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Reader: Noel Orosa, who must’ve read every book on interior design for small spaces in the last three months.

Noel’s Top 9 and Bottom 1

Manufractured by Mara Holt Skov and Stephen Skov Holt. “The best book I bought this year. It completely reflects my design philosophy: if it can’t be precious, then it better be witty. It’s premised on two things: mass-produced items that have been repurposed into works of art or beautifully functional pieces, and relatively precious items made to look like junk.

“For example: Lace fabric when mixed with epoxy resin can turn into a singularly beautiful table. And blown glass can be made to look like plastic bubble wrap. One of my favorite pictures in the book is that of a minimalist long gown made by designer Cat Chow fashioned solely of out of one extremely long zipper. Ended up giving my copy to the interior designer who’s doing my place since she’s opening a furniture shop, which is more or less based on this concept. Planning to buy another copy of this for myself soon.”

500 Ideas for Small Spaces by Daniela Santos Quartino. “My year’s worst. It contains exactly 5 ideas for small spaces. The rest are ideas for spaces of any size. Fortunately, Fully Booked’s Rhea Llamas was gracious enough to allow me to return this book in exchange for something else. Thanks again, Rhea!”

Living Large in Small Spaces: Expressing Personal Style in 100 to 1,000 Square Feet by Marisa Bartolucci and Radek Kurzaj. “Exactly what the title promises. It starts out by showing you what you can do with a 100 square foot (that’s a mere 9 point something square meters!) dorm room —quite a lot, amazingly enough. Numerous inventive examples. The table with bowling pin legs eventually became an inspiration for my own dining table.”

Flea Market Style by Emily Chalmers, Ali Hanan, and Debi Treloar. “My Bible this year. I couldn’t sleep every night without looking at its pictures. It made me realize I love most things used and abused—furniture, parts of old houses and raw materials like reclaimed wood. Things that have had a past life lend your place instant history. Their presence sparks a dialogue between these pre-loved items and your own family heirlooms or even any brand new, now-looking thing you buy. Best of all, they’re usually cheap. Given to me by Ricky Villabona.”

Junk Style by Melanie Molesworth and Tom Leighton. “More of the same though Flea Market style is infinitely better. Also donated by Ricky Villabona.”

The Further Adventures of The Queen Mum by Harry Hill. “The wackiest children’s book I’ve read this year. Premise: The Queen Mum, recently dead, has to earn her angel wings by going back to earth to do good works. Causes range from the extremely consequential such as saving a supermodel from falling flat on her face while walking the ramp to the trivial like, say, global warming. For the right to serve the latter cause she has to battle Mother Teresa in a heavenly face off.”

The Arrival. “A brilliant, wordless graphic novel by Shaun Tan. Amazing art. Comic book as cinema much like The Killing Joke by Alan Moore. Manages to turn the universal immigrant experience into a timeless tale.”

Ripley Under Water. “Makes me want to read every single Patricia Highsmith book.”

Savage Grace by Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson. “Too strange not to be true. A non-fiction account of the Baekelands who for at least two generations have been living off the rapidly depleting fortune of their great grandfather who invented Bakelite—the first successfully commercial plastic. Mostly, it’s about Wasps behaving badly. Make that very badly. Matricide and mother-son incest bad. Reads like Truman Capote and Dominick Dunne collaborating with Sophocles on a revisionist Oedipus Rex. By the way, thanks for lending me the movie based on this. Great performance by Julianne Moore.”

“Re-reading and rediscovering The Forward Book Of Poetry 2008 ever since you returned it to me.”