The Bookshelf

Here are some books on the shelf in my office that I found informative, eye-opining, and enjoyable, all on the subject of land use planning, especially as it relates to the suburbs.  Strange as it may seem, there are a lot of researchers and writers out there thinking about the place that we call home, that Eden known as suburbia.  So if you are thinking about what your next book might be, consider one of the following.  (Some of the summaries are incomplete or missing — I will be updating them in the next few days.)

A Field Guide to Sprawl by Dolores Hayden and Jim Wark

This is a great introduction to the concept of sprawl demonstrated in a series of jarring aerial photographs.  A quick read, but it will leave you with an uneasy feeling about how quickly we have given away open space in return for a quick buck.

Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler

A biting criticism of our obsession with highway building, office parks, residential subdivisions, shopping malls, and disappearing Places (with a capital P) — for example, every strip mall looks like every other strip mall anywhere else.  My favorite point in the book — tourists spend thousands of dollars to visit Main Street USA, part of the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, yet in their own home towns main street is dead or dying.

Suburban Nation: (The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream),  Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck

Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence by Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy

Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000 by Dolores Hayden, Dolores Hayden

Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen

Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back by Jane Holtz Kay

The following not quite on the subject, but do relate and are great reads

High and Mighty: SUVs–The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way by Keith Bradsher, Keith Bradsher

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt

The Man with Red and Green Eyes by Henry Barnes