A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams
by Michael Pollan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael PollanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-12-30
ISBN: 0143114743
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams
Book Review: I Loved This Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is not about food. It's not about eating food, or catching food, or growing food, or about how messed up our food is here in America. Yes, Michael Pollan writes a lot of good books about food, but this isn't one of them. If that's what you wanted, you'll be disappointed. THIS book is about building something. And if you want to read about that, it's an amazing experience.
Michael Pollan is an informationally dense writer. I am always surprised at how long it takes me to get through his books, and I've read most of them, because I am not a slow reader. I expected that with his other books, as they are at least in part, very scientific, but I didn't expect it so much with this one. It wasn't any different. I came away from this book feeling like I both understood what it would be like to build a house (ok a very teeny, kind of wonky house), and feeling like I would understand how it FELT to build a house. Pollan, starts this experience with no building experience at all. Zero, zip, zilch. He really only has determination, formidable research skills, and a couple of really good resources in his architect and the handyman he hires to help him (he's not stupid enough to think he can build what he wants by himself with no experience, thank goodness, or we might be reading about how he died while doing this). It is true that sometimes those resources have approaches and ideas that are a bit at odds with each other, but that's part of what makes this book such interesting reading.
The other part is Pollan's description of his own experience. Because of his inexperience, and his determination to build his building himself, correctly...well, mostly correctly, it takes Pollan a long time to finish. And from his words you can feel what it's like to go through the steps he took to go from a complete novice to a sort of knowledgeable builder. I didn't have the sense that building this one building launched him into an exciting new chapter in his life of hanging around construction site and doing impromptu kitchen remodels at dinner parties, because it didn't. He's pretty clear that he figured out that building is not where his talents lie. But if I had to guess, I'd say he'll always be very glad to have made this one structure himself, with his own hands. If only because it gave him the chance to sit inside that building and tell us all about it.
My one quibble with the book is that I wanted pictures of the things he described. I could see the pictures he painted with his words very clearly, but I still would like to have seen more of the actual items he described. It isn't a big enough quibble for me to knock off a star, however, because honestly the book is not about the building. It's about building the building. And for that, it's a fine read.
Summary of A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams
Michael Pollan's unmatched ability to draw lines of connection between our everyday experiences- whether eating, gardening, or building-and the natural world has been the basis for the popular success of his many works of nonfiction, including the genre-defining bestsellers The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. With this updated edition of his earlier book A Place of My Own, readers can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan's realization of a room of his own-a small, wooden hut, his "shelter for daydreams"-built with his admittedly unhandy hands. Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.
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