Appearance
Brief History of Tomorrow
I was hopeful picking up this book. I was hoping for a book that took a cold eye on past speculations of futurology, and dissects them. It'd be interesting to see how Alvin Toffler stands up with time, or some debunking of predictions of business trends. Instead, we get a series of rambling essays taking a few factoids and random observations, on which Margolis drones on for pages and pages. He fails to coherently state his point or argue for it, instead going off on unrelated tangents. This book really needed serious editing. The section on the environment was just woeful. I'm not sure whether Margolis has a scientific or technical education. He totally fails to even address the science behind environmental concerns. He instead indulges in what can only be called arm-waving dismissals of "catastrophism". Unfortunately, there is such a thing as environmental science, and it is insufficient to dismiss the concerns raised by it based on political ideology, as Margolis does. There will one day be a good book written on futurology and trend prediction, hopefully taking a good laugh at the bad predictions, analyzing those that were correct. It would also explore the psychological dimensions of futurology - is it just projecting of dreams and fears onto the future, the same as we slant our view of the past? Based on this analysis, we could make and judge predictions better. Unfortunately, this book isn't that book.
Brief History of Tomorrow
That is the question of much of mankind. Jonathan Margolis starts out by finding out what past people thought the future would be like, if they got it right or wrong and WHY they got it right or wrong. After looking at the works of authors, such as H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Jules Verne and Edward Bellamy, plus scientists, professors and specialists he dives into what people believe now. Chapter after chapter deals with global warming, ice ages, pollution, advanced medicine, genetic engineering, the internet, robots, e-commerce, smart kitchens, cloning, politics, space travel, flying cars, airships, teleportation, time travel AND aliens.Then he lists his own ideas about future trends, some of which seem bland, others seem to be very reasonable, and some seem weird. For example, he suggests global warming might just fade away (which it might), 'Real' or 'Natural' will always be valued over 'virtual' (and I'm sure it will cost more), that aircars would be dangerous within the city streetscape(true), and that we don't have to worry about things like asteroid impacts (just because he figures it will happen to a part of the Earth that nobody cares about).But the whole book is about the fact that futurology can be bland, reasonable and weird all at the same time. Don't take him seriously, but enjoy the book. Great for science fiction fans or want-to-be authors of science fiction!Go airships!
Brief History of Tomorrow
Margolis' wit, insight and opinion may present a challenge to more than a few readers but, for my money, this book is an entertaining and thought-provoking journey from statistics and observation to logical and wise speculation. Buy it!
Capes: Design Ideas for Renovating, Remodeling and Building New
I showed this book to a contractor friend who immediately went out and bought one for his own use. Lots of new ideas, with great illustrations and photos to refer to when discussing options for one's own project. Highly recommended.
Capes: Design Ideas for Renovating, Remodeling and Building New
If the number of reviews seems scant, it's probably because readers of this book are inspired to head for their drawing boards or take sledgehammer to wall, rather than compose a book review. Who has time to write a paragraph or two for Amazon when there are contractors to call and design decisions to make? This book will motivate you Cape owners out there to finally make the updates that you've been thinking about since you moved in -- whether it's just replacing rusty bathroom cabinets or adding that extra bedroom so your two boys don't have to share a room anymore.
Capes: Design Ideas for Renovating, Remodeling and Building New
I purchased this book with the hope of finding a few capes similar in layout to mine, and with ideas on how people have renovated certain rooms or how they may use them differently than me. This book, while very nice, pretty much made me depressed - almost all of the renovations were too large scale for what I was looking to do and seems to focus more on dramatic upgrades such as whole additions, entire floor plan changes, and overall high-budget changes. If you are seeking design ideas for larger-scale cape upgrades, then this book would no doubt be a great resource, but if you are seeking smaller scale ideas for how others have redesigned certain cape-sized rooms, you may want to look elsewhere.