By Charlé-John

Not being a card-carrying member of the “leisure reader” club, you can probably guess how I usually react to book lists. Somewhere between a polite eye-roll and a desperate scroll for the “10-second takeaway.” I don’t read fiction (I’ll admit to some science fiction), I don’t care about the latest literary darling. Unless there’s a plot twist involving SEO (search engine optimization) trends or breakthroughs in smart home tech, I’m generally not reaching for the bookshelf.

So, imagine my shock when I stumbled upon Salone del Mobile Milano’s 2025 Summer Book List and… didn’t hate it. In fact, I might have gotten a little excited. (I know. I was concerned, too.)

I was innocently browsing for the latest Salone 2026 intel when—BAM—a headline caught my eye: 12 Books. For discovering and pondering. And new possible worlds. I braced myself for the usual list of dusty, soul-searching tomes with names like “Leaves of Dust” or “The Lavender of My Regret.” Instead? I found a wildly compelling, on-point mix of design, architecture, sustainability, and creativity, all through a lens that felt personal to our industry.

Let’s start with my architectural fanboy moment:

 “House of Dr. Koolhaas”, by Françoise Fromonot, is part of a series that treats buildings like crime scenes, wrapped in noir-style gumshoe narration. Think Raymond Chandler meets Rem Koolhaas. Sign me up. As a BBC/BritBox detective junkie, this scratched a very specific itch I didn’t know books could.

Then came “Design as an Attitude” by Alice Rawsthorn — equal parts design theory and rallying cry for creative minds. A title after my own heart.

Another gem: “Not Here, Not Now,” co-authored by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, professors at Parsons/The New School right here in NYC. It dares us to think differently about the possible, and how design responds to crisis and change. Sound familiar?

I haven’t even gotten to the brain-melting stuff, like:

• “Architettura Open Source Reloaded", by Carlo Ratti with Matthew Claudel, Einaudi — A made-up conversation between a mathematician-turned-architect and a designer-turned-engineer, with a bit of help from AI. If that isn’t a fever dream I’ve had, I don’t know what is.

• “Circular Materials,” by Joe Gibbs, Gestalten — 50 case studies on prioritizing environmental impact without sacrificing innovation. Finally, sustainability not dressed up in buzzwords, but backed by real-world design examples.  

And the curveball that won me over on the title alone:

“Down Under: The Curious Fall of a Child Who Knew Nothing and Became Everything” by the design studio Formafantasma. Part fairy tale, part eco-manifesto, part adult science lesson — it dares to teach us to treat post-industrial spaces not as wastelands, but as living ecosystems. And there is more fascinating information about these reads here. 

Look, I’m not saying I’ve officially become a “reader.” But this list might have cracked the code. There’s something here for the intellectually curious, the creatively blocked, the sustainability-minded, and even the book-adverse. So, if you catch me poolside this summer, don’t be surprised if I’m flipping through pages instead of Instagram. (Well, maybe alternating.)

Enjoy your summer. Feed your brain. And who knows? One of these books might just inspire your next big idea.