Category: Books
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Hiking the Legend of Grey Owl
I remember a friend saying that kids are special when they’re little, but that every age holds the promise of something new. My eldest son, D, now twelve years old, and I headed out for a seventeen kilometre roundtrip hike to Grey Owl’s cabin in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, something he wasn’t ready for… Read more
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Bon Echo: Natural Inspirations (and Aspirations)
My foothold is tenon’d and mortised in granite/I laugh at what you call dissolution/And I know the amplitude of time. – WALT WHITMAN, 1819-1919, carved on a rock face at Bon Echo Provincial Park, Mazinaw (Massanoga), Ontario I am intrigued by, and not a little envious of, the concept of an artists’ retreat anchored deep… Read more
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Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place
In terms of time invested and ease of creation, this has been the most difficult entry I’ve written to date. I’ve wracked my brains to figure out why and concluded early this morning that it’s because a number of ideas in John Abrams’ book Companies We Keep simply scare the pants off me. I find… Read more
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101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
I stumbled upon the intriguing little book 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick (MIT Press) in the New Museum in New York. Read more
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Finding the Best Use For Our Time and Talents (In Light of the World Going to Hell in a Handbasket)
I just can’t seem to visualize my role in the big picture while I’m blinded by the pursuit of The American (sic) Dream. Or exhausted from cleaning up after it. Read more
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Thirty-Eight Years On
Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower A few years ago as my career jump was informing itself, I came across a yellowing black and white magazine-style… Read more
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At Home: A Short History of Private Life
I just finished Bill Bryson’s new book At Home: A Short History of Private Life. I’d say I’d read it cover to cover but it was, in fact, my first e-book experience. It was a good choice for this format due to its easygoing writing style and non-linear content. There was no cognitive penalty for… Read more
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A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Vancouver (and Montreal and Toronto)
Sure wish I had found this coolio little book BEFORE I got to Vancouver; I would have saved myself a lot of time in assembling architectural walking tours of the city. Read more