HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Brief Histories of Everyday Objects by Andy…
Loading...

Brief Histories of Everyday Objects (edition 2016)

by Andy Warner (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
695381,277 (3.61)1
"Hilarious, entertaining, and illustrated histories behind some of life's most common and underappreciated objects--from the paperclip and the toothbrush to the sports bra and roller skates. In the tradition of A Cartoon History of the Universe and, most recent, Randall Munroe's What If? comes Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, a graphic tour through the unusual creation of some of the mundane items that surround us in our daily lives. Chapters are peppered with ballpoint pen riots, cowboy wars, and really bad Victorian practical jokes. Structured around the different locations in our home and daily life--the kitchen, the bathroom, the office, and the grocery store--award-nominated illustrator Andy Warner traces the often surprising and sometimes complex histories behind the items we often take for granted. Readers learn how Velcro was created after a Swiss engineer took his dog for a walk; how a naval engineer invented the Slinky; a German housewife, the coffee filter; and a radical feminist and anti-capitalist, the game Monopoly. This is both a book of histories and a book about histories. It explores how lies become legends, trade routes spring up, and empires rise and fall--all from the perspective of your toothbrush or toilet "--… (more)
Member:SWONtrc
Title:Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Authors:Andy Warner (Author)
Info:Picador (2016), 224 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:None

Work Information

Brief Histories of Everyday Objects by Andy Warner

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 1 mention

Showing 5 of 5
Peak bathroom reading. Do recommend. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
I've had this book for years and finally got around to reading it. Loved it! It's hilarious and extremely informative. Very funny comics about the origin of commonplace items like traffic lights, bicycles, barbed wire, stamps, toothbrushes, and so forth. How they were discovered or invented, including the *uncredited* people (often women or POC) who originally did the work and have gone unsung. The book is divided into sections (The Office, The Bathroom, The Kitchen, etc) to organize the objects. I was chuckling all throughout at the author/illlustrator's humor--a lot of breaking of the fourth wall to have a character comment on a product ("Have you noticed how we all go bonkers for anything our royal family does?" about TEA being adopted after the king started drinking it), or a bunch of people forming a Failed Inventors Club for failing to patent and profit from their own inventions. They also often acknowledge the racism or misogyny that prevented an inventor's success. (The book is very progressive in admitting the bitter truths of history.) Also funny is when the author is a character in his own comics, drawing himself hard at work ("because everybody wants more paperclip stories", or, "Probably needs more vacuum cleaner jokes") and also slipping in a comment about what a raw deal women of the time got, etc. The bibliography is extensive, showing his research; he indicates when he directly quotes someone instead of the fictionalized (and funny) dialogue. I also appreciated that it has numbered pages and an index, so you can refer to particular topics when you want to refresh your knowledge, as I've already done a couple of times since reading it...I'm such a nerd... Did I mention that the artwork is phenomenal? I love this style of ink drawings, super realistic but comical. *Chef's kiss.* ( )
  GoldieBug | Aug 17, 2022 |
If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of some of the various objects you regularly use, then this book may assuage your curiosity. With humor and wit and clever illustrations, Andy Warner imparts his take on such items as pencils, artificial sweeteners, post-it notes, instant ramen, and my favorite, kitty litter, which began as clay pellets for nesting hens. When he couldn’t sell it for hens or cats, inventor Ed Lowe gave it away, free for the asking, in local stores. It didn’t take along before pet owners were clamoring to buy the stuff, and sales have risen to around $12 billion a year. All these facts and so much more are available in this delightful book. ( )
  Maydacat | Sep 19, 2021 |
Surprisingly entertaining exploration and reminder of how damn crafty and inventive humans are. Women and minorities got the short end of the historical stick ! More broadly, history and business is full of people who didn't or couldn't patent their ideas and get credit for then. The one that stood out to me the most was the story about Monopoly—laughably unbelievable. ( )
  piquareste | Jun 3, 2020 |
Disappointing. By pretty much sticking to a strict 3-page format for each object, Warner ends up giving as much attention to an object with little or no interesting history as those with epic tales behind them. And with so many short stories there is quite a lot of repetition with inventors either getting totally screwed over or becoming insanely rich. I probably would have liked this better if, instead of reading it all in one shot, I had doled out a story a day (it is dedicated to Uncle John after all, of [b:Uncle John's Bathroom Reader|312679|Uncle John's Bathroom Reader (Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, #1)|Bathroom Readers' Institute|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388597705s/312679.jpg|303582] I assume).

I would certainly be interested in seeing Warner tackle a long-form graphic history sometime in the future. ( )
  villemezbrown | Jul 28, 2018 |
Showing 5 of 5
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

"Hilarious, entertaining, and illustrated histories behind some of life's most common and underappreciated objects--from the paperclip and the toothbrush to the sports bra and roller skates. In the tradition of A Cartoon History of the Universe and, most recent, Randall Munroe's What If? comes Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, a graphic tour through the unusual creation of some of the mundane items that surround us in our daily lives. Chapters are peppered with ballpoint pen riots, cowboy wars, and really bad Victorian practical jokes. Structured around the different locations in our home and daily life--the kitchen, the bathroom, the office, and the grocery store--award-nominated illustrator Andy Warner traces the often surprising and sometimes complex histories behind the items we often take for granted. Readers learn how Velcro was created after a Swiss engineer took his dog for a walk; how a naval engineer invented the Slinky; a German housewife, the coffee filter; and a radical feminist and anti-capitalist, the game Monopoly. This is both a book of histories and a book about histories. It explores how lies become legends, trade routes spring up, and empires rise and fall--all from the perspective of your toothbrush or toilet "--

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.61)
0.5
1
1.5
2 3
2.5 1
3 5
3.5 1
4 7
4.5 1
5 4

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,187,264 books! | Top bar: Always visible