The Good Books

Steven, this post brought back a lot of memories for me. I used to see Taschenbücher all over the place when I was hanging out in bookstores as an exchange student in 1985-86 in Bonn. The sharpness and color repro in even these small books was still better than what you get on a screen today. If I remember correctly, my host family had some Grosz, some Escher, and some Magritte in these editions. While I am constantly surprised at how little Phaidon's books go for today, for example, given the quality of the repro and of the book itself, they are large and still not close to the affordabililty of this series.

The only problem with the Taschenbücher I remember was the thickness and stiffness of the paper. That paper in that format meant that every opening of the book was a declaration of war on the spine!

Another common publisher's line that still exists in Germany that doesn't in the US is the genuinely cheap but serviceable editions of classic and current fiction and academic titles for students. dtv, Suhrkamp, Fischer, and other German presses have great student editions of the books one might assign in the US in upper-level undergraduate courses or graduate seminars. For example, I have the two volumes of Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action that, when I bought them new in 1992, cost DM44,- or around $15-18, for the set. Even the Beacon paperbacks at the time would have cost around $15 or $16 each. The paper is not great, the books are small and perfect-bound, and the text small (but usually well-set and thus readable)--but how great for professors to be able to assign whole texts in something better than third- and fourth-generation photocopies (or now, 150dpi .pdfs) and cheaper than trade editions from academic presses.

Dear Mr. Heller, Is there a similar collection of books that exists today you might recommend? Also, do you think this is a type of project that would be worth tackling today? As a fledgling collector of design, um, stuff, I would be interested in the type of market these books might be appropriate for, asides from me and other design enthusiasts. Thanks for sharing, it would be great to see these in hand, but until then, the screen will do. Take care, John

Though I am certianly not old enough to remember the books you would love to have reprinted here, I find from your description a great similarity to some of the books printed by Taschen today. Their books tend to be larger scale, coffee table art books, but I do prefer the larger books, for their larger images. They have books on art and design varying in topic based on Artist or Designer, to time period and/or style. While, they may not be the optimal solution, they are usually very reasonably priced. I often find them in the Bargin Bin section at Barnes & Nobel for between $5 & $10. For a full list of their books - Visit their site

Some books in this series can still be found, at relatively reasonable prices, but it seems they're all used and still in Germany. They can be ordered online.

European design books are so different from the American counterparts. American books tend to be huge and bulky (just like everything else) with as much content it can fit not matter how bad they are. European books are small and elegant, almost like a keepsake of very selective work without skimping on quality.

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