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A review by ponch22
The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Roman Mars, Kurt Kohlstedt
3.0
Oooh boy... I've been a fan of the 99% Invisible podcast for years (possibly over a decade!) so [a:Roman Mars|19916841|Roman Mars|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] & [a:Kurt Kohlstedt|19916842|Kurt Kohlstedt|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s book [b: The 99% Invisible City|50416393|The 99% Invisible City A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design|Roman Mars|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1593147964l/50416393._SX50_.jpg|75383988] seemed like a no brainer for me to pick up and enjoy!
I'm pretty sure I preordered it (Goodreads tells me I started reading it four days after its release—10/10/20, which was 10 days before my son was born, which is ridiculous to think about! I've been reading this book longer than Nate's been ALIVE), and I slowly but surely read it over the past two years. It looks like I read ~15% in the first three days, then took a 9-month break before tackling another ~40% over seven random days between July 2021 & January 2022, before finally completing the last ~45% over the past five weeks...
While the book is written in short, easy-to-digest sections (each divided into even shorter 1- to 4-page articles spanning everything from city flags to the common pigeon), the book very easily got placed out of sight/out of mind. It's probably a perfect coffee table or bathroom book to read in short spurts, but in everyday reading goals, it was never top of mind for me.
About half of the information here I've heard before on the 99% Invisible podcast (or elsewhere) but everything was still presented in a new way that was interesting. My biggest complaint about the book is the complete lack of photographs. Patrick Vale has a very unique illustration style (see the cover), and while I do like it, I often found myself googling things I was reading about to see what they actually looked like. I don't know if getting licensed pictures of all the buildings, signs, maps, and other items being written about would have been too costly for an independent book such as this, but I often found the illustrated insets to fail to show me what I really wanted to see.
Still, it's a great companion to the podcast, and probably works better as a standalone way of showing how everything around us is designed for those who have never heard the dulcet tones of one, Roman Mars. From the design of Walk/Don't Walk signs to the naming conventions for routes (how Roads, Streets, Avenues, Ways, Courts, et al all usually differ from one another), the book is filled with interesting facts told in an interesting way.
I can't wait for Nate to finally be older than it took me to read this book in 10 days!
I'm pretty sure I preordered it (Goodreads tells me I started reading it four days after its release—10/10/20, which was 10 days before my son was born, which is ridiculous to think about! I've been reading this book longer than Nate's been ALIVE), and I slowly but surely read it over the past two years. It looks like I read ~15% in the first three days, then took a 9-month break before tackling another ~40% over seven random days between July 2021 & January 2022, before finally completing the last ~45% over the past five weeks...
While the book is written in short, easy-to-digest sections (each divided into even shorter 1- to 4-page articles spanning everything from city flags to the common pigeon), the book very easily got placed out of sight/out of mind. It's probably a perfect coffee table or bathroom book to read in short spurts, but in everyday reading goals, it was never top of mind for me.
About half of the information here I've heard before on the 99% Invisible podcast (or elsewhere) but everything was still presented in a new way that was interesting. My biggest complaint about the book is the complete lack of photographs. Patrick Vale has a very unique illustration style (see the cover), and while I do like it, I often found myself googling things I was reading about to see what they actually looked like. I don't know if getting licensed pictures of all the buildings, signs, maps, and other items being written about would have been too costly for an independent book such as this, but I often found the illustrated insets to fail to show me what I really wanted to see.
Still, it's a great companion to the podcast, and probably works better as a standalone way of showing how everything around us is designed for those who have never heard the dulcet tones of one, Roman Mars. From the design of Walk/Don't Walk signs to the naming conventions for routes (how Roads, Streets, Avenues, Ways, Courts, et al all usually differ from one another), the book is filled with interesting facts told in an interesting way.
I can't wait for Nate to finally be older than it took me to read this book in 10 days!