I just finished A Place Of My Own by Michael Pollan. You might recall that Pollan is primarily known as a food writer, The Omnivores Dilemma, In Defense of Food and other books. There is much to read by Pollan about food and worth the effort. This book is different as it's a 2 1/2 year journey building a writer's hut for himself.
Many of us, I know I do, have an almost innate desire to build. From childhood to present I have constructed and deconstructed various buildings, rooms and spaces. Pollan describes the entire process of talking to an architect friend who designs the 8' by 16' building. We get to be a fly on the wall as they discuss Craftsman vs. Modernism vs. Post-Modernism and their effects in building design. It was a bit slow at times, but informative as to why buildings today look like they do.
There is a ongoing description of the classic architect vs. builder divide over a building. The architect that is designing art is certainly to come into conflict with a builder that tries to construct a building that will stand and not leak in a rain storm. It was interesting to revisit this schism and Pollan even offers a historical basis for the split.
The main of the book though is the description of Pollan, a carpenter novice, building the hut with a hired hand who is opinionated as well as skilled. They discuss every detail as they build. I also found the sections interesting when Pollan goes to a local craftsman to have the windows built. The craftsman explains why the architect's design is flawed, ow it is flawed, why the windows will fail soon because of no water seal, and how to solve the issue.
Ultimately it is a good book about the desire for shelter and rest and the construction of that desire.
This is the first book I've read on a Kindle. I was generously given one for my post op recovery as I would be reading. Overall I liked the system. I enjoyed being able to change the font size of what was being read. With the larger fonts I was forced to scroll to a new page more often but that was worth the larger size and less eye strain. I disliked the effort it took to go back and reread a section, or refer to a diagram. With a book you can hold a place with your finger. Not so with the Kindle as you have to scroll back to the page desired and this could be more than a few screens.
I also have to further investigate a issue I had with my eyes watering. It only happened at night and after a day of reading. The backlighting of the Kindle didn't contribute to this, but I can't prove this idea. When the eye watering would start I would make the font larger and if it continued I would have to stop. Reading a laptop screen or a regular book usually stopped the watering. Again I have only this anecdotal evidence. I am looking forward to another book to see what happens.
Maureen also used the Kindle and she would jump from book to book and that shows the Kindle's ability to hold a library of books, truly a good thing for a reader.
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