Rating: 7.6/10. Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug Book published in 2014 about web usability and design. It’s fairly short, covering the basics and addressing many of the most common problems and issues with design, as well as the fundamentals of usability testing. The goal of…
Category: Arts and Music
In the Footsteps of Du Fu by Michael Wood
Rating: 8.1/10. An introductory book to Du Fu, a poet who lived during the Tang Dynasty and is considered one of the greatest in China’s history. He was known as the ‘Poet Historian,’ with poems that chronicle many of the situations of poor people and daily life in an era full of warfare. The book…
What to Listen For in Music by Aaron Copland
Rating: 7.6/10. Book about how to appreciate classical music, especially 20th-century modern music, written by influential American classical composer Aaron Copland. It’s written at a level that does not assume much prior understanding of music, even though it makes use of some musical notation. Often, people ask how to understand music, in short, there is…
Design for Hackers by David Kadavy
Rating: 8.0/10. Book that breaks down the principles of design and explain the theoretical foundations of design aspects such as typography, composition, and color, meant for an engineer who likes to have rules to follow. The book is filled with images and graphics, making it a relatively quick read. It also provides interesting historical information…
Tim: The Official Biography of Avicii by Mans Mosesson
Rating: 7.3/10. Biography of Swedish EDM artist Avicii, real name Tim Bergling, was a relatively shy teenager, who grew up in a wealthy neighborhood in Stockholm. In high school, at the age of 16, he discovered FL Studio with some friends who were also interested in making EDM music. He became quite good at making…
The Death of the Artist by William Deresiewicz
Rating: 7.8/10. The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech by William Deresiewicz Book about the economic challenges faced by artists of various types, including musicians, visual artists, writers, etc. Despite often being highly educated, artists are consistently among the lowest earners in the…
Notes on the Piano by Ernst Bacon
Rating: 7.1/10. A collection of relatively short essays about classical piano, each approximately 10 pages long, by an American pianist and composer. All these essays are independent, each exploring a different aspect of the subject, and are organized into five distinct sections: The Performer: talks about the role of the performer in interpreting the composer’s…
The Business of Being an Artist by Daniel Grant
Rating: 7.2/10. Book about the business side of art. Ideally, your art would be displayed in a gallery where people will buy it, but galleries themselves face intense economic pressures and they need to sell most of their art in order to break even. Therefore, most artists need to do a lot of thinking like…
Dance Music Manual by Rick Snoman
Rating: 7.7/10. Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques by Rick Snoman A textbook about music production aimed at intermediate level producers. I don’t often listen to electronic dance music, but the tools and techniques in this genre often transfer to other genres like pop as well. Compared to other genres, dance music tends to…
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark by Don Thompson
Rating: 7.2/10. The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson Book by an economist about the contemporary art market: the book’s title refers to a piece of modern art by Damien Hirst consisting of a decomposing tiger shark floating in a vat of formaldehyde, sold for several million dollars….
The Mental Game of Electronic Music Producers by Jason Timothy
Rating: 7.6/10. The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production: Finish Songs Fast, Beat Procrastination and Find Your Creative Flow by Jason Timothy A kind of self-help book about how to be productive as a music producer. It is important to build a habit of doing a bit of music production every day, especially finishing songs…
Rockonomics by Alan B. Krueger
Rating: 8.8/10. Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us about Economics and Life by Alan B. Krueger Book by an economist describing the financial realities of the music industry. Relative to how much value it provides to our lives, music is extremely cheap. The majority of Americans listen to music…