Receive The Toothpick: Technology And Culture Narrated By Henry Petroski Distributed As Interactive EBook

wasn't bad It was just much, much more indepth than I needed it to be, I was looking for something with more of a sitelinkHow It's Made bent than a fullblown history book, I now know more about toothpicks than any sane person has any reason to know While he did come up with some interesting facts and stories about.
. . toothpicks, there really is only "so much" I need to know about them, I have to hand it to Henry for his fact finding skills, I have read a couple of his books, The Pencil, a lot like this one, and The Book on the Bookshelf, a book I could really relate to!
This book was soso.
. . An exhaustive and frankly, exhausting look at the toothpick throughout history, Petroski is skilled at looking at common objects with an engineer's eyes, He is able to discuss the technology that helps make an object common in the first place consistent, affordable reproduction and the cultural impetus which makes a society value the effort to invest in that technology.
When that happens an object becomes, almost paradoxically, common and iconic at the same time,

Just too much toothpick lore after a bit, I mean, the book starts with the fossilized teeth of early humans, . . and doesn't stop there. However, if you are interested in the intersection of technology with culture, I think you'd like this book,
I can't help but question if this is a bookworthy subject, It really just felt like a way too long research paper with some interesting or amusing factoids thrown in, I love a toothpick and will continue to use them for numerous tasks in addition to their designated purpose but this book just wasn't necessary.
How could you resist learning everything there is to know in appropriately minute detail about the genesis and bright future of the toothpick Like The Pencil, Henry Petroskis The Toothpick is a celebration of a humble yet elegant device.
As old as mankind and as universal as eating, this useful and ubiquitous tool finally gets its due in this wideranging and compulsively readable book.
Here is the unexpected story of the simplest of implementswhether made of grass, gold, quill, or wooda story of engineering and design, of culture and class, and a lesson in how to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.


Petroski takes us back to ancient Rome, where the emperor Nero makes his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth and to a more recent time in Spain, where a young señorita uses the delicately pointed instrument to protect her virtue from someone trying to steal a kiss.
He introduces us to Charles Forster, a nineteenthcentury Bostonian and father of the American toothpick industry, who hires Harvard students to demand toothpicks in area restaurantsthereby making their availability in eating establishments as expected as condiments.


And Petroski takes us inside the surprisingly secretive toothpickmanufacturing industry, in which one small towns factories can turn outmillion wooden toothpicks a day using methods that, except for computer controls, havent changed much in almostyears.
He also explores a treasure trove of the toothpicks unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond,

With an engineers eye for detail and a poets flair for language, Petroski has earned his reputation as a writer who explains our worldfrom the tallest buildings to the lowliest toothpickto us.
More of a.than a, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt because it's a very niche book and I like niche books,

Overall, a very good and thorough rundown of the history of the toothpick, The book meanders back and forth through the technology and industry to the social implications of the toothpick, It seems the toothpick's heyday was the mid to lates, and this is where the book focuses, It's interesting to see how the toothpick had fallen in and out of favor several times over those decades, as well as the fierce competition between manufacturers, creating a patent war that today's patent trolls would be envious of.


My biggest criticism of the book is the incredibly indepth analysis of the Charles Forster estate's finances, I'm sure someone will really appreciate this analysis, but I found

it to be dry and of minimal value to the book, I also struggled at times to understand how the machinery manufactured the various styles of toothpicks, having only the most modern understanding of the toothpick.
The book provides patent diagrams, but these are often useless for understanding how the machines actually work, Read this with your tongue in your cheek, Unless you really do want to know about the making, technology, history and culture of the toothpick, Bookcompleted for Book Riot Challenge: "A Microhistory"
I've always been curious to the origins of the toothpicks, given that I take handfuls from every dining establishment that offers them and keep them with me.
So it was very interesting learning of the history and manufacturing and such, but the book itself read like a liberal arts college student's term paper on a subject that doesn't relate at all to their major.
There was a lot of research involved, sure, but the writing style seemed to be forced together to connect thoughts and quotes and relevancy.
Books that explore a particular common object within its cultural, historical, and technological context are popular right now, It's quite interesting when done properly, Unfortunately, this book was both exhaustive and exhausting, I would have liked it better at half the size, I think, What are the chances that my library will actually have a book that is exclusively about toothpicks Also, what are the odds that you could have a friend who is nerdy enough to be interested in a book exclusively about toothpicks Too much business culture and not enough technology for an entire book.
I don't know, I just thought it was very interesting,

I'm not entirely certain what other reviewers thought they were going to read but yes, Yes, the entire book is about toothpicks, Allpages of it. Petroski can find fascinating details in darn near anything, so I shouldn't have been surprised at how enjoyable this exploration of the humble toothpick was.
Most boring book I have ever read! Paint drying would be more exciting, This book could have been ten pages long and accomplished the same thing, you might not want to read this if you're going to read the book it's actually all the best parts condensed into one page, but i suggest you DON'T read the book, so read on!

the best quote:
"With a toothpick, what we see is what we've got inside a toothpick in the same wood that we see on the outside.
" and this one didn't come until chapter, i feel that if that sentence was even necessary, perhaps it should have been placed closer to the intro

best anecdote of the book:
"One of these packers may have been the 'Maine girl' who once inserte a note with her address into one of the boxes, 'requesting the finder to write to her'.
A man from Kansas City did write, and the ensuing correspondence led to his traveling east 'to see if the young lady was the sort of a woman he wanted for a wife.
'

best randomly inserted bit of information:
talking about patented toothpick dispensers "Some dispensers are more dynamic they have hidden mechanisms that activate moving animals to deliver one toothpick at a time.
. . A dispenser patented in took the form of a stork, whose beak was a "resilient bifurcated stem,"which is patenttalk for something like a flexible twopronged fork, A plunger caused the body of the stork to pivot about its legs and dip its beak into a receptacle full of toothpicks, In order to have it retrieve one in its bill, the stem/fork had to be attached sideways, somewhat like the cockeyed stuck landing gear of the JetBlue airliner that had to make an emergency landing at the Los Angeles airport in"
aHAHAHAHAHA

best chapters of the book:
New Uses for Old which describes other manners in which toothpicks have been used escaping from prison for example
The Fatal Martini which describes ways people have died from the toothpick.
not actually as interesting as it sounds, but a heck of a lot more riveting than the rest, . . Finished reading.pages. Only paid.for it. Took me way too long to finish,

I now know EVERYTHING there is to know about toothpicks, All the people involved with toothpicks, All the types of woods, and other materials, to make toothpicks, All the ways toothpicks can be deadly/hurtful, All the shapes of toothpicks,
Ill probably forget aboutof what I now know about toothpicks within the next week, But, yeah, kinda interesting.

Kinda. .