http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/10/review-the-pencil/ Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:14:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/10/review-the-pencil/#comment-38 Annie Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:59:52 +0000 http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/10/review-the-pencil/#comment-38 You need to step back a bit. I have read all of Petroski's books, I think, and they do not follow a formula. The title of the book is, after all, 'The Pencil: A HISTORY of Design and Circumstance.' Emphasis mine, but this is a history first and foremost. If you don't have that kind of mind, you probably won't like this book. If you do, it was a groundbreaking book that is generally acknowledged to have spawned a whole genre, that of the single-object history/anatomization...coal, corn, salt, cod, you name it. You need to step back a bit. I have read all of Petroski’s books, I think, and they do not follow a formula. The title of the book is, after all, ‘The Pencil: A HISTORY of Design and Circumstance.’ Emphasis mine, but this is a history first and foremost. If you don’t have that kind of mind, you probably won’t like this book. If you do, it was a groundbreaking book that is generally acknowledged to have spawned a whole genre, that of the single-object history/anatomization…coal, corn, salt, cod, you name it.

]]> http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/10/review-the-pencil/#comment-37 Andrew Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:34:38 +0000 http://www.kickerstudio.com/blog/2008/10/review-the-pencil/#comment-37 Ugh, Petroski's stuff is agonizing reading. He manages to find a way to eliminate a bit more joy and wonder from things that didn't offer much to begin with. Much better to just tune into one of those "How Stuff is Made" shows on Discovery. Ugh, Petroski’s stuff is agonizing reading. He manages to find a way to eliminate a bit more joy and wonder from things that didn’t offer much to begin with. Much better to just tune into one of those “How Stuff is Made” shows on Discovery.

]]>