The ultimate guidebook

Long ago, the Materialist worked at a magazine with a very talented and kind creative director who used to let her come into his office after hours and rifle through his collection of art books. Among them was a slim yellow bar of a book called Feedback (pictured at left), which remains, to this day, the best guidebook the Materialist has ever encountered.

Feedback is a publication by the uber-design firm Pentagram, who contacted everyone in their orbit--designers, artists, writers, photographers, stylists, illustrators, producers, and architects, from Stockholm, New York, Tehran, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, Budapest, Munich, London: really, anyone anywhere with an interest in design--and solicited their suggestions for their favorite restaurants, hotels, shops, parks, and sights in their favorite cities around the world. The volume, which is updated once every few years or so, is sent to the firm's friends and clients, and is filled with wonderful discoveries, lively, intimate writing, and (for design junkies, anyway) a thrilling peek into how the creative half lives and travels. Through it, you learn about famed product designer Constantin Boym's favorite Moscow restaurant, Apshu (an "enchanted space, a romantic ruin of an imaginary apartment") and artist Maira Kalman's favorite spot in Tel Aviv, the Bauhaus Center ("the best time to visit Tel Aviv is in the spring, before it gets too hot").

Now, the Materialist is well aware that many other people have published their own books based on this concept of fabulous and learned people making fabulous and learned recommendations (The Little Bookroom's "City Secrets" series is the most successful of them), but for sheer eclecticism--as well as the authority and sensibility that only comes from being a bonafide global tastemaker--nothing beats Feedback. This is why for years, the Materialist has been toting around curling Xeroxes she made from her friend's book, finding her way to $300 tempura joints in Tokyo and obscure slipper souks in Marrakech. But recently, the Materialist's Asia stringer, a very well-traveled woman named Cynthia, asked the Materialist if she'd ever heard of Feedback. The Materialist hadn't--until a web search revealed it was the very same book she'd despaired of finding ever again! Now that the Materialist has found Feedback again, she's never giving it up. And while it seems the kind of thing that one wants to keep to oneself, to do so would be selfish--after all, if Stefan Sagmeister can reveal his favorite spa (Therme Vals in Switzerland, in case you're wondering), shouldn't the Materialist do the same?

Now, the Materialist is well aware that many other people have published their own books based on this concept of fabulous and learned people making fabulous and learned recommendations (The Little Bookroom's "City Secrets" series is the most successful of them), but for sheer eclecticism--as well as the authority and sensibility that only comes from being a bonafide global tastemaker--nothing beats Feedback. This is why for years, the Materialist has been toting around curling Xeroxes she made from her friend's book, finding her way to $300 tempura joints in Tokyo and obscure slipper souks in Marrakech. But recently, the Materialist's Asia stringer, a very well-traveled woman named Cynthia, asked the Materialist if she'd ever heard of Feedback. The Materialist hadn't--until a web search revealed it was the very same book she'd despaired of finding ever again! Now that the Materialist has found Feedback again, she's never giving it up. And while it seems the kind of thing that one wants to keep to oneself, to do so would be selfish--after all, if Stefan Sagmeister can reveal his favorite spa (Therme Vals in Switzerland, in case you're wondering), shouldn't the Materialist do the same?