A Place of My Own

The Architecture of Daydreams

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  • 3.0 (2 ratings) ·
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Last edited by Tom Morris
March 22, 2024 | History

A Place of My Own

The Architecture of Daydreams

  • 3.0 (2 ratings) ·
  • 12 Want to read
  • 3 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 Books
Pages
352

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: A Place of My Own
A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams
Dec 30, 2008, Penguin Books
paperback
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

Source title: A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams

Classifications

Library of Congress
TH4890.P65 2008

The Physical Object

Format
paperback
Number of pages
352

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL31450648M
ISBN 10
0143114743
ISBN 13
9780143114741

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
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