A place of my own

the education of an amateur builder

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published Oct. 31, 1998 by Bloomsbury.

ISBN:
978-0-7475-3513-3
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“A room of one’s own: is there anybody who hasn’t at one time or another wished for such a place, hasn’t turned those soft words over until they’d assumed a habitable shape?”

When writer Michael Pollan decided to plant a garden, the result was an award-winning treatise on the borders between nature and contemporary life, the acclaimed bestseller Second Nature. Now Pollan 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 property—a place in which he hoped to read, write and daydream, built with his two own unhandy hands.

9 editions

Reflections on aging and space around

As I approach my 40th birthday, the book that resonated with me explores aging, reflection, and the world around us. It also encourages practical action, as demonstrated by Michael Pollan, who built his own small cabin to create space for reflection, writing, or even an afternoon nap. The idea of a small, orderly space resembling the archetype of a hut or shelter deep in the woods appealed to me. Alongside the physical building process, Pollan explores and analyzes the layers of meaning that have accumulated over millennia, shaping our current understanding of home and architecture in general.