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Title: Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design by Henry Petroski ISBN: 1-4000-4050-7 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.9 (10 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: How to beef up a book
Comment: It seems obvious to me that Petroski had to beef up this book. There are some interesting design critique and stories in the book. About 2 interesting items per chapter. The rest of the book is dry musings by the author. He endlessly repeats the same idea over and over. The author even includes the notes he wrote for the chapter ideas for his book at the end to beef up the number of pages even more.
If the author would have organized the bits of interesting material together I would have recommended this book. This is a boring book. I believe there is a significant market opportunity for a book of this type that is better written.
Rating: 3
Summary: This should have been a 5-star book
Comment: This book is written by someone who has written other wonderful books about what it means to be an engineer. The topic of this book -- the design of everyday items -- should offer sufficient scope for another interesting book. And indeed, the book has lots of interesting information in it. The main thesis (that design is always imperfect, and the reasons why this is so) seems as if it ought to be sufficiently engaging to hold my attention through a book-length engagement with it.
Alas, the book is so poorly written that it fails on all levels. I gave it three stars because it was quite educational. On the other hand, given the author's track record and the inherent interest of the topic, three stars is an enormous disappointment. Finishing the book was hard, and I would not blame anyone who just gave up. Perhaps the author had a half-book worth of content and was forced to bulk it up to make the required word count? I don't know what happened, but I can't really recommend the book unless you are desperate to know how the paper cup came to be invented.
Rating: 2
Summary: Obvious commentary
Comment: I really wanted to like this book, but I found myself quickly disinterested, though I forced myself to read the entire thing. The book is mostly a collection of anecdotes from the author's life, and little about design. Much of the commentary is very obvious and not terribly insightful (the chapter on his personal home construction woes was particularly boring). There are a few interesting sections dealing with the design history of famous product lines (like the Dixie Cup company and OXO kitchen tools). I have not read his other books, but I heard they are supposed to be good. Maybe Mr. Petroski ran out of ideas on this one.
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Title: The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0679740392 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: To Engineer Is Human : The Role of Failure in Successful Design by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0679734163 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Our Own Devices : The Past and Future of Body Technology by Edward Tenner ISBN: 0375407227 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Pencil : A History of Design and Circumstance by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0679734155 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 10 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Invention by Design; How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing by Henry Petroski ISBN: 0674463684 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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