There are a couple of ways to start reading and discovering the many pleasures of "Buildings You Must See Before You Die.”

One way would be to start at the start of the book, beginning with a review of Newgrange Burial Chamber, the world’s oldest building, and proceeding on to the chronological end, the Beijing Olympics stadium.

(As the book does with all buildings, each item identifies, where possible, the architect, location, style and materials, followed by a few paragraphs of information about the building: its significance, its architectural features, size, etc. At least one photo illustrates each building.

In the case of the burial chamber, it was built about 3200 BC. Its main feature is its winter solstice role—on Dec.21, a shaft of light comes through a box at the entrance and spreads through the deepest corners of the tomb.)

So there’s a lot to say about historical buildings and going oldest to newest is commendable.

Or you can go alphabetically, from Zwinger Palace in Dresden, Germany to Aachen Cathedral, coincidentally also in Germany.

But my preference is simply to pick the buildings—and sometimes the names—that most catch my fancy.

And where better to start than with this delightfully named building?

The Minaret of Jam. Really, how cool is that?
Built sometime between 1150-1212 AD, the tower in Afghanistan carries verses from the Koran that tell the story of Mary, mother of Jesus, which is unheard of in Islamic architecture, the book’s editor says. (Though Mary does hold a special place in Muslim theology). It is the second-tallest brick minaret in the world at 213 feet.

Palais Ideal in Hauterives, Drome, France, built in 1912. Designed and built by a mailman who spent 34 years on it, the folkloric creation features architectural designs from several different periods and places, with religious, and mythological influences from across cultures.

Radcliffe Camera, the dome of the Radcliffe library in Oxford, England, an area dominated by spires. The style is Baroque and the dome as put up in 1749.

Peterhof, the palace complex built in 1725 near St. Petersburg, Russia. The styles used are Baroque and Neo-classical and the complex is made of plaster and brick. The interiors are lined with carvings, moldings and statuary, many of them gilded in gold.

Imcheonggak Estate Buildings in South Korea, built in 1515. The Confucian nobility of the time kept closely to ideas of classifications based on sex, age and social status and the structure and size of the homes reflected families’ relative status. The house originally had 99 rooms and other buildings on the site functioned as men’s living quarter’s, women’s living quarters, and space for close relatives.

Tower houses of Sana’a, Yemen. Safety concerns drove tribes to bunch together to defend themselves, producing an architectural style of homes that go as high as 100 feet, though most go about six stories. One particular gem is built on a narrow rock outcrop, making it nearly impossible for visits by the unwanted.

Pfaueninsel This Gothic Revival building in Berlin went up in 1796. Two towers of vatly different height are connected by a bridge and a wall. Inside, rooms are formed of elmn, nut, black poplar, plum, apple and walnut woods. In past days, zoos sheltered animals such as llamas, bears and kangaroos.

Alhambra The ancient mosque, palace and fortress in Granada, Spain, built in 1354 by the Moorish rulers of the region. The reddish complex seems to cast a glow on its environment.

There are literally of hundreds more buildings shown here, including: Chicago O’Hare’s airport United Airlines terminal, Prague Castle, the Empire State Building, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Suzhou, China, the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, Stockholm City Hall, Hermann and Steinberg Hat Factory in Luckenalde, Germany, the Treasury at Petra in Jordan, Rockefeller Center, Antwerp Central Station in Belgium, the University Library in Mexico City, the Colosseum in Rome, Fortress of St. Peter of the Rock in Cuba, the Temple of Luxor in Egypt, the Craigievar Castle in Scotland, the Brimstone Hill Fortress in St. Kitts and the Pyramid of the Great Jaguar in Guatemala.

Included in this highly informative book is an interview with architect Peter St. John, and and explanation of the book's purpose, written by its editor, Mark Irving, whose first task it was to decide what constituted a building.

What caught my eye was the shift of meaning and purpose of many buildings. Earlier buildings seemed to have been built to honor rulers or leaders of one sort or another, in death, as with the Egyptian pyramids, or life and to reach out to the cosmos, as in the recognition of the solstice, for example. Later buildings are monuments to faith, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, Hindu and others. Still later, and more contemporary, buildings are more functional, temples to commerce, as corporate centers, or to the masses, as transportation hubs. I don't know if this has some deeper meaning for humankind; it's just an interesting phenomenon.

This is a fabulous book that charts architectural history, well worth the time needed to get through its nearly 1,000 pages.

Recommended: Yes