Attila

Fred,
I suggest Leonard Koren's book on wabi sabi, it's very small but eye-opening book.

Andy,
I am very happy that you mentioned wabi sabi, a concept so important and yet almost never mentioned even by our japanese masters teaching in the U.S.

An interesting note in Andrew Juniper's book on wabi sabi is that this concept is so hard to be accurately defined in words that the Japanese would never attempt to do so.
The author goes on saying that wabi sabi in Japan is gradually displaced by the glitzy western style and although it may sound ironic, but the West may become the leading force to preserve this elusive concept from becoming extinct.

Regards,
Attila