Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the "Great Good Places" at the Heart of Our Communities (Paperback)

~ Ph.D. Ray Oldenburg (Editor) "A young lady's father sits at the big round table in the little diner taking his morning coffee as he has almost every day for..." (more)
Key Phrases: great good place, good gym, Maxwell Street, Blue Moon, New Orleans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sociologist Oldenburg (The Great, Good Place) offers a compilation of essays on those places in America "where everybody knows your name." What Oldenburg calls "the third place" is different from home and work (the first and second places respectively) it's somewhere people can relax in good company on a regular basis. In this collection of 19 essays, proprietors and patrons of those third places describe how their establishments came into being and what exactly gives them their appeal. These third places aren't just diners and coffeehouses: there are establishments as disparate as Annie's Gift and Garden Shop, in Amherst, Mass., whose witty and provocative billboards provide a jumping-off point for conversation within the community, and Old St. George, an espresso bar located within a church's sacristy in Cleveland, Ohio. There's also the "great good gym" and, perhaps most surprising, an essay claiming prison to be the third place for many disadvantaged in American society. These charming and often thought-provoking essays, each written in a voice distinct as the place discussed, provide food for thought into the isolation our modern conveniences bring and people's need to come together as a community. This book will strike a comforting chord for those questioning the status quo and desiring to live a more authentic and connected way of life.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

After a long day at work or a lazy afternoon at home, many of us seek solace and distraction in a place where the magical combination of comfort, familiarity, and good company transform an ordinary hangout into our special "third place." In his landmark work, The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg identified, portrayed, and promoted those third places. Now the time has come to celebrate the many third places that dot the American landscape and foster civic life. Celebrating the Third Place brings together nineteen firsthand accounts by proprietors of third places, as well as appreciations by fans who have made spending time at these establishments a regular part of their lives. The scope of places profiled—from an historic tavern in Washington, D.C., and a garden shop in Massachusetts to a coffeehouse in North Carolina and a bookstore in Michigan—make Celebrating the Third Place a must-read for everyone who has or wants a third place they can call their own.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (January 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569246122
• ISBN-13: 978-1569246122
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,648 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, Refreshing, ..., May 26, 2008

By	Steven Lim "(RSTN)" (Singapore) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book contains so many highly inspirational stories which reflects on the fact that Modern day societies no longer provide ample "breathing" space for "socialising". It shows how and where people really and truly like to interact and how "knowledge" is being shared (freely) without fear of any kind. From a business sense, if we can capitalise on some of these "Third Places", we might even established a profitable venture! Steven Lim (RSTN) - Singapore.