Comments:"5 Design Books Every Hacker Should Read"
URL:http://davidmckinney.com/blog/2013/1/15/the-best-5-design-books
Grid Systems, by Josef Muller-Brockmann
This book is here because it is about using form and structure as a system to help you solve problems. It's more a practical framework for solving problems than just a book about grids.
That said, this is also the definitive early work on grid design. Muller-Brockmann was one of the key pioneers of grid design and the swiss / international movement.
It includes considerations of grid and structure: baseline grids, measuring systems, units, margins, faces, construction of the type area and grid and numerous examples of type and graphics in various grid combinations.
This is the kind of book that you can return to again and again, and always find something new.