Speed Running Human Creative History

The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich is not perfect (Euro-centric with bells on), but it got me a lot closer to reducing my regrets over not taking art history courses in college. I gotta let that go!

So much of this book is gently unfolding when and how people figured out how to do something, like, build an arch or create perspective in 2D — and what emerged as a result. Charting it all across centuries gets very Pale Blue Dot in a nice way.

n.b. The pocket edition (my copy pictured here) is cute as shit, but if you’re down for the cause, get the big one where the images and the text play together. Flipping back and forth is not the way.