Product Description

"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?"

When writer Michael Pollan decided to plant a garden, the result was an award-winning treatise on the borders between nature and contemporary life, the acclaimed bestseller Second Nature. Now Pollan turns his sharp insight to the craft of building, as he recounts the process of designing and constructing a small one-room structure on his rural Connecticut property--a place in which he hoped to read, write and daydream, built with his two own unhandy hands.

Invoking the titans of architecture, literature and philosophy, from Vitrivius to Thoreau, from the Chinese masters of feng shui to the revolutionary Frank Lloyd Wright, Pollan brilliantly chronicles a realm of blueprints, joints and trusses as he peers into the ephemeral nature of "houseness" itself. From the spark of an idea to the search for a perfect site to the raising of a ridgepole, Pollan revels in the infinitely detailed, complex process of creating a finished structure. At once superbly written, informative and enormously entertaining, A Place of My Own is for anyone who has ever wondered how the walls around us take shape--and how we might shape them ourselves.


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 form the power of place to shape our lives to the question of what constitutes "real work" in a technological society.



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, A Place of My Own has received extraordinary praise: -->

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27062 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-09
• Released on: 1998-02-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com
Michael Pollan's A Place of My Own might be suspiciously viewed by some readers as a text begging for interpretation. What is it that causes this man at midlife to attempt to put up a structure, an actual wood and concrete dwelling, where he can work on his own craft away from his domestic life? Arguably, Pollan's intentions are more transparent than a too clever postmodern audience can easily appreciate. The author of this fine, well-crafted book offers an explanation that seems honest and understandable: "Whenever I heard myself described as an 'information service worker' or a 'symbolic analyst,' I wanted to reach for a hammer, or a hoe, and with it make something less virtual than a sentence."

In Pollan's bestselling book Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, he illustrated his facility with both hoe and pen. In A Place of My Own he hefts the hammer and again records with great intelligence how thoroughly thought and reflection can be woven into our common lives and the patterns of a day's work. His book's subtitle, "An Education of an Amateur Builder," captures much of what this book contains: the lessons learned by a diligent student of architecture, design, and construction. The writing contains no gaps or unsightly seams, and it's full of clues to readers who share a similar desire to build something tangible in a world that prizes the evanescent.

From Library Journal
Wanting to have a place of his own where he could think and write, Pollan decided to erect a small structure in the woods behind his house. Fancying himself a modern-day Thoreau, he wanted to build his "dream hut" with his own hands, even though he had no carpentry skills or experience. We learn very little about how to build a small structure; the majority of this book is devoted to Pollan's pretentious musings about a variety of architectural theories and about his interaction with the architect and carpenter who helped him (wasn't this supposed to be a simple structure?). Although it cost Pollan $125 per square foot and took him two and one-half years to build, ultimately it is the reader who works the hardest. Libraries serving those with a strong interest in architecture will want this title; other libraries should skip this book.?Jonathan Hershey, Akron-Summit Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Verilyn Klinkenborg
Like many writers, Mr. Pollan (his previous book was Second Nature) has grown up to do what he loves doing, without necessarily noticing the number of things it has prevented him from doing along the way. "Work," he writes, "is how we situate ourselves in the world, and like the work of many people nowadays, mine put me in a relationship to the world that often seemed abstract, glancing, secondhand." . . . One thing that makes Mr. Pollan such an attractive writer is the modest way he presents his discoveries. The word "epiphany" is just a little too large for his tool belt. . . . Out of so much that is valuable in A Place of My Own, I find myself admiring the irony, elegantly raised by Mr. Pollan, that for some writers in this information age, the task is to rescue experience from information. . . .

Customer Reviews

A Place of My Own
Wonderful, wonderful book. I am inspired to find some land and build my own little haven... I guess that makes this the most expensive book I've ever bought.

A Place of One's Own!
I love this book because Michael allowed me to feel I could build a place of my own, and because I experienced the process so thoroughly and vicariously through him, I probably won't. I loved reading of the balancing of reality and desire, of architect, builder, and setting. I am amazed at what Michael is able to do, and I savor and share his rightful pride in being able to do so. I appreciate my own home more and view other structures with more curiosity as a result of reading this book. Michael entertains, and makes the process of home-building accessible to any one of us. I sit and look at the cover, wanting a little home of my own, and, as I say, I feel satisfied with what he has built, and the creation of my own little nest within a home that is already mine. And if I change my mind, he is here as guide.

Not a how to book. Think "architectural philosophy".
First, I enjoyed reading this book. I'm a carpenter turned cabinetmaker that aspires to build spec homes per my own designs, from bottom to top. Given my existing interest in the field, I most enjoyed his discussion of the various architectural movements and the philosophies thereof. It provides a broad overview of different theories of design and how they result in pleasing (or not so pleasing) structures.

However, he definitely goes overboard - especially with the obnoxious use of esoteric vocabulary. Synecdoche? I'm pretty well read and I don't think I've ever even seen that word written before. It goes on and on like that, and it's unfortunate because it really distracts you from what's otherwise a pretty interesting read. He also seems to slip into a bit of stream of consciousness about the theory behind some detail of construction or another (like muntins). Be prepared.

It was also tiring to read about the conflict between the architect and the builder. If it was indeed as tense as he claims, then he's probably in large part to blame, getting wrapped up in the drama (which I believe he does).

Overall I gave it a 3, because it definitely provided a lot of good information. But I was dragging by the end, and it really felt like once he hit his quota of pages he just stopped. He takes you all the way through the process of construction, but doesn't tell you how it ends. How's the building feel? What worked and what didn't? Is it great in the spring with the windows open, or is it too buggy? Freezing in the winter? By dropping 30 pages of theory and putting in an equal amount of reality it would have made this book a real winner.