I've probably bought about a half dozen books on typography over the past two years in an effort to broaden my very basic knowledge of type. It's not like I want to form a foundry myself or anything, I just have very little background in type having worked almost exclusively in web design where type options are very limited in a lot of ways. One of my parents kindly bought the book Stop Stealing Sheep and Learn How Type Works off my Amazon wishlist for my birthday. It's exactly the explanation of typography I've been looking for.

All of the other books I've purchased have been beautifully produced and informative but most of them have gone into too many specifics for my level of understanding and don't deal with practical application very much. That's no fault of those books, it's just that I was looking for more of a typography handbook. Well, Erik Spiekermann and E.M Ginger nailed it in Stop Stealing Sheep. It's filled with well-written and often humorous explanations of the history of typography, the use of different styles, and an explanation of some of the serious faux-pas the budding designer should know about. It's just the right size to flip back through when you want to refer to a point and it covers all of the major areas well enough to whet your appetite to learn more. The authors also include tons of examples of classic faces and their variants so you're given a basic understanding of how some famous faces are derived from each other,which helps you make informed decisions when choosing what face to use.

All in all, a great introduction to typography and I'm sure my copy will be well-thumbed in the next few months. On the side, it provides some nice small-talk fodder such as witty references to the title phrase of the book which was taken from famed type designer Frederic Goudy who once warned, "Anyone who would letterspace lowercase would steal sheep."