I was distracted today by a Wired magazine spread about Christopher Alexander, the author of A Pattern Language and a few other architectural theory books that I’ve mentioned here before. He defines a theory of patterns in our world that move us forward and patterns that hold us back, and he ends up redefining 20th century architecture and design along the way. It’s a self-help book and a primer on rearranging your furniture just as much as it’s a book on architectural theory and urban planning.

The Wired spread announced that Alexander has released four juicy new books in a series called The Nature of Order. So far I can only find these books on amazon.com for $75— the libraries and bookstores around here don’t seem to have them, but the amazon reviews are all glowing and Alexander is being compared to Stephen Wolfram—an odd comparison unless you think of them both as scientists, not a mathematician and an architect.

Also along those lines is Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities. This is an urban planning classic, and the book Sasha said made him choose (within a few minutes, apparently) to go into urban planning.

And, of course, I can’t end this entry without mentioning Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. I think if I read all of these books, I’d be prepared to declare my level of commitment to architecture and urban planning, once and for all.