The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst is considered by many (including me) to be "the finest book ever written about typography". But it's much more than that. It's a book about making books beautiful–and useful. It a book about book design and layout and white space and calligraphy and the golden ratio and Henry David Thoreau (really). And it's also a beautiful book in it's own right. Every page is a marvel of design, the paper feels good, the author is a poet. Truly a rare example of embodying human language with an elegant visual form. Illuminating.