Best Books on Art, Music & Design

The people who make beautiful, loud and strange things. The top-rated non-fiction to read alongside the art, music & design documentaries.

1. Just Kids by Patti Smith (4.1/5) - View on Amazon
2. Chronicles by Bob Dylan (3.7/5) - View on Amazon
3. The Story of Art by E. H. Gombrich (4.2/5) - View on Amazon
4. Ways of Seeing by John Berger (4.1/5) - View on Amazon
5. Civilisation by Kenneth Clark - View on Amazon
6. The Book of Kells by Bernard Meehan - View on Amazon
7. Gothic Art by Michael Camille - View on Amazon
8. Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari - View on Amazon
9. Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (4/5) - View on Amazon
10. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King - View on Amazon
11. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone (4.1/5) - View on Amazon
12. Caravaggio by Andrew Graham-Dixon - View on Amazon
13. Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama - View on Amazon
14. Vermeer's Hat by Timothy Brook - View on Amazon
15. The Embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama - View on Amazon
16. Turner by Franny Moyle - View on Amazon
17. Goya by Robert Hughes - View on Amazon
18. The Romantic Movement by Alain De Botton - View on Amazon
19. Delacroix by Barthélémy Jobert - View on Amazon
20. The Judgment of Paris by Ross King - View on Amazon
21. Van Gogh by Steven Naifeh - View on Amazon
22. Dear Theo by Vincent van Gogh - View on Amazon
23. The Secret Life of Salvador Dali by Salvador Dalí - View on Amazon
24. Dali by Robert Descharnes - View on Amazon

Best Books on Art Through the Ages

1. The Story of Art by E. H. Gombrich (4.2/5) - View on Amazon
2. Civilisation by Kenneth Clark - View on Amazon
3. The Book of Kells by Bernard Meehan - View on Amazon
4. Gothic Art by Michael Camille - View on Amazon
5. Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari - View on Amazon
6. Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (4/5) - View on Amazon
7. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King - View on Amazon
8. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone (4.1/5) - View on Amazon

Best Books on Art & Artists

1. Lust for Life by Irving Stone (4.3/5) - View on Amazon
2. Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (4/5) - View on Amazon
3. The Story of Art by E. H. Gombrich (4.2/5) - View on Amazon
4. Ways of Seeing by John Berger (4.1/5) - View on Amazon
5. Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari - View on Amazon
6. Wall and Piece by Banksy - View on Amazon
7. Subway Art by Martha Cooper - View on Amazon
8. Street Art by Tristan Manco - View on Amazon

Best Books on Architecture & Design

1. Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King (3.7/5) - View on Amazon
2. How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand (4.3/5) - View on Amazon
3. The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton - View on Amazon
4. The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (3.8/5) - View on Amazon
5. Second Nature by Michael Pollan - View on Amazon
6. The Well-Tempered Garden by Christopher Lloyd - View on Amazon
7. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (4.6/5) - View on Amazon
8. The Barefoot Architect by Johan van Lengen - View on Amazon

Best Books on Books, Photography & Stage

1. On Writing by Stephen King (4.1/5) - View on Amazon
2. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (3.8/5) - View on Amazon
3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - View on Amazon
4. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (4.2/5) - View on Amazon
5. On Photography by Susan Sontag (4.3/5) - View on Amazon
6. Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes (4.2/5) - View on Amazon
7. The Bang-Bang Club by Greg Marinovich - View on Amazon
8. Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton - View on Amazon