15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Indulge your fantasies, November 10, 2006
This review is from: Manspace: A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful book for a certain type of reader. Many years ago a classically trained psychoanalyst / psychiatrist told me that one of the great problems with people in our time was that people did not have their own personal space. He referred to it as sacred space. He felt that this was a particular problem for poor people because they were crammed into small spaces where people might have to share a bedroom, or literally live on top of one another. One of the solutions to this problem is to create a sacred space somewhere outside the home, such as a specific area of a park, or a lake.
What this book does is fill the gap of a man's need for sacred space. This space is different for all of us. The author Sam Martin has basically divided the book into five different sections, actually six. The first section is an overview of the concept of what the author is trying to achieve. The next five sections are the author's attempt to identify five different types of space.
The sections are 1) Collecting, 2) Entertaining, 3) Playing, 4) Sporting, and 5) Working. So here's the deal. This book is for men only, or a lady might purchase it as a gift for a man. Women are not going to love this book, it is a man's book, and men should buy this book for themselves.
Here's why you want this book if you are a man. Have you ever dreamed what it would be like if you could take a room in your home, or perhaps a cottage, and turn it into what ever your dream tells you to do. Perhaps as a child you loved fishing with your father. Now you have a chance to create a room with the most beautiful fishing gear. The type of equipment that as a child you could only dream about.
In my own case, as a child I dreamed of becoming an astronomer. At age 12, I was taking courses at a museum in astronomy. By 13, I was taking courses at a college level. This went on for years. Coming from parents with limited means, I never did get that telescope. By the time I was an adult, my career in Wall Street put off that career in Astronomy.
Perhaps it will always remain a dream, but then in this book I saw the personal observatory of a man who shared the same dream. He had built his fantasy into the top of his house in Telluride, Colorado near the San Juan Mountains. A picture truly is worth a 1000 words.
Whether it's a wine collection, an art studio, a magnificent gym, or maybe a collection of trains, we all need our dreams, and this book portrays them. It was all so organized as well. You know how we all collect stuff. We collect too many things. I wish I had the cash for the things I bought, that I NEVER used. I therefore ask my children this question, "What's the difference between desperately needing something that you can't afford, and having it, but not being able to find it?" The answer as you know is that there is no difference. Sometimes you have to get rid of extra objects in order to be able to use the possessions that are left.
There is a beautiful quote from George Bernard Shaw in the book that goes, "WE DON'T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE WE GET OLD. WE GET OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYING." Whether it's a man's kitchen, or a Samurai fighting studio, this book has so many different concepts in it that I am sure you will be able to find not one, but many that appeal to you.
In this hectic world where multiple demands are made on our time and energy, pulling and tugging on us to go in different directions, we can take solace in a book like this where each of us can indulge in our personal sacred spaces.
Richard Stoyeck
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's About Damn Time, November 16, 2006
This review is from: Manspace: A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory (Hardcover)
All I can say is that 'it's about damn time.'
Let's face it, any man soon learns, right after marriage, that the house belongs to the womenfolk. And there's no place for your neon lighted beer sign, keep your feet off the coffee table, and take that awful picture down.
My own thing was reloading ammunition. First you go shooting. Then you get some lead, melt it down, cast it into bullets, polish the brass, put in a new primer, power and crimp the bullet into place.
Like any hobby, after a few years you wind up with all kinds of equipment to do each special task. And there's all kinds of different powder, bullets, cases, gun cleaning equipment and just plain stuff. Wife is welcome to visit, especially if she brings beer. My seven year old daughter is welcome to visit at any time for any length of time, especially to sit on my lap as we reload together. Time spent with your seven year old on your lap is time very well spent indeed.
I don't want to do what most of the people in this book want to do, but that's OK. It's space away from the house. It's a little bit of the world where I can make a mess, I'll sweep it up eventually. You probably need a space like this also.
Now, where can I find one of those table lamps shaped like a woman's leg, wearing a high heel shoe and fishnet stocking like the one shown on the cover?
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