A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams
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- ISBN13: 9780143114741
- Condition: New
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Product Description
Michael Pollan’s unmatched ability to draw lines of tie between our everyday experiences- whether eating, farming, or building-and the natural world has been the basis for the well loved 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 regularly hilarious tale of Pollan’s realization of a room of his own-a tiny, 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 inscription the relations between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.
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I like Michael Pollan. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food” changed the way I eat forever. Both are brilliant. So, when browsing here I noticed a new book by him. Thought it sounded appealing. The book wasn’t to be unrestricted until a few days ago. Everything leads me to judge this is a new work by Pollan. WRONG! This book was published over ten years ago. It garnered mediocre to terrible reviews, including one by Library Journal — normally a very honest, even generous, book review instititution — that was a perfect pan, going so far as to advise libraries NOT to buy it. If you go to additional editions of this book you’ll find one with a different take in that does have 17 reviews. Except for the reviews clearly written by his friends the book was basically panned.
Disappointed to learn all of this I braved on and tried to read it. It’s not a terrible book, but clearly not what we have come to want from Pollan. His Thoreauian meditation on building a cabin behind his house in the Northeast with his own hands is very slim material indeed. I place the book down. I have a lot of books to read and I keenly place this at the top of my list, but now it’s been deep-sixed forever. I buy books by the authors I have loved in the past, reviews — after combing through the inane ones and the ones by the leader’s fan club — and additional factors. Putting this out in a new take in does not change the fact that it is decidedly minor Pollan. I would probaby give it three or four stars, but because I was conned, because I’m mad that I can’t get my money back on the buy of books, I give it one star. Bring shame on on you and your publisher, Mr. Pollan. Bring shame on on you. I hope others won’t be deceived.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I loved The Omnivore’s Dilemna. I’ve read some of Pollan’s essays. So I was excited to see that early in his writing career he had written a book about building his own tiny writing house, particularly since tiny architectural buildings are fascinating to me.
Well, the book is dull! For the same reasons that The Omnivore’s Dilemna was appealing: namely, that he integrates science, reason, knowledge with emotion. In The Omnivore’s Dilemna, he clarified the science and equipment, and gave an in-depth overview of the many ways food gets from scenery to your stomach. In contrast, A Place Of My Own is packed with filler consisting of homespun wisdom about the scenery of place, or what he calls “what makes a place a place.” I would be okay with 5 pages of that, but I’d say this dull discussion takes up most of the book. It infects everything.
For “A Place Of My Own,” I was expecting a book similar to Thoreau’s chapter “Economy” in Walden. In some ways, it is. But it has a lot of BS. Essentially, Pollan hires a professional architect, who makes what is described as one of the most intricate one-room writing huts imaginable, and Pollan hires assistants, goes through building code processes, pours foundations, etc etc. Far from the process of dreaming up a small writing hut and building it over the summer. He’s essentially building a minimal hut for daydreams and writing in a convoluted and commercial way.
Along the way, he tries feng shui in an unbearable 5-page suffering that describes him running down a hill to find the best river of chi. Most of the book reads like that. Countless pages are spent describing concrete, steel, and additional products. At page 301, the book ends, and I was shaken. I had agreed hours and hours to that?
If the book had been cut to a third of its present size, it would have been a lot better.
Until this happens, you may not want to waste your time.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I have read several of Michael Pollan’s books on food (Ominvore’s Dilema, In Defense of Food, Botany of Desire). I painstakingly loved them so I expected the same experience with this book. But, once I ongoing reading it became evident that my enjoyment level would not be the same. This is a re-distribution of a book written early in his career and I suspect it was reprinted based on the popularity of his additional, more recent works.
The tale itself could have been told with far fewer words. He spends entire chapters discussing windows, roofs, site selection, etc. Very dull.
Buy this book as an aid to sleeping.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
This has small to do with most of his work, additional than discussing personal experience.
I establish it amusing, and very helpful in enlarging my perspective when involved in my own construction project.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I like Michael Pollan’s books– I reflect he’s a fantastic researcher and is very excellent at presenting that information. But, any time he writes about his own experiences this annoying voice and character emerges– that of a geek, perhaps– and it’s certainly not a name you want to spend a few hours with.
I’m in the architecture/building profession, so many things Michael discovers in this book about architecture and building is not news to me. That said, I LOVE reading about the design process and why clients/architects/contractors make decisions and what ensues from persons decisions. I wish there could have been more of this, plus more drawings/photos and pictures. I loved every moment spent with the architect and the handyman/builder. I wish it could have been more of them, less whiny/geeky Pollan. I wish that Pollan had not tried to wax rhapsodic everytime he selected up a hammer or chisel. He tries too hard to erect relations with Walden and devotes too many pages to his “knowledge” gleaned from a superficial study of architectural history and theory. (And a bizarre homage to the architectural skills of Thomas Jefferson, which really doesn’t fit.) There are really two (or three), disjointed books here. This book could have been better written by the architect.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5