I'm not a book reviewer and I don't even play one on T.V., but every so often I just have to talk about a book I've just read. Before we do that, however, I have talk about Amazon.

Amazon knows that I'm a sucker

I know I'm not the only one who has overspent just to get free freight from Amazon. Why pay $8 freight when I can add another $30 book and get free freight? The problem is when the second book is something that you probably didn't want or need and now you've spent $30 to save $8. Sucker.

Along with my first choice, Principles of Beautiful Web Design, I also ordered Great Web Typography. Whereas Principles of Beautiful Web Design is short and fresh, Great Web Typography feels bloated and long in the tooth. I guess I should forgive the book, because technology standards can change completely, even in a few years. However, I learned more about web typography in just a few pages of Principles than I did in an entire book dedicated to typography. Sucker.

The book I really wanted

I wish I had a book like this five years ago. Principles delivers a crash course in design, color theory, typography, and layout. With just 180 pages the book really moves along, but I never felt like I was missing out on major ideas. The author Jason Beaird incorporates a lot of imagery and his humor can be laugh-out-loud funny at points. Probably what I enjoyed most was how the book chronicled an actual web site that Jason had built and as you progress through the book Jason would refer back to how and why he designed the web site that way.

I wish this book was three times longer, because the book was so refreshing to read that I wanted it to keep going. I would even be willing to say that the $30 extra I spent on it was more than worth it.

Labels: Book Review

posted by Travis King  5:36 PM