At Home

Bryson is particularly adept at compiling eons of history into a digestible pill. This time, he combed through over 300 years of the history of the home. By doing so, he's written a book that shows how we have come to live the way we do. It's all fascinating, and it's all too much to take in. Trying to recall interesting points is hard, but for the time being, my mind seems to recall them at appropriate times. For example, this morning when I was reaching for a fork, I was reminded that the reason there are four tines, is that it's a good balance of fork-power and safety. Washing my hands after breakfast reminded me that I should be thankful there's a sink in the kitchen as that wasn't always the case. humans have evolved their household quite a bit in some respects; but in others, it's still quite the same. Drivers for evolution would include how the members of a household function (no more servants), and the availability of materials (glass for windows). The book is long, a little dry, but still fascinating. Lastly, the super uber mega rich really really liked unimaginably large houses.

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