The wonder of small books

Maybe because it's the dog days of the semester, I've been turning lately to books I've not been assigned to read. Non-textbooks, that is. Little books, easy to digest. Not even books of stories but travel guides and short histories.

Two of my favorite series are from Phaidon Press and Arcadia Publishing. I discovered the former in the Amsterdam airport, the latter in a used bookstore in Eau Claire, Wis.

Phaidon (whose Wallpaper City Guides are pictured above) publishes visually striking books on a realm of topics from art, architecture and design to travel, food and children's books.

Arcadia, as provincial as Phaidon is cosmopolitan, prints thousands of titles about local history. Your hometown might be published. You can search their extensive catalog by location, topic (baseball, campus histories, motoring, etc.) or theme (African-American, national parks, railroads, et al.).