A Splintered History of Wood

图书信息

作者	Carlsen, Spike
出版社	HarperCollins e-books
ISBN	9780061982774
出版时间	2009-10-01
字数	380.4万
分类	HarperCollins e-books,进口书,外文原版书,小说

读书简介

In a world without wood, we might not be here at all. Without wood, we wouldn't have had the fire, heat, and shelter that allowed us to expand into the colder regions of the planet. If civilization somehow did develop, our daily lives still would be vastly different: there would be no violins, baseball bats, chopsticks, or wine corks. The book you are now holding wouldn't exist. At the same time, many of us are removed from the world where wood is shaped and celebrated every day. That world is inhabited by a unique assortment of eccentric craftsmen and passionate enthusiasts who have created some of the world's most beloved musical instruments, feared weapons, dazzling architecture, sacred relics, and bizarre forms of transportation. In A Splintered History of Wood, Spike Carlsen has uncovered the most outlandish characters and examples, from world-champion chainsaw carvers to blind woodworkers, the Miraculous Staircase to the Lindbergh kidnapping case, and many more, in a passionate and personal exploration of nature's greatest gift.

目录

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Contents

Introduction

Part 1

Fifty-Thousand-Year-Old Wood Lives and Breathes Again

In Quest of the World’s Most Expensive Board Foot

Oak: The Breakfast of Civilizations

The Wood Freak Show

Bamboo: The Grass That Thinks It’s a Wood

Rescuing Redwood the Hard Way

Logging the Industrial Forest

Wood: How It Got Here, How Trees Make It

Part 2

A Chainsaw Artist a Cut Above the Rest

My Seven Awkward Minutes with the Man Who Carves Ferraris

Woodworking Blind—Just Like Everyone Else

How Much Wood Would a Wood Collector Collect?

Nakashima: The Pavarotti of Woodworking Still Sings

My Almost-Perfect Interview with Woodworker Jimmy Carter

Part 3

As the Lathe Turns: Making Golf Tees with the Master

Tool Junky Heaven

The Table Saw That Couldn’t Cut a Hot Dog in Half

Belt Sander Racing: A Saga of True Grit, Speed, and Victory (sort of)

Part 4

Stradivarius Violins: The Sweetest Sound You’ve Never Heard

The Making of Sweet Baby James’s Guitar

Drums: And the Beat Goes On and On and On…

The Steinway D: Twelve Thousand Pieces of Indestructible Music

The National Music Museum: Six Hundred Zithers, B. B. King, and One-Ton Drums

Part 5

Baseball Bats: A David-and-Goliath Affair

Golf: Persimmon Scores a Hole in One

Tossing Telephone Poles and Other Curious Sports

The Art of the Pool Cue

Tennis: The Racket about Wood Racquets

Lumber Jacks and Lumber Jills

Part 6

Living in Trees: From Papua, New Guinea, to Washington State

The History of Housing from Log Cabin to, Well, Log Cabin

Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Construction Lumber

A Dirty Rotting Shame

Winchester House: The Thirty-Six-Year Remodeling Project

Part 7

When Wood Was Everything and Everything Was Wood

The Lindbergh Kidnapping, the Ted Bundy Tree, and Forensic Wood

Pens and Pencils: Getting to the Point

A Barrelful of Coopers, Kegs, and Tradition

True Relics of the Cross

Fifty Billion Toothpicks Can’t Be Wrong

Part 8

Ten Great Moments in Catapult History

A Tale of Two Warships: One Unsinkable, One Unsailable

The Twang of the Bow

White Pines and War

Pine Roots versus Atomic Bombs

Part 9

The Spruce Goose Made of Birch

Go Fly a Person: Kites for Work and Play

Trains: Riding the Wooden Rails

In Search of the Lost Ark

The Song of the Gondolier

Part 10

Venice: The City Perched on Wood

Wood Pipe Takes a Bow

Building a Staircase to Heaven

Academy Award Nominees for Outstanding Performance by a Wooden Structure

Roller Coasters: Möbius Strips of Screaming Wood

Epilogue

Notes

Resources

Bibliography

Searchable Terms

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher