August 8, 2012

The Art of Fixing Things - Review

Some time this past winter, we were sent a press release about The Art of Fixing Things by Lawrence E. Pierce. We were asked if we'd like a copy to review and we said, "sure, sounds like it could be cool." We figured that since we spend about 80% of our waking hours fixing things (are you listening, Tool Snob Jr.?), we ought to give it a look see. So it was sent it on for us to look at. Like we said, this was back in winter, in the midst of the worst part of the renovation (phase one), so this review is long, long overdue. Apologies to the author.

First off, we dig the Frank Miller vibe that the cover has. We opened the book and quickly discovered that it consists of a series of tips. It doesn't have chapters, but it's broken down into categories: The Basics, Automotive, Appliance/Household/Garden, and General. The 154 numbered items each come with a title and, in most cases, a paragraph or two of description. All but a few have accompanying photos. We went through the book a few times and came to learn that it's a collection of all of those small nuggets of information and tid-bits that one accumulates over a lifetime of working with their hands.

On the whole, it's an interesting, wide-ranging, and sometime baffling selection of tips ranging from "Tip 115: Vice Grips: A Must Have Tool" to "Tip 128: Making Gaskets."

We thought the book was entertaining and we enjoyed paging through it. With 10+ years in construction, there were only a few items that were new to us (all in the automotive section), so the book won't be much use to someone with a lot of experience, but someone just starting out might be able to save some time and hardship by paying attention to these items.

Oh yeah and...

Tip 67: Oil That Sewing Machine.

Yup, with 154 tips, there are bound to be a couple duds.

$11 at Amazon