Graphic Design Books

Beginning:

Design Basics, Fouth Edition. Devid A. Lauer, Stephen Pentak, 1995.

Excellent book on all principles that apply both to art and design in terms of visual composition.

Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Gunther R. Kress, et al.

Grid Systems: The principles of organising type on page. Kimberly Elam, 2004

Tutorial style - showing the good and not-so-good results of arranging a set of basic elements on a grid. There's a lot of visual repetition, and the writing is rather stiff, but the upside is thoroughness.

Logo Lounge [1, 2 and 3]
There is three volumes to Logo Lounge. My friend and AD at work has the first one and I was impressed by the quality of the icons and logos in there. Now, why would one have a book like this? Well, as someone smarter than I said once: "Nothing is created in a vacuum". Which means that it doesn't hurt to look at other's work. We're all connected. Anyway. I find this book to be superior to Los [and dos] Logos. Which is nice but there is a lot of uneeded crap in there as well. Also a website: http://www.logolounge.com/

more coming...