Just My Type
Simon Garfield
331 pages
2011
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My only problem with this book is that I keep wanting to call the author Simon Garfunkel. Well, and this:
Not that it’s bad. I just prefer this one:
This is a totally geeky book about (shocker) fonts. It even has the Periodic Table of Typefaces inside both the front and back covers. (I know! How awesome is that?) You’ll learn about the war against poor Comic Sans, the deviance of Eric Gill (seriously WordPress…no Gill Sans??), the popularity of Helvetica, the brilliance of Matthew Carter (hmph, no love for him either), that Arial is considered an upstart ripoff (Font Fight!), and that Trebuchet is considered a friendly, accessible font that is useful when working with dyslexics.
Like I said, totally geeky. In a made of awesome sort of way.
I bet Vance would love this! He has VERY strong opinions about quite a few fonts, not just Comic Sans.
I vote for cover number one!
I’m with you–cover 2!
I like cover #1… my oldest daughter would LOVE this book!
I’m not sure this one is for me, since I know diddly about fonts, and don’t think that I would enjoy learning all about them, but I am glad that this one made you so geekily happy!
Ha! I hate Comic Sans. As a scrapbooker I enjoy fonts and this book looks fun. I first heard about it on a scrapbooking blog. Glad you enjoyed it!
Simon Garfunkel <3
I review this one last year…the year before?…and liked it. Geeks geeking out make me happy. However, I wish I could unlearn what I did about the guy who created Gill Sans font or whatever. Le ew.
Ooh, I love the second cover! This book looks like a ton of geeky fun. Also, I totally think you need to write a song for it, set to the tune of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Hahah — I just posted about this book today on my blog! It must be Font-Love Thursday. I totally geeked out with this book and love it.
I watched a documentary about Helvetica once and loved it, so I would probably enjoy this too!
When I see Garfield I think of the President! And I like cover number one…I wonder what kind of a personality test those covers are? OK so I also find it hilarious that *we* are so enamored with fonts…we are word geeks in the biggest way! And hey, I LIKE Comic Sans and Trebuchet! Arial can kiss my butt.
I have the same Garfunkel problem! This was terrific and now I’m reading his map book.
I started and didn’t finish his newest book, On the Map, and I didn’t love it. I feel like he was, pun intended, all over the map in his storytelling. And it was a very western-centric book, in my opinion. This one is on a much more esoteric topic so maybe I would like it more!
I haven’t read this one yet. I did read On The Map and I loved it to bits. I was the same, I kept wanting to call him Simon Garfunkel, ha.
I must admit, I do love Helvetica. I even bought my children shirts with their initials in Helvetica font (F+G), though ridiculous, it was also very satisfying.
I’ve wanted to read this for like, forever. Are you planning a giveaway? I suppose you’ve read Packing for Mars already and so I can’t offer a trade?
Oh I love fonts. I’m a Helvetica fan … poo on you Arial! I always try to find the best font for the web but sucky browsers just keep on defaulting to stinky Arial. YUCK!
This looks so great! I agree that one generally has a preference for a certain font — I’m rather fond of Garamond (I hope there is no personality test in this book that reveals Garamond lovers are weirdos….) And good old Helvetica! Yes, I do want this book
Hi Jill!
Helvetica is my font of choice. And I prefer Cover 1 although I can’t quite articulate why. We had this book on tour a year or two ago and I was frankly shocked at how bloggers were clamoring for it. Lots of Font Love out there!!