A Place of My Own: The Education of An Amateur Builder

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.

While the book in no way operates on the level of a "how-to" manual, now that I've started down that owner-builder road I'm encountering landmarks familiar to me from reading "A Place of My Own," like the tension-bordering-on-hostility that exists between architects, those artisans of the abstract, and builders, who inherit the sometimes unenviable task of turning fanciful "funny-paper" blue-prints into tangible structures of concrete, wood, and glass.


Nice frolic through architecture and building   June 20, 2002
team W (Silver Spring, MD United States)
This is an amusing little book about one man's efforts to build himself a study in a free-standing hut in the woods. Like Botany of Desire, this is a rather quirky and unusual premise to base a book on, but again, he carries it off well.

If you are interested in learning some architectural history, and something about general carpentry while being entertained, this is a nice find. Pollan has a very entertaining and engaging writing style.


Bring a dictionary   January 16, 2002
misterbeets (Safe Harbor, MD USA)
Overall very well written, and you'll increase your vocabulary too. Can get wordy though, so you might get bogged down in, say, the discussion of the psycological effects of window muntins. Or be a little dismayed to find the author championing Feng Shui. But usually things move along quickly, owing to the author's remarkable facility with language and his self-deprecating tone. Bonus: scattered throughout you'll find a nice roundup of famous architects justifying their profession with self-important babble.


MR. BLANDINGS MEETS THOREAU   March 15, 2000
While some rave about the prose of Anne Rice and Michael Ondaatje, I rave about Michael Pollan! In A Place of My Own, Pollan has crafted a beautifully written book laced with intelligence, humility and humor. Attempting to escape his own "mid-life crisis," Pollan decides to build a cabin in the woods--a place where he can work undisturbed that also serves as a "shelter for daydreams." During his 2 1/2 years of building, Pollan comes to reflect on many things such as the meaning of "work" in our highly technological society, the sacrifice and celebration of nature and the borders between nature and culture. In the end, Pollan comes to the conclusion that there really is no clear division between matters of the material world and those of the spirit. A warm, witty and wise story told in prose as crystal clear as a bright winter's day. I'd gladly give it ten stars if I could.


The Story Lasts like the Structure it Describes   June 28, 1999
I read Michael Pollan's A Place of My Own about 6 months and am now realizing how the story has really stuck with me since then. Pollan has written a thoughtful and thought-provoking narrative that not only has me looking at the built world more carefully but has also inspired me (as I had hoped when I first saw the book) to eventually tackle a construction project for myself. The descriptions in the book are wonderfully detailed and it subsumes an impressive amount of material for its length, giving the reader a sense of how much thought goes into even the most seemingly straightforward projects. I found this book to be rewarding on many levels.