Just My Type

My boyfriend knows i have a bit of a fascination with typefaces and thus, decided to buy me a book that is basically all about them. 'Just My Type' is a book of stories all about fonts and how they have slowly crept their way into our soceity. You may think a book that is essentially font based is pointless or boring, but they pop into our lives every day and we're constantly bombarded with typefaces.
You identify IKEA with it's bold wide text (the font is Verdana)
But that was only a recent change, this caused a lot of uproar as Verdana is a font created by Microsoft, designed for screen not paper.

If you read a funny joke in a card, chances are the font is Comic Sans. Why? Well because

Comic Sans is essentially a polished version of a seven-year olds handwriting. It's slightly curved, fun and popular in children's books.

When Barack Obama was leading his Presidential campaign, the font used for leaflets, banners, flags etc was Gotham. This font has now found it's way into official government  projects, such as the 2010 U.S census.
My point is, without knowing, you absorb typefaces all the time. I'm not saying this book is the best book out there because it isn't and it has some minor flaws in facts, but
this book doesn't bombard you with fact after fact or monotonous drivel. It's modern, it focuses on things you might think are pretty cool. Definitely coffee table material.

If you'd like to give it a read, it's reasonably priced on Amazon and Waterstones. Or you can probably pick it up in your local library.
Amazon
Waterstones