The Fair is awesome — here you will find all sorts of books: German book design, soviet art, new books on old themes, children books and of course books about motivation, comics and self development. This year Garage provided space for reading, so you can take any of the books and read it in the special area.

Now, about stands and books. My top list to pay attention to.

*mind that I am a book designer, more interested in overview of the book, the quality of binding and of design, so this top is quite subjective.

A couple of unexpected"4th"brochures. Well printed with really mixture of materials. It is a series of school projects (as far I as get) with explanation of design terms. The most interesting thing about them is the mixture of paper and it’s sizes — these are the books that are pleasant to hold in hands.

Here they have an awesome book by Vladimir Yankilevsky. It is made as I like — unusual shape, special box and raw cardboard together with optical illusion. Worth seeing, certainly. This is a rare example of combination of an designer’s vision and artist’s works. The whole book looks very unexpected and works as a catalog for the exhibition of Vladimir’s art.

I want to give a special thanks to Jupiter — they are delivering English books on design, that are quite hard to find. I wish I could buy a book like that during my studies. However, they are also delivering Russian books as well.

The main thing about English books — they are always better than translation with a rare exception: better paper, better design, better language. As a Russian I read faster in Russian, but if I have an option — I would buy an English book to take more of the material.

I advise you to speak to people at that stand, they can really help you to find something awesome. They have a couple of rare books on design and type and a couple of shelves that are not obvious. Special respect for Bruno Munari books.

I admire the Studio for the books they are (re)designing, and especially for the quality of materials and the design itself. As a book designer I find it quite hard to read a book that is poorly made (professional deformation), I start to pay more attention to mistakes than to the content. That is why I like Lebedev’s books — they are well designed and usually interesting: the quality of the translation is high, the meaning of the book always suits its appearance and the themes and authors are meticulously selected.

The only problem with this stand is that you can’t buy any of these books. They are winners of the Best Book Design from Germany and they are awesome. No matter what the book is about — it is fresh, stylish and inspirational. Some of the books are bilingual, some in German only, but these are the books that are obligatory to mention. Here you will find the best of the best: best design, best materials, creative approach and tactile orgasm. No more comments — just go and touch these books.

I respect Alpina Publisher a lot for their book"Вскрытие покажет". Most of the books are about personal development (very close to Mann-Ivanov-Ferber), however I highly recommend you to look at that very book. It is about forensic expert who is sharing his own work experience. As the images may be quite shocking, the book provides QR codes of the images inside the book. Ready for blood — go and see, or just read the text.

I prefer not to take money at such events, because no matter how much I have, I will spend it all. However, this is good opportunity to find something special or to have a good discount. So here are my suggestions:

Hope you’ll have a great time there! Share your thoughts and additions!

What was you favourite book?