Rating: 
Summary: WAY too basic
Review: Spiekermann and Ginger have, essentially, nothing to say. Unfortunately, they spend over 150 pages saying it. The worst of it is that there are all kinds of color photos, headings, etc., so the book is printed on heavy, glossy paper. This is bad because (a) glossy paper is hard to read text on (as ANY designer should know) and (b) both heavy/glossy paper and color inks are expensive. Thus, you must pay $20 for a book that could very easily be condensed into a $1.50 pamphlet. The book is often touted as an introduction into type because it is basic and easy to access. The problem is that it is TOO basic. If you know what a serif is, this book is too basic for you. If you know that it is possible to adjust the spacing between letters, words, or lines of type, then this book is WAY too basic for you--even if you aren't familiar with terms like letterspacing and leading. Get a book that will be a real introduction--if you're going to learn about type, learn enough that it will make a difference. Pick up something by Robin Williams, or if you really want to learn then get "The Thames and Hudson Manual" or Bringhurst's "Elements". Whatever you do, pass this book up. You could learn more, cheaper, from a high-school yearbook instructor.
Rating: 
Summary: An effective introduction with some minor annoying points
Review: Stop Stealing Sheep is an introductory essay on typography and why it works. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how the authors take the tenets of typography and relate them to every day examples, giving the reader a deeper understanding of the concepts that are being explained. The reader need not be experienced in typography to understand this book. Indeed, the book is geared toward the beginner and no technical knowledge of the art of typography is required. Anyone who prepares texts for publication will be able to produce better type after having read this book. The only negative thing that can be said about the book is that in a couple of chapters the authors use yellow text for the side bar text which is extremely annoying to try to read against a white background. Perhaps the authors were trying to make a point by showing the reader how annoying text in certain colors can be. They certainly succeeded if that was the case. In any case it was poor choice for a whole chapter's worth of side bar text. Additionally, in an attempt to give the reader a wide range of typographic examples, some of the body text is difficult to read. More than likely this is because the authors are giving us first hand examples of how typographic choices can affect readability, and it does succeed in that. These gripes are on the whole, minor points, and the book does not really suffer overly much for it. Stop Stealing Sheep is definitely a book that belongs in every designer's library.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative, creative, and involving
Review: The author knows what he is talking about and demonstrates it with they typefaces used in his book. The illustrations are very demonstrative and it never fails to keep the readers attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Title Named for an Insult the Author Delivered
Review: The author was invited to speak to a group. In appreciation, the group presented a certificate to him. The "headline" was lettered in Blackletter (Old English), and set in all-caps. The author then told the group that whoever lettered the certificate would also likely steal sheep. He explained that 'one doesn't set Blackletter in all caps'. After reading that, I felt terrible for the designer, especially, and the group. The thank-you they presented was accepted with blistering sarcasm: openly, arrogantly, and callously.
Let me save you the cost of this book:
1) Don't use all-caps with display faces. Use it sparingly otherwise.
2) Limit use of several typefaces together.
3) When using more than one typeface in a piece, consider ancillary typeface-families designed by the same person.
4) Extreme arrogance is ugly and hurtful. Typeface transgressions rarely hurt anyone, although they obviously hinder legibility and the impact of the message.
5) Advice found elsewhere is more applicable, more altruistic, and better tasting.
Rating:
Summary: Gideons Bible has a new insert
Review: This book has been in the minds of talented designers everywhere. Typographers have unfortunately always held the view that if you had to ask, you would never know. Well, I didn't, so it was a long, tedious journey. Now I know, forget the trip to type Mecca and save yourself the art directors humiliation, just get this book. All of a sudden Futura Condensed Extra Bold will make sense. Easy
Rating:
Summary: Raises good questions ...
Review: This book is a fair introduction to the questions that typography addresses. It shows a number of ways that typography affects the sense and understandability of text. It shows how type can solve technical problems in display media, including mosaic, LCD display, or neon. It even gives a little typographic history, including the people and technologies that formed modern use of text. As an aside, the book also catalogs brief samples of a wide variety of type faces.The book itself is a sample of typography, and the appearance of every page is intended as an example. I'm not sure that the examples are all good ones, though. The layout is dense to the point of crowding. The book's layout follows a regular rhythm, examples on the left of each spread and text on the right. That rhythm could have been relied on to carry more of the book's information. For example, text pages reserve the right margin for additional notes. Those rubrics are distinuguished from the body text by placement, type face, letter size, color, and the density of the text's "gray." I find that a bit heavy-handed; two or three distinguishing features would have sufficed. The book's ongoing catalog of type faces could also have been more effective. The samples were too small to display real nuances of difference, and could have helped more in showing good and bad combinations of letter forms. I think this book's value is in training the eye to problems that type can solve (or create). Recognizing the problem is the first step in solving it. Unfortunately, the reader must look elsewhere for the second and later steps. This raises the questions but provides very few answers.
Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: This book presents a graphic designer's overview of typography. It begins with an anecdote to explain its odd title: "In 1936 Frederic Goudy was in New York City to receive an award for excellence in type design. Upon accepting a certificate, he took one look at it and declared that `Anyone who would letterspace black letter would steal sheep.'" The authors note at the end of the anecdote that they hope the readers "will understand and be amused by Mr. Goudy's pronouncement" by the end of the book. As a typography beginner, I never did understand exactly what Goudy was saying, even by the end of the book. Spiekermann and Ginger assume that readers are already familiar with terms like "letterspace", and never explain them explicitly in the book. As a result, I'm still scratching my head- -just what did Mr. Goudy's certificate look like? What was so wrong, and why? As someone who does not have a background in typography or graphic design, I found quite a few other sections of this book equally perplexing. Nevertheless, graphic designers who are somewhat familiar with typography will find a lot of valuable information in this book. Throughout the book, the authors describe situations and tasks, and provide samples of various fonts that would be suitable for these tasks. In each instance, they discuss reasons for choosing one font over another, or why the fonts were developed. If you're a designer or an artist who works frequently with type, then you probably have the necessary background to make sense of this book. But real beginners in typography may find Robin Williams' books (for example, "The Non-designer's Design Book) more helpful in developing a basic understanding of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: This book presents a graphic designer's overview of typography. It begins with an anecdote to explain its odd title: "In 1936 Frederic Goudy was in New York City to receive an award for excellence in type design. Upon accepting a certificate, he took one look at it and declared that 'Anyone who would letterspace black letter would steal sheep.'" The authors note at the end of the anecdote that they hope the readers "will understand and be amused by Mr. Goudy's pronouncement" by the end of the book. As a typography beginner, I never did understand exactly what Goudy was saying, even by the end of the book. Spiekermann and Ginger assume that readers are already familiar with terms like "letterspace", and never explain them explicitly in the book. As a result, I'm still scratching my head- -just what did Mr. Goudy's certificate look like? What was so wrong, and why? As someone who does not have a background in typography or graphic design, I found quite a few other sections of this book equally perplexing. Nevertheless, graphic designers who are somewhat familiar with typography will find a lot of valuable information in this book. Throughout the book, the authors describe situations and tasks, and provide samples of various fonts that would be suitable for these tasks. In each instance, they discuss reasons for choosing one font over another, or why the fonts were developed. If you're a designer or an artist who works frequently with type, then you probably have the necessary background to make sense of this book. But real beginners in typography may find Robin Williams' books (for example, "The Non-designer's Design Book) more helpful in developing a basic understanding of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: good at the basics but unsatisfying, hard to read
Review: This book was required for my Typography I class and at first I really enjoyed the stylish layout and color. But eventually I began to hate it because all the important info is flushed to the right side of the page, in red and, worst of all, italicized. I do have to mention that the book has very good visual examples, which is probably the best aspect of the book altogether. This book has tons of great info for beginners in type or graphic design, it just needs to have a less flashy layout.
Rating:
Summary: Over rated book sets a poor example
Review: This book, while attractive and expensively produced, is actually _not_ a good example of _how_ to use type. From the cover, which uses small, light italcs reversed (which are hard to read) to the body text which is set with too much letterspacing (just what the title of the book warns against) so that it's hard to read.
There are many fine books about typography, for a complete list, visit http://www.delvemediarts.com/book-ndx.htm and find one that will be more useful than this over-rated, badly produced tome.
Zeal
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