— If you liked "The Psychology of Everyday Things, you should love this one. It's about folk design, folk art, folk construction. I pick up the book and read at random, learning all the while, fascinated all the while. Stiles – what a marvelous set of inventions -- affording passage by humans and the anti-affordance of non-passage by animals, but requiring different solutions for different animals. How all sorts of things were made -- cider, paper, lye and soap, cheese, spinning wheels, barrels, fishnets, knives. I could go on and on.
Beautifully (and functionally) illustrated with photographs and drawings. Part of the charm of the book is the author's crustiness and utter disdain for anything manufactured as opposed to hand made. Anyway, a delight for the history, for the knowledge, and for enjoyment.