A captivating personal inquiry into the art of architecture; the craft of building; and the meaning of modern work ldquo;A room of onersquo;s own: Is there anybody who hasnrsquo;t at one time or another wished for such a place; hasnrsquo;t turned those soft words over until theyrsquo;d assumed a habitable shape?rdquo; When Michael Pollan decided to plant a garden; the result was the acclaimed bestseller Second Nature. In A Place of My Own; he 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 propertymdash;a place in which he hoped to read; write; and daydream; built with his own two unhandy hands. Invoking the titans of architecture; literature; and philosophy; from Vitruvius 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 ldquo;housenessrdquo; 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 shapemdash;and how we might shape them ourselves. Praise for A Place of My Own ldquo;A glorious piece of prose . . . Pollan leads readers on his adventure with humor and grace.rdquo;mdash;Chicago Tribune ldquo;[Pollan] alternates between describing the building process and introducing informative asides on various aspects of construction. These explanations are deftly and economically supplied. Pollanrsquo;s beginner status serves him well; for he asks the kind of obvious questions about building that most readers will want answered.rdquo; mdash;The New York Review of Books ldquo;By shrewdly combining just the right mix of personal reflection; architectural background; and nuts-and-bolts detail; Michael Pollan enables us to see; feel; and understand what goes into the building of a house. The result is a captivating and informative adventure.rdquo;mdash;John Berendt; author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ldquo;An utterly terrific book . . . an inspired meditation on the complex relationship between space; the human body and the human spirit.rdquo;mdash;Francine du Plessix Grayldquo;A tour de force . . . [Pollan] writes gracefully and humanely. He is a true carpenter-craftsman of prose.rdquo;mdash;Phillip Lopate
#847573 in eBooks 2012-06-29 2013-02-01File Name: B00BE65GS0
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. I found the lessons easy to follow and I was up and drawing human ...By Dean HymanI found this book helpful in learning to draw the human figure. Most books on the subject are similar in giving you a formula to follow for drawing the human figure and that does not work to well. In this book I learned to draw the human figure in motion by using simple free flowing line. I found the lessons easy to follow and I was up and drawing human figure from the start. The way this book is laid out its almost like being in a figure drawing class with an instructor.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The author provides a great deal of his thought-process and several informative exercises in ...By KKA clearly underrated and overlooked book. The author provides a great deal of his thought-process and several informative exercises in a thoughtful progression of difficulty. I learned more here than I did through several other life drawing books and classes.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Within Half an Hour I Was Making Something NIceBy CustomerWithin half an hour I was making something nice. Im no artist; but I enjoy following the instruction. There are very few resources that teach line figure drawing to beginners. This is doable for doodlers as well as useful for more serious artists.