A Place of My Own

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Last edited by VacuumBot
September 15, 2012 | History

A Place of My Own

  • 3.00 ·
  • 1 Rating
  • 12 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 2 Have read

At a turning point in his life, writer Michael Pollan found himself dreaming of a small wood-frame hut in the woods near his house - a place to work, but also a "shelter for daydreams." Ordinarily more at home among words than things, the author was seized by the idea of building the place himself, with his own two unhandy hands.

A Place of My Own recounts his two-and-a-half-year journey of discovery in an absorbing narrative that deftly weaves the day-to-day work of design and building - from siting to blueprint, from the pouring of foundations to finish carpentry - with reflections on everything from the power of place to shape our lives to the question of what constitutes "real work" in a technological society. With one eye on Thoreau and the other on Mr.

Blandings, Pollan uses the biography of a single tiny building to brilliantly illuminate the history, and meaning, of all human building: how nature is both sacrificed and celebrated when we transform a tree into a house; where the classical rules of Vitruvius dovetail with the Chinese art of feng shui; what the warring perspective of carpenter and architect have to tell us about the changing experience of work today.

This is a book about craft that is itself beautifully crafted, linking the world of the body and material things with the realm of mind, heart, and spirit, showing us that there is not a divide between the two, but a continuum.

Publish Date
Publisher
Penguin USA, Inc.
Language
English

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: A Place of My Own
A Place of My Own
2009, Penguin USA, Inc.
E-book in English
Cover of: A place of my own
A place of my own: the education of an amateur builder
1997, Random House
in English - 1st ed.

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
New York

The Physical Object

Format
E-book

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL24283146M
ISBN 13
9781440655609, 9781440655647, 9781440655630
OverDrive
CEA2A293-4CA8-494B-A81A-1C2349173E3F

Source records

marc_overdrive MARC record

Excerpts

A room of one's own: Is there anybody who hasn't at one time or another wished for such a place, hasn't turned those soft words over until they'd assumed a habitable shape?
added anonymously.

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
September 15, 2012 Edited by VacuumBot Updated format 'eBook' to 'E-book'; Removed author from Edition (author found in Work)
June 22, 2010 Created by ImportBot Imported from marc_overdrive MARC record