library

The Punkt. Library

The Punkt. Library is a selection of books that have inspired us along the way – since Punkt. was founded in 2008, and before. It has been part of our presence at a number of design fairs and trade shows over the years, for example the Punkt. Design Terrace at the Salone del Mobile in Milan.

The Library helps explain what we do and why we do it, and we present it as a contribution to the wider debate about technology and its rôle in society: the human value of elegant design, and the importance of an electronic device being a tool that works for its owner. Additional suggestions are very welcome. Most of the texts are in English, but there are a handful in other European languages.

They’re all real books, with pages, a cover and a spine: plenty of studies have shown that reading physical texts is still the most effective way of taking in what an author is saying. We could have had two separate lists, one for design and one for what technology is doing in the world. But actually, the latter is a subset of the former: any designer will be keenly aware of what a product is meant to do.

We have included the publisher’s description for each book, plus a link to their website at the end, but bear in mind that some books have different publishers in different countries. Books may also have appeared in different editions over the years.

If you’re interested in the background to Punkt.’s design work, Jasper Morrison’s shop has a number of titles available in addition to those listed by us. You can view them here.

Support your local bookshops! They pay local taxes, and are part of the community. You can find a bookshop and/or order online via the following organisations:

 

And maybe develop a library habit?

The AI Mirror

The AI Mirror

Shannon Vallor

Since ChatGPT´s release in November 2022, the following 12 months or so saw the world seemingly go off the rails as the media landscape gave way to technologist ‘prophets’ taking centre stage, promoting the infinite, and the most dystopian, possibilities of AI.

Why Privacy Matters

Why Privacy Matters

Neil Richards

Privacy, that human right so fundamental to our open and free society, is under massive threat in our current world path.

Low Tech Life: A Guide to Mindful Digital Minimalism Punkt. Jose Briones

Low Tech Life: A Guide to Mindful Digital Minimalism

Jose Briones

Everything you need to know about becoming a digital minimalist.

The Sleep Prescription Punkt. Library

The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest

Dr. Aric Prather

How to sleep without popping pills. 

Punkt. Library How to Stay Smart in a Smart World

How to Stay Smart in a Smart World

Gerd Gigerenzer

A book that explains why we need to use our brains now more than ever. 

Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets

Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets

Brett Scott

Brett Scott’s Cloudmoney takes a detailed look at the prosecutors and beneficiaries of the ‘war on cash’ and the march towards non-physical living.

Punkt. Library What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry Into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley

What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry Into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley

Adrian Daub

A witty account of how Silicon Valley views itself. 

Punkt. Library - 100 Things We’ve Lost To The Internet

100 Things We’ve Lost To The Internet

Pamela Paul

What we’ve given up for screens and why it is worth stepping away from them from time to time. 

Punkt. Library - Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It

Four Thousand Weeks. Time and How to Use It

Oliver Burkeman

Time management for mortals.

Punkt. Library - My Brain Has Too Many Tabs Open

My Brain Has Too Many Tabs Open

Tanya Goodin

An exploration of the array of new words created to refer to the new situations that have arisen (and generally become normalised) as a result of the creation of mass computer technology. These situations were not planned…

Punkt. Library - On the road

On the Road

Jack Kerouac

The first iteration of hipsters, in the late 1940s and early 1950s… A book that helped shape the world which followed.

The Creativity Code: How AI is learning to write, paint and think

The Creativity Code: How AI is learning to write, paint and think

Marcus du Sautoy

Mechanical culture is much cheaper than the human version, and perfectly adequate for a post-nuance transhuman age. Probably better.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Shoshana Zuboff

 The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

Digital Minimalism: On Living Better with Less Technology

Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport

A practical guide to outwitting the addiction specialists who have you in their sights.

Punkt. The attention merchants Library

The Attention Merchants

Tim Wu

A description of the people who rent out your focus.

New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future

New Dark Age

James Bridle

Slow-motion train crash. Do you get off?

Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media

Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media

Jaron Lanier

What social media is, how it works and what it is for.

Driverless Cars: On a Road to Nowhere

Driverless Cars

Christian Wolmar

The transition to self-driving cars seem to be arriving in much the same way as a computer operating system update does. What could possibly go wrong?

How to be Free

How to be Free

Tom Hodgkinson

A joyful blueprint for a simpler and freer way of life. Mediaeval in places.

Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self

Bored and Brilliant

Manoush Zomorodi

The benefits of boredom.

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked

Irresistible

Adam Alter

A practical guide to coming out the other side.

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Why We Sleep

Matthew Walker

The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The clock is ticking.

The Punkt. Library: The Sleep Revolution

The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time

Arianna Huffington

How to get ahead by getting your head down.

The Punkt. Library: The World Beyond Your Head

The World Beyond Your Head

Matthew Crawford

A book about “our scatterbrained ennui”.

The Punkt. Library: World Without Mind

World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech

Franklin Foer

The downside of convenience.

The Punkt. Library: A book of things

A Book of Things

Jasper Morrison

A chance to find out what lies behind JM’s work.

The Punkt. Library: Flow

Flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

How to get going.

The Punkt. Library: Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern

Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern

Edited by Gemma Curtin, Fiona MacCarthy, Deyan Sudjic

One of Britains’ greatest industrial designers.

The Punkt. Library: Thinking Fast and Slow

Thinking Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

A book about intuition and logic. But this time, written by a Nobel Prize-winner.

The Punkt. Library: The Shallows

The Shallows

Nicholas Carr

The Shallows is, writes Slate, “a Silent Spring for the literary mind.

 

The Punkt. Library: The glass cage

The Glass Cage

Nicholas Carr

“Automation weakens the bond between tool and user not because computer-controlled systems are complex but because they ask so little of us.”

The Punkt. Library: Reclaiming Conversation

Reclaiming Conversation

Sherry Turkle

Reviving the fading art of conversation, in our age of echo chambers. Sequel to the spectacular Alone Together.

The Punkt. Library: The Circle

The Circle

Dave Eggers

Novel about a young woman who gets a job in a giant tech corporation; made into a film in 2017.

The Punkt. Library: Digitale Erschöpfung

Digitale Erschöpfung

Markus Albers

Ständig erreichbar, immer unter Strom, niemals im Feierabend – Markus Albers zeigt uns, wie wir endlich wieder abschalten und dabei produktiver werden.

 

The Punkt. Library: Hatching Twitter

Hatching Twitter

Nick Bilton

Such a good read. Written by a journalist who interviewed everyone at Twitter about its early days. It has all the right ingredients for a great story: power, drama, betrayals, and more.

The Punkt. Library: The Organized Mind

The Organized Mind

Daniel J. Levitin

More than a self-help book…Levitin’s insights into sleep, time, socializing and decision-making are profound.

The Punkt. Library: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo

Physical clarity, mental clarity.

The Punkt. Library: Hamlet’s Blackberry

Hamlet’s Blackberry

William Powers

Draws on the technological past and great thinkers such as Shakespeare and Thoreau.

The Punkt. Library: The End of Ownership

The End of Ownership

Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz

A defence of permanence, for sanity.

The Punkt. Library: The Ambivalent Internet

The Ambivalent Internet

Whitney Phillips, Ryan M. Milner

For students of the weird, the wacky and the annoying.

The Punkt. Library: Dragnet Nation

Dragnet Nation

Julia Angwin

What “the connected world” really means.

The Punkt. Library: Personal Connections in the Digital Age

Personal Connections in the Digital Age

Nancy K Baym

Aimed at “all students and scholars of media, communication studies, and sociology, as well as all those who want a richer understanding of digital media and everyday life”.

The Punkt. Library: You are Not a Gadget

You are Not a Gadget

Jaron Lanier

Particularly suitable for the technically-minded.

The Punkt. Library. Delete

Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

The benefits of being able to move on.

The Punkt. Library: The People’s Platform

The People’s Platform

Astra Taylor

A seminal dismantling of techno-utopian visions.

The Punkt. Library: Alone Together

Alone Together

Sherry Turkle

Technology has become the architect of our intimacies

The Punkt. Library: The Inner History of Devices

The Inner History of Devices

edited by Sherry Turkle

This book made Punkt. a fan of Sherry Turkle.

The Punkt. Library: The Laws of Simplicity

The Laws of Simplicity

John Maeda

Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more.

The Punkt. Library: Super Normal

Super Normal

Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison

Based on an exhibition created by the authors, that assembled 204 everyday products that each attain elegance and attractiveness without any element of ostentatiousness.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Libreria Punkt.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

The Punkt. Library: The Society of the Spectacle

The Society of the Spectacle

Guy Debord

The 1967 classic. Very French, very now.

The Punkt. Library: Brave new world

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

The ultimate explanation of how today’s world works, written in 1931.