes ︎
Juno Mac & Molly Smith
Non-fiction: Society
Prisoners of Geography
Tim Marshall
Non-fiction: Politics
On Chesil Beach
Ian McEwan
Fiction
Poverty Safari
Darren McGarvey
Non-fiction: Society
The Natural Enemies of Books
MMS
Non-fiction: Art & Design
Design as Art ︎
Bruno Munari
Non-fiction: Art & Design
Norweigen Wood
Haruki Murakami
Fiction
Sputnik Sweetheart
Haruki Murakami
Fiction
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
Fiction
Animal Farm
George Orwell
Fiction
1984
George Orwell
Fiction
Equal Rites ︎
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
Mort ︎
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
Pyramids
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
Sourcery
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
The Colour of Magic ︎
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
The Light Fantastic
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
Wyrd Sisters
Terry Pratchett
Fiction: Fantasy
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
Fiction
Letters to a Young Painter
Rainer Maria Rilke
Non-fiction: Art
Conversations with Friends
Sally Rooney
Fiction
Normal People
Sally Rooney
Fiction
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Carlo Rovelli
Non-fiction: Physics
The Order of Time ︎
Carlo Rovelli
Non-fiction: Physics
Footnotes in Gaza
Joe Sacco
Non-fiction: Graphic Novel
Palestine
Joe Sacco
Non-fiction: Graphic Novel
Bonjour Tristesse
Françoise Sagan
Fiction
Franny and Zooey
J.D. Salinger
Fiction
Nine Stories
J.D. Salinger
Fiction
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
J.D. Salinger
Fiction
Assata: An Autobiography ︎
Assata Shakur
Non-fiction: Biography
Autumn
Ali Smith
Fiction
Spring ︎
Ali Smith
Fiction
Winter
Ali Smith
Fiction
Just Kids
Patti Smith
Non-fiction: Biographical
M Train
Patti Smith
Non-fiction: Biography
Swing Time
Zadie Smith
Fiction
Hope in the Dark
Rebecca Solnit
Non-fiction: Society
Men Explain Things to Me
Rebecca Solnit
Non-fiction: Society
The Mother of All Questions
Rebecca Solnit
Non-fiction: Society
Whose Story Is It?
Rebecca Solnit
Non-fiction: Society
On Photography
Susan Sontag
Non-fiction: Art & Design
How to Reform Capitalism
The School of Life
Non-fiction: Society & Art
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Olga Tokarczuk
Fiction
Killing and Dying ︎
Adrian Tomine
Fiction: Graphic Novel
The Responsible Object ︎
Marjanne Van Helvert
Non-fiction: Art & Design
The End of Policing
Alex S. Vitale
Non-fiction: Society
Cat’s Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut
Fiction
Galapagos
Kurt Vonnegut
Fiction
Hocus Pocus
Kurt Vonnegut
Fiction
Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Fiction
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Tennesse Williams
Fiction: Play
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara
Fiction