Every once in awhile there is a book so moving that you feel compelled to simply call everyone you know and tell them about it. Books like Shopgirl, An Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life and A Year of Magical Thinking. You know what I’m talking about. Staggering works that inhabit you for days, weeks, even years. Shopgirl is a part of me that I cannot shake, don’t want to shake and will forever be inside of me. You know the feeling.

And though this is an entirely different kind of work, Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design by Paola Antonelli is a simple yet evocative book about everyday items that will change your life and the way you look at things.

At first glance, you may not be moved to consider it for more than a moment, but upon reading Antonelli’s historical renderings of the baseball, ice cream cone, java jacket coffee-cup sleeve, Filofax, whisk, Dixie cup, Tetra brick, the paper bag and the stay-on metal pull-tab on pop cans, you will soon be staring in wonder at objects on your desk and dining room table, unable to follow even the simplest conversations or concentrate on the task at hand.