I am a serious fan of Brandon Stanton’s photo books. His first book, Humans of New York, blew up when it was first published. I loved the concept and thought the photos and quotes from the people he photographed were fascinating. I liked his book Humans even more. I am now almost through his latest coffee table book, Dear New York,.

The concept is simple. Each page has a photo and is accompanied by a quote from the person in the picture. I love the books because the people are so unique and often the things they say are entertaining, weird, insightful, revelatory, inspirational, or all of the above wrapped into one monologue. They also provide a similar benefit to traveling, which is to expose oneself to people that are utterly different than oneself.

I can’t recommend these books enough.