100 Books Every Gentleman Should Read
One hundred books worth a gentleman's time: fiction, history, biography, business, philosophy, travel, espionage, adventure, design and motoring — each with a verdict and the setting in which to read it. We are not trying to prove anything. Where a book is hard work, we say so.
100 books
- 01
The Leopard
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa · 1958 · Fiction / History / Travel
Sicily, aristocracy and a world quietly ending. The finest novel about change ever written by a man who saw it happen to his own family.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 320 pages
- Best read —
- A Sicilian terrace, late afternoon.
- 02
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925 · Fiction
Short, perfect, and far sadder than its reputation as a party novel suggests.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Under 200 pages
- Best read —
- One sitting, a long flight.
- 03
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John le Carré · 1974 · Espionage / Fiction
Espionage as bureaucracy, disappointment and grey tailoring. Read it slowly; it rewards attention.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 400 pages
- Best read —
- Winter, fire lit, whisky at hand.
- 04
The Quiet American
Graham Greene · 1955 · Fiction / Travel
Greene at his most economical: heat, cynicism, and a warning about certainty that has aged frighteningly well.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 200 pages
- Best read —
- A hotel bar, alone.
- 05
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh · 1945 · Fiction
Memory, faith and a country house. Waugh writing beautifully about people he does not entirely approve of.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- Autumn Sundays.
- 06
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway · 1952 · Fiction / Adventure
An afternoon's reading and a lifetime's argument about dignity.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 130 pages
- Best read —
- A single afternoon.
- 07
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius · 180 · Philosophy
The private notebook of the most powerful man alive, reminding himself not to be insufferable. Read a page a night.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 250 pages
- Best read —
- Two pages before bed.
- 08
A Time of Gifts
Patrick Leigh Fermor · 1977 · Travel / Adventure / History
A teenager walks across Europe in 1933. The best travel prose in the English language.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- A train through Central Europe.
- 09
The Power Broker
Robert A. Caro · 1974 · Biography / Business / History
How one unelected man reshaped New York. Enormous, and worth every week of it.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Over 1,100 pages
- Best read —
- A winter, not a weekend.
- 10
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov · 1967 · Fiction
The devil visits Stalin's Moscow. Funnier and stranger than any summary allows.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 400 pages
- Best read —
- Late evenings.
- 11
Casino Royale
Ian Fleming · 1953 · Espionage / Fiction
Bond before the gadgets: cold, bruised and preoccupied with what he eats. Read it and you will understand the whole edifice.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 180 pages
- Best read —
- An airport lounge.
- 12
The Mask of Dimitrios
Eric Ambler · 1939 · Espionage / Fiction / Travel
The novel that invented the modern thriller — Istanbul, Athens, Geneva, and an ordinary man asking too many questions.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 280 pages
- Best read —
- The Orient Express, if possible.
- 13
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré · 1963 · Espionage / Fiction
Bleak, brief and morally merciless. The book that ended romantic spying.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 240 pages
- Best read —
- A grey afternoon.
- 14
Legacy of Ashes
Tim Weiner · 2007 · Espionage / History
The CIA's own documents, arranged into a catalogue of improvisation and error.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 700 pages
- Best read —
- In sections, over a month.
- 15
The Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth · 1971 · Espionage / Fiction
You know the ending. You will still not put it down.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 400 pages
- Best read —
- A long weekend.
- 16
Night Soldiers
Alan Furst · 1988 · Espionage / Fiction / Travel
Pre-war Europe in smoke and rain. Furst writes atmosphere better than plot, which is the point.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 450 pages
- Best read —
- Paris in November.
- 17
The Ipcress File
Len Deighton · 1962 · Espionage / Fiction
Working-class, insolent and very funny — the antidote to Bond's expense account.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- Two evenings.
- 18
Our Man in Havana
Graham Greene · 1958 · Espionage / Fiction
A vacuum-cleaner salesman invents an agent network. The best comedy ever written about intelligence work.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 250 pages
- Best read —
- A hammock, a rum.
- 19
A Spy Among Friends
Ben Macintyre · 2014 · Espionage / History / Biography
Philby, betrayal and the clubland trust that made it possible. Reads like fiction; is not.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- A weekend away.
- 20
The Secret Pilgrim
John le Carré · 1990 · Espionage / Fiction
Le Carré's short-story collection in disguise, and his most humane book.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- A chapter at a time.
- 21
SPQR
Mary Beard · 2015 · History
Rome told by someone who refuses to be pompous about it. The best single volume on the subject.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 600 pages
- Best read —
- Before a week in Rome.
- 22
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
William L. Shirer · 1960 · History
A journalist who was there, writing at length. Dated in places, unmatched in immediacy.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Over 1,200 pages
- Best read —
- A determined winter.
- 23
The Guns of August
Barbara Tuchman · 1962 · History
How Europe walked into 1914. A masterclass in narrative history.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 500 pages
- Best read —
- Beside a fire.
- 24
Citizens
Simon Schama · 1989 · History
The French Revolution as theatre, blood and personality. Long, dazzling, opinionated.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 950 pages
- Best read —
- Over a summer.
- 25
The Sleepwalkers
Christopher Clark · 2012 · History
The finest modern account of how the First World War began, and why nobody stopped it.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 700 pages
- Best read —
- Slowly, with attention.
- 26
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford · 2004 · History
Trade, tolerance and terror across a continent. History without homework, precisely.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 320 pages
- Best read —
- A long flight east.
- 27
Osman's Dream
Caroline Finkel · 2005 · History / Travel
Six centuries of Ottoman power, told without cliché. Read it before Istanbul.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 700 pages
- Best read —
- Before the Bosphorus.
- 28
The Ascent of Money
Niall Ferguson · 2008 · History / Business
Banking, bonds and bubbles from Venice onwards. The clearest financial history for the general reader.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 440 pages
- Best read —
- A week of evenings.
- 29
A Distant Mirror
Barbara Tuchman · 1978 · History
The fourteenth century through one French nobleman. Plague, chivalry and calamity.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 700 pages
- Best read —
- A long winter.
- 30
The Cold War
John Lewis Gaddis · 2005 · History / Espionage
Forty years of standoff in one lucid volume. The ideal starting point.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- Two weekends.
- 31
The Last Lion
William Manchester · 1983 · Biography / History
Churchill in full, written with unapologetic romance. Three volumes, none wasted.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Three volumes
- Best read —
- A project, not a book.
- 32
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Ron Chernow · 1998 · Biography / Business
Piety, ruthlessness and the invention of modern corporate power.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 800 pages
- Best read —
- Over a month.
- 33
The House of Morgan
Ron Chernow · 1990 · Business / History / Biography
A century of banking as family drama. Still the best book about how finance actually works.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 800 pages
- Best read —
- Patiently.
- 34
Onassis: An Extravagant Life
Willi Frischauer · 1968 · Biography / Business
Ships, islands, Callas and Jackie. Ambition without brakes, and what it costs.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- A yacht, ideally.
- 35
Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics and the Making of an Automobile Empire
Richard Williams · 2001 · Biography / Motoring
The Commendatore without the hagiography — grief, obsession and Modena.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- Before a trip to Maranello.
- 36
The Agnellis of Italy
Alan Friedman · 1988 · Biography / Business
Fiat, Turin and the family that ran a country by proxy. Gianni's tailoring alone deserves a chapter.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- Sunday morning.
- 37
Personal History
Katharine Graham · 1997 · Biography / Business
Nerve, ownership and Washington. Among the most honest memoirs ever written by a proprietor.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 640 pages
- Best read —
- Over a fortnight.
- 38
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson · 2011 · Biography / Business
Taste, cruelty and product obsession, with the unpleasant parts intact.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 650 pages
- Best read —
- A long-haul flight or two.
- 39
The Moon's a Balloon
David Niven · 1971 · Biography
The most entertaining memoir a gentleman ever wrote. Possibly not all of it true.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- Anywhere, with a drink.
- 40
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
Andrew Roberts · 2018 · Biography / History
If you read one Churchill biography, this is the one. Complete, and unafraid of the failures.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 1,100 pages
- Best read —
- A winter's project.
- 41
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham · 1949 · Business
Temperament over cleverness. The only investment book most men actually need.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 600 pages
- Best read —
- At the desk, not the beach.
- 42
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charles T. Munger · 2005 · Business / Philosophy
Mental models, wit and a refusal to suffer fools. Also a beautifully made object.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 500 pages
- Best read —
- Dipped into, over years.
- 43
Barbarians at the Gate
Bryan Burrough & John Helyar · 1989 · Business
The RJR Nabisco buyout as farce. Reads faster than most thrillers.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 600 pages
- Best read —
- A holiday.
- 44
Liar's Poker
Michael Lewis · 1989 · Business
Salomon Brothers from the inside, and very funny about it.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- Two flights.
- 45
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
Peter L. Bernstein · 1996 · Business / History
How men learned to measure uncertainty. Elegant, and quietly profound.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 380 pages
- Best read —
- Evenings at the desk.
- 46
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight · 2016 · Business / Biography
Honest about doubt and cash-flow terror in a way that founder memoirs almost never are.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 400 pages
- Best read —
- A weekend.
- 47
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman · 2011 · Business / Philosophy
Brilliant, demanding, and it will make you distrust your own judgement — usefully.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 500 pages
- Best read —
- A chapter at a time.
- 48
The Prize
Daniel Yergin · 1990 · Business / History
Oil, empire and the twentieth century. Vast, and the best explanation of modern geopolitics there is.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 900 pages
- Best read —
- In instalments.
- 49
Getting to Yes
Roger Fisher & William Ury · 1981 · Business
Short, unglamorous and genuinely useful. Negotiation without theatre.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 200 pages
- Best read —
- An afternoon.
- 50
When Genius Failed
Roger Lowenstein · 2000 · Business
Nobel laureates, leverage and collapse. A cautionary tale in 250 pages.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 260 pages
- Best read —
- One sitting.
- 51
Letters from a Stoic
Seneca · 65 · Philosophy
A rich Roman writing about how to die well, from a very comfortable villa. Read it anyway — he is right.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 250 pages
- Best read —
- A letter a night.
- 52
The Essays
Michel de Montaigne · 1580 · Philosophy
The first man to write honestly about himself, and still the best company on a shelf.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Over 1,000 pages
- Best read —
- Never all at once.
- 53
The Myth of Sisyphus
Albert Camus · 1942 · Philosophy
Whether life is worth living, argued in clear French rather than fog.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 200 pages
- Best read —
- Alone, slowly.
- 54
Discourses and Selected Writings
Epictetus · 108 · Philosophy
A former slave on what you control and what you do not. Bracing.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- Morning coffee.
- 55
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl · 1946 · Philosophy / Biography
Short and unanswerable. Read it once, properly.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 180 pages
- Best read —
- A single quiet evening.
- 56
Beyond Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche · 1886 · Philosophy
Exhilarating, infuriating and routinely misquoted by people who have not read it.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 250 pages
- Best read —
- With a pencil.
- 57
The Consolations of Philosophy
Alain de Botton · 2000 · Philosophy
Six thinkers on ordinary misery. The best way in for a man who does not read philosophy.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 260 pages
- Best read —
- A rainy weekend.
- 58
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · 340 BC · Philosophy
Character as habit. Historically indispensable, though not what anyone would call enjoyable.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- With a good introduction.
- 59
The Prince
Niccolò Machiavelli · 1532 · Philosophy / History
Ninety pages that explain more about power than most careers do.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 100 pages
- Best read —
- One evening in Florence.
- 60
Walden
Henry David Thoreau · 1854 · Philosophy / Travel
Sanctimonious in places, and still the finest argument for owning less.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- Somewhere with no signal.
- 61
The Colossus of Maroussi
Henry Miller · 1941 · Travel
Greece as revelation. The most joyful travel book ever written.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 240 pages
- Best read —
- A Greek island.
- 62
Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History
John Julius Norwich · 2015 · Travel / History
Greeks, Arabs, Normans and Bourbons in one elegant volume. Read it before Palermo.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 380 pages
- Best read —
- The flight to Catania.
- 63
Venice
Jan Morris · 1960 · Travel / History
Not a guidebook. The definitive portrait of a city, by its finest describer.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 400 pages
- Best read —
- A café on the Zattere.
- 64
Arabian Sands
Wilfred Thesiger · 1959 · Travel / Adventure
The Empty Quarter on camel-back by a man who preferred hardship to comfort.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- Somewhere air-conditioned.
- 65
In Patagonia
Bruce Chatwin · 1977 · Travel
Fragmentary, possibly embroidered, entirely intoxicating.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 240 pages
- Best read —
- A long train.
- 66
A Time to Keep Silence
Patrick Leigh Fermor · 1957 · Travel / Philosophy
A hundred pages on monasteries and quiet. Perfect for a man who cannot switch off.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 100 pages
- Best read —
- Sunday morning.
- 67
The Pillars of Hercules
Paul Theroux · 1995 · Travel
The entire Mediterranean coast, grumpily. Theroux is at his best when unimpressed.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 500 pages
- Best read —
- A summer, in pieces.
- 68
A Year in Provence
Peter Mayle · 1989 · Travel
Ignore the reputation — it is funnier and sharper than a decade of imitators suggested.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 220 pages
- Best read —
- A terrace in the Luberon.
- 69
The Great Railway Bazaar
Paul Theroux · 1975 · Travel / Adventure
Europe to Asia by rail, before any of it was easy. Still the model for the genre.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 350 pages
- Best read —
- A sleeper compartment.
- 70
Danube
Claudio Magris · 1986 · Travel / History
A river as the spine of Mitteleuropa. Erudite, demanding, and worth the effort.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 420 pages
- Best read —
- Vienna in winter.
- 71
The Worst Journey in the World
Apsley Cherry-Garrard · 1922 · Adventure
Antarctica, appalling, and written with astonishing restraint. The greatest expedition book there is.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 600 pages
- Best read —
- A cold night indoors.
- 72
Endurance
Alfred Lansing · 1959 · Adventure / Biography
Shackleton and twenty-seven men on the ice. Leadership without a single management cliché.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- One weekend, gripped.
- 73
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
T. E. Lawrence · 1926 · Adventure / History / Biography
Magnificent, self-lacerating and very long. Historically vital; not always enjoyable.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 700 pages
- Best read —
- In deliberate stages.
- 74
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer · 1997 · Adventure
Everest 1996, reported by a survivor. Unputdownable and quietly damning.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 330 pages
- Best read —
- A single sitting.
- 75
The Kon-Tiki Expedition
Thor Heyerdahl · 1948 · Adventure
A balsa raft across the Pacific because somebody said it could not be done.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 240 pages
- Best read —
- Beside water.
- 76
The Valleys of the Assassins
Freya Stark · 1934 · Adventure / Travel
Persia alone, in the 1930s, with formidable composure.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 320 pages
- Best read —
- Slowly, with a map.
- 77
A Voyage for Madmen
Peter Nichols · 2001 · Adventure
Nine men race solo around the world; one wins, one vanishes, one goes mad.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 320 pages
- Best read —
- A boat, or a beach.
- 78
The Rings of Saturn
W. G. Sebald · 1995 · Travel / Fiction
A walk along the Suffolk coast that becomes a meditation on ruin. Unlike anything else.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- Grey weather, no hurry.
- 79
Wind, Sand and Stars
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · 1939 · Adventure / Philosophy
Early aviation and what solitude at altitude teaches a man.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 220 pages
- Best read —
- A window seat.
- 80
The Snow Leopard
Peter Matthiessen · 1978 · Adventure / Travel / Philosophy
Himalayan trek, Zen and grief. He never sees the leopard, which is rather the point.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 330 pages
- Best read —
- Two weeks of evenings.
- 81
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad · 1899 · Fiction / Adventure
A hundred pages up a river, and a century of argument afterwards.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 120 pages
- Best read —
- One dark evening.
- 82
The Razor's Edge
W. Somerset Maugham · 1944 · Fiction / Philosophy
A man walks away from money to find out what life is for. Maugham's most quietly subversive novel.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 320 pages
- Best read —
- Paris, off-season.
- 83
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith · 1955 · Fiction / Travel
Envy, linen and the Italian coast. You will find yourself on the wrong side, which is her achievement.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 290 pages
- Best read —
- August, by the sea.
- 84
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro · 1989 · Fiction
Restraint as tragedy. A butler, a motoring holiday, and a life not lived.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 260 pages
- Best read —
- A quiet Sunday.
- 85
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco · 1980 · Fiction / History
A monastery murder mystery with semiotics attached. Brilliant, though demanding for the first hundred pages.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 540 pages
- Best read —
- Winter, uninterrupted.
- 86
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1866 · Fiction / Philosophy
Feverish, claustrophobic and impossible to shake. Choose a modern translation.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 550 pages
- Best read —
- A long, cold stretch.
- 87
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy · 1878 · Fiction
Everything a novel can do. Also the finest writing about a man managing an estate.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 850 pages
- Best read —
- A summer holiday.
- 88
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez · 1967 · Fiction
Keep the family tree to hand and surrender to it.
- Difficulty —
- Demanding
- Length —
- Around 420 pages
- Best read —
- Somewhere hot.
- 89
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006 · Fiction
Spare, devastating, and about fatherhood more than apocalypse.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 290 pages
- Best read —
- One sitting; you will not manage two.
- 90
If This Is a Man
Primo Levi · 1947 · Fiction / History / Biography
A chemist's precision applied to Auschwitz. Essential, and unlike anything else on this list.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 180 pages
- Best read —
- With full attention.
- 91
Ferrari: Under the Skin
Andrew Nahum · 2017 · Motoring / Art & Design
Engineering drawings, coachwork and the Commendatore's ledgers. A proper motoring book, handsomely made.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Coffee-table format
- Best read —
- Left out, permanently.
- 92
Porsche 911: The Ultimate Sportscar
Frank M. Orel · 2019 · Motoring / Art & Design
Six decades of a single silhouette, photographed as it deserves.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Coffee-table format
- Best read —
- Beside the whisky.
- 93
The Limit
Michael Cannell · 2011 · Motoring / Biography
Von Trips, Hill and the season when Formula One was genuinely lethal.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 300 pages
- Best read —
- A race weekend.
- 94
Le Mans: The Official History
Quentin Spurring · 2010 · Motoring / History
Authoritative, exhaustive, and the definitive record of the race.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Large format, by decade
- Best read —
- In June.
- 95
Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed
Richard Anderson · 2009 · Art & Design / Biography
An apprenticeship on the Row, told with real wit. The best book about tailoring from the inside.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Around 260 pages
- Best read —
- Before a first fitting.
- 96
The Impossible Collection of Watches
Nicholas Foulkes · 2014 · Art & Design
One hundred watches of the twentieth century, in Assouline's most extravagant format.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Coffee-table format
- Best read —
- The library table.
- 97
The Story of Art
E. H. Gombrich · 1950 · Art & Design / History
Still the best first art book ever written, and never condescending.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 690 pages
- Best read —
- Before Florence.
- 98
The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance
Peter Murray · 1963 · Art & Design / History
Brunelleschi to Palladio, explained clearly enough to change how you walk through a city.
- Difficulty —
- Steady
- Length —
- Around 260 pages
- Best read —
- A Roman hotel room.
- 99
Grand Hotels of the World
Various · 2019 · Art & Design / Travel
The lobbies, terraces and bars worth crossing a border for.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Coffee-table format
- Best read —
- Left out for guests.
- 100
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren · 2007 · Art & Design
Forty years of an invented, magnificently consistent world. Whatever you think of the label, the eye is undeniable.
- Difficulty —
- Easy
- Length —
- Coffee-table format
- Best read —
- The coffee table, obviously.
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