Your professor should really have pointed this out, but for God’s sake, don’t set book type in Futura. Reading a book set in Futura is like having nails pounded into one’s eyeballs. Head over to the library and try reading the Bauhaus 1919-1933 to see what I’m talking about.

Anyway, your best bet alongside Futura is a face based on Futura. You can get Memphis light for $20 on MyFonts, that’s not a bad deal.

James,

I know Futura isn’t great for setting book type, but each page only has a small paragraph (no more than 60 words in Futura per page)

I’m making a few versions of the book to start, so I’ll see whether or not it is painful to read in the amount I’m using it.
Thanks for your help.

Don’t you have Arno Pro default with CS3? I’d imagine it would work quite well with Futura.

If you’ve got Joanna, that should also be a good match.

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Arun
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If you’re going to use Futura, especially Futura Light, for any kind of text, the important thing is to track it V E R Y loose. The bigger the space inside the characters, the more space you need between them – so the light weight needs to be set looser than a bolder weight. And the default letter fit for Futura, at least the commonly available varieties, is much too tight. Open it up, and look at the difference it makes.

Thank you all very much! However, I ended up going with Univers 45 instead of Futura. Even though I don’t have very much text, it was still too much to read in Futura.

A comment from this thread has been ripped from its context and Twitter’d here: http://www.twitter.com/typophile

Carry on.