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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 690.837
Edition: Reprint
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: December 30, 2008
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Michael Pollans unmatched ability to draw lines of connection between our everyday experiences whether eating, gardening, or buildingand the natural world has been the basis for the popular success of his many works of nonfiction, including the genre-defining bestsellers The Omnivores 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 Pollans realization of a room of his owna small, wooden hut, his shelter for daydreamsbuilt 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.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I love Michael Pollan's books-- I think he's a great researcher and is very good at presenting that information. However, any time he writes about his own experiences this annoying voice and character emerges-- that of a geek, perhaps-- and it's definitely not someone 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 those 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 picked up a hammer or chisel. He tries too hard to build connections 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.
Rating:  -
I picked up this book after reading Omnivore's Dilemma. This book is the Omnivore's Dilemma for architecture and building. I found it to give a fantastic overview of the history of architecture, the difficulties in translating the architect's plans into something realistic (paring things down to form over function), and the realities of making a structure from the ground up.
This book however is not a manual of how to build. If you are interested in building or creating things out of scratch it will be very happy with this book. This might better be titled the philosophy of building.... a place of one's own.
Rating: -
I was astonished to see that there are *any* less than stellar reviews for this book, so let me speak in defense of Michael Pollan's sophomore effort: You Must Read This Book!
For those who loved The Omnivore's Dilemma, this book describes the process by which the cradle of that great work was itself brought to life. As a person married to an author, and as a person who himself writes more than the average American, Pollan's process of articulating his own dreams (and fears) for his own writing house literally brought tears to my eyes, so profound his subject and so universal its truths. It is a brilliant synthesis of abstract and concrete--the construction of a physical space *so that* greater mental heights can be imagined and obtained.
For those who celebrate the way that Pollan has helped us restore some measure of our own humanity by helping us reconnect with what is true about food (and by learning how to avoid what is false about edible food-like substances), let only those who are truly roofless cast the first stone against this book! For the rest of us, whether we own, rent, or live more transiently in some sheltering construct, this book teaches the truly multi-dimensional ways that dwellings come to be, and how the manifold relationships that condense into built forms continue to express those relationships, even to those who are not yet born.
For those who love Pollan's ways with words, this book is full of fridge-worthy sentences and page-worthy paragraphs.
For those who enjoyed meeting Joel Salatin in "Part III: Grass" of the Omnivore's Dilemma, in this book we meet the prototype from the building trade, Joe Benney. Indeed, I'd be willing to bet that without Joe's training in the manual arts, Michael would never have made it past the first handshake with Mr. Salatin of Polyface farms.
For those who complain "this book is nothing new", fooey. Yes it was first published more than a decade ago, but as a book I had not read, it was new to me. The new paperback format is far more friendly to me and my traveling lifestyle. And the new preface provides an opportunity for Pollan to complete some factual and cultural arcs that were anticipated by the foundations he laid in 1997. (In that way, every finished building is really the start of a new, unimagined next building.)
So...I loved it, and I suspect that if you have ever dreamed about building a place for your own dreams, you will love it, too!
Rating:  -
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 small architectural buildings are fascinating to me.
Well, the book is boring! For the same reasons that The Omnivore's Dilemna was interesting: namely, that he integrates science, reason, knowledge with emotion. In The Omnivore's Dilemna, he explained the science and technology, and gave an in-depth overview of the many ways food gets from nature to your stomach. In contrast, A Place Of My Own is packed with filler consisting of homespun wisdom about the nature 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 boring 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 creates what is described as one of the most complicated 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 little 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 ordeal 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 other products. At page 301, the book ends, and I was shaken. I had given 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.
Rating: -
I have read several of Michael Pollan's books on food (Ominvore's Dilema, In Defense of Food, Botany of Desire). I thoroughly enjoyed them so I expected the same experience with this book. However, once I started 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 other, more recent works.
The story itself could have been told with far fewer words. He spends entire chapters discussing windows, roofs, site selection, etc. Very boring.
Buy this book as an aid to sleeping.
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