Rating: 
Summary: A Small Book of Great Value
Review: Simply stated, this is a swell little book. Will it serve as a single source for all there is to know about typography? Clearly not, but that sort of expectation is baffling. Is it a quick read? Yes, delightfully so, and this is an important feature of the book. The first chapter states, "typography is not an art for the chosen few, but a powerful tool for anyone who has something to say and needs to say it in print or on a screen." This statement serves as a welcome to all readers who take communication seriously, inside and outside the professional design community. Erik Spiekermann and E. M. Ginger have structured their text with an eye to capturing and holding the interest of such a widely diverse readership. Each chapter includes a general body of text, marginal text, and images and typefaces chosen to illuminate key points. This may sound unimaginatively straightforward, however, the book's strength lies in the length and layout of each chapter: brief yet compelling, spritely in tone, aesthetically pleasing with its subtle shifts in typeface and color. It begs to be read in one sitting ... and read again soon. This urge is due in great part to its compact energy.
Rating:
Summary: A good clean introduction to type
Review: As a graphic art professor, I use this book as an introduction to type for those who have never considered the subject before. It is popular with students for ease of reading and understanding. A must for anyone starting a serious study of type.
Rating: 
Summary: simple, lovely
Review: As other reviewers have suggested, the book is a simple, introductory glance at graphic design. It is, presumably, written for those who have never considered the impact of font selection and page layout on the reader, viewer, etc. Still, it makes a nice companion text for more serious graphic designers, as well as a welcome first-read for individuals who encounter or produce graphic materials on a daily basis, but who have little formal training in the discipline.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific introduction to typefaces
Review: entertaining, informative, fun to read and look at, I learned a lot. Was bummed when I finished the book
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Erik Spiekermann is better than this. This is more on the level of basic advice, such as that found in Robin William's work, only not as good. Someone truly interested in typography would do better, much better, with Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style.
Rating:
Summary: Isn't type groovy
Review: I always think of this as the "isn't type groovy" book. Spiekermann and Ginger seem to be at pains to avoid transmitting actual knowledge, while advertising that having lots of fonts and using them is fun. There are much, much better, and much more inspiring, introductions to the subject: Robin Williams' "Design for Non-Designers", or The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography, Shahn's, "Love and Joy about Letters"....
Rating: 
Summary: Book about Type Selling Type
Review: I am a graduate design student and this book was required for my type 1 class.
This book reads like an editorial and there is no general idea or breakdown of points for each chapter. The spance of the book basically compares type to different aspects of life, which is nice, but usless if you are actually trying to learn about type and how it works.
Furthermore, this book, produced by Adobe, a company that sells fonts, ironically spends much of the time in the book making you feel like your computer must have 5,000 fonts in order to be a good designer. It is almost comprable to a catalog of fonts, which again is fine, but useless for teaching purposes. It is competley read-between the lines and you must take everything the book says with a grain of salt keeping in mind that they are in fact, trying to sell you fonts.
If you are new to typography and want to learn about type and how it works, this is not the book for you. I dread the day we are quized on anything from this book because it is very entertaining to read, but not very intellectualy stimulating.
Rating:
Summary: A great intro for teaching a class of non-designers
Review: I disagree with some of the others on this post. There are better books out there but having taught a number of design classes to English majors and the like I have to say this is a non-threatening book that made typography seem fun to college students. If you are a serious student of design you can pass on this one.
Rating:
Summary: This is a lightweight approach to the subject
Review: I felt that there was more cleverness than substance. It is not rigorous to be a good classical approach nor is it radical enough to please modernists. I recommend Elements of Typographic Style for the former and The New Typography for the latter. Skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: A guide, not a manual . . .
Review: I remember reading the first edition of this excellent book more than a decade ago, when I was just getting into desktop publishing, and learning a great deal from it on the theory (i.e., art) and proper use of typography. I've followed the author's advice (most of it, anyway) ever since and I was pleased to find that a revised edition had been issued. Spiekermann is a type designer as well as a philosopher of art and design, and he's an excellent teacher as well. He nicely combines witty discursions on the place of type in Western culture and why it's indirectly important to pay some attention to it, with eminently practical commentary on why certain fonts work best in certain applications, based on what their designers had in mind. Each two-page spread combines a photo on the left, as an object lesson for the point he wants to make, with two sections of text on the right -- the main discussion plus a more in-depth sidebar. In fact, the book's total layout is itself a nice example of what the author is attempting to teach the reader. This is one you'll want to go back and browse through at regular intervals.
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