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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.
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Previews available in: English
Showing 2 featured editions. View all 13 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams
Dec 30, 2008, Penguin Books
paperback
0143114743 9780143114741
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2
A place of my own: the education of an amateur builder
1997, Random House
in English
- 1st ed.
0679415327 9780679415329
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Source title: A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams
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- Created November 29, 2020
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March 22, 2024 | Edited by Tom Morris | Merge works |
January 2, 2023 | Edited by Tom Morris | merge authors |
December 8, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 29, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
November 29, 2020 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from amazon.com record |