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Kevin Kelly
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Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities Paperback – December 17, 2013

by Kevin Kelly (Editor)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 494 ratings
See all formats and editions
Cool Tools is a highly curated selection of the best tools available for individuals and small groups. Tools include hand tools, maps, how-to books, vehicles, software, specialized devices, gizmos, websites -- and anything useful. Tools are selected and presented in the book if they are the best of kind, the cheapest, or the only thing available that will do the job. This is an oversized book which reviews over 1,500 different tools, explaining why each one is great, and what its benefits are. Indirectly the book illuminates the possibilities contained in such tools and the whole catalog serves an education outside the classroom. The content in this book was derived from ten years of user reviews published at the Cool Tools website, cool-tools.org.
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  1. Print length
    472 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Cool Tools Lab
  4. Publication date
    December 17, 2013
  5. Dimensions
    11 x 0.6 x 14 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1940689007
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1940689005
  8. See all details
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The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cool Tools is a refreshing antidote to the hype that surrounds the latest hot gadgets. Unimpressed by newness for newness' sake, Kelly is attracted to objects that have withstood the test of time -- and is passing those ideas on to others. It's a habit he learned while editing and publishing the Whole Earth Catalog, the bible of counterculture do-it-yourselfers who wanted in 'tools and ideas for the 21st century.'" (Leander Kahney, Wired News)

"Stewart Brand said that Cool Tools had captured the spirit of the Whole Earth Catalog but without taking on a counterculture and back-to-the-land philosophy. 'It proves that you can restart the essence of something,' he said." (John Markoff, New York Times)

"Cool Tools is what the Whole Earth Catalog always wanted to be." (Peter Schwartz, futurist, Salesforce)

"Jeff Bezos is a fan of e-mail newsletters such as Cool Tools, a compendium of technology tips and product reviews written by Kevin Kelly, a co-founder of Wired." (Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon)

Cool Tools has been featured in "Best of the Web" lists, such as the following:* Forbes Best of the Web Directory* Alltop - Gadgets* New York Times Blogs 101 - Technology Toys & Cool Things

About the Author

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor from its inception until 1999. He is editor and publisher of the Cool Tools website, which gets half a million unique visitors per month. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers' Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. His last book, What Technology Wants (Viking/Penguin October 18, 2010), asserted that technology as a whole is not just a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. He also authored the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy and the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control.
Kevin Kelly's website is kk.org.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cool Tools Lab; First Edition (December 17, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 472 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1940689007
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1940689005
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.29 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11 x 0.6 x 14 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 494 ratings

About the author

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Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly

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Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. He is also founding editor and co-publisher of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily since 2003. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. His books include the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy, the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control, a graphic novel about robots and angels, The Silver Cord, an oversize catalog of the best of Cool Tools, and his summary theory of technology in What Technology Wants (2010). His new book for Viking/Penguin is The Inevitable, which is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Photo credit: Jamie Tanaka

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
494 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book's information useful and insightful. They describe it as a fun, entertaining read with interesting tools and devices. Many readers consider it a worthy successor to The Whole Earth Catalog and a great resource for modern life. The catalog is described as a valuable resource that provides practical ways to save money and safely perform tasks. It's considered a good value and a great gift idea. However, opinions differ on the picture quality - some find it gorgeous and beautifully done, while others say the photos are so poor.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more
Information qualityFun to readCatalog contentTool contentValue for moneyGift valuePicture qualityInformation content
169 customers mention "Information quality"169 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides useful information about tools and gadgets. They find the reviews insightful and helpful, providing valuable insights and ideas for finding and buying information on various topics. The book opens up new possibilities for DIY projects.

"...adds context and flow. You'll like curling up and paging through the oversize pages...." Read more

"COOL TOOLS is a sprawling compilation of useful tool reviews that author Kevin Kelly and a thousand contributors wrote over a 10-year period on Kelly..." Read more

"Lots of entries I found useful. Not just for tools!" Read more

"...It's a wish book and a daydream book and a down-and-dirty reality book. Nothing since the WEC has been as continually fascinating and educational...." Read more

50 customers mention "Fun to read"50 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book. They find it entertaining and witty, making even mundane chores fun. The writing is exciting and makes them laugh on numerous occasions.

"This is the most exciting book I've seen in years. It's the Whole Earth Catalog come back to life in technicolor and updated for the 21st century...." Read more

"...Fun to just wander through and gawk at stuff you never thought about before." Read more

"...the landscape of tools that can make the most mundane, around-the-house chore amazingly fun. The three biggest pros: 1...." Read more

"...from the Cool Tools website, but you'll have way more fun flipping through this paper version...." Read more

37 customers mention "Catalog content"34 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the catalog content. They find it a worthwhile successor to the Whole Earth Catalog and a wonderful resource for DIYers. Readers describe it as a great coffee table book and an important continuation of the Whole Earth genre.

"This book is a wonderful, worthy successor to The Whole Earth Catalog, which is its spiritual as well as literal fore-bearer...." Read more

"...: I want to emphasize that this book is still a worthy continuation of the Whole Earth genre and that it is an important addition to my bookshelf...." Read more

"One of the best coffee table / bathrooms books ever. I'm not a MAKER or a carpenter or anything like that...." Read more

"Yes, it's the Whole Earth Catalog, reborn for the 21st Century...." Read more

32 customers mention "Tool content"30 positive2 negative

Customers find the book's tool content interesting and useful. They say it contains a wide variety of tools, devices, and accessories for everyone. The book provides them with useful information and ideas about tools and services that can be used anywhere.

"...It looks like it has a lot of cool tools contained in it, but I don't know how "cool" they really are...." Read more

"...Computer enhancements, books, work clothes, shop tools and kitchen tools and garden tools, sports bras, ukuleles, skateboards and baby strollers --..." Read more

"This book has tons of ideas f9r tools and services that you can use anywhere, both at home and on the go. Highly recommended." Read more

"...It's a fascinating journey through the landscape of tools that can make the most mundane, around-the-house chore amazingly fun...." Read more

27 customers mention "Value for money"20 positive7 negative

Customers find the book offers practical ways to save money and safely do tasks. They say it's worth the money, providing a ready source of useful information for building community and the economy. The book covers topics like materials, workshops, livelihood, and family and household.

"...Every tool in COOL TOOLS is either the best, the cheapest, or the only thing that works...." Read more

"...Some topics covered are:Consumptivity, Materials, Workshop, Livelihood, Somatics, Family and Household - there are many more!..." Read more

"...and encouraged me to get myself some nice pens that work every day for not much money...." Read more

"...The only down-side - it can be expensive if one keeps it near one's computer (and thus ends up ordering lots of useful stuff)...." Read more

21 customers mention "Gift value"21 positive0 negative

Customers find the book a good gift and conversation piece. They say it's educational and fun, and great for finding gift ideas.

"...This is the perfect gift for the person who is hard to buy for and will give them a plethora of ideas next time you ask, 'So, what do you want for..." Read more

"...The perfect gift for the man who is a bathroom reader - a great way to get smart and more productive while doing a necessary task." Read more

"Thank you Kevin Kelly for this great gift!..." Read more

"...Makes for great gift as well. I would imagine men may like it a bit more but I enjoyed it just as much as the BF...." Read more

40 customers mention "Picture quality"25 positive15 negative

Customers find the book visually appealing with beautiful illustrations and colorful images. However, some readers report issues with low-quality photos, pixelated graphics, and overexpansion of the pictures.

"...QR codes take you directly to product pages. It is a nicely realized, physical thing. Never heard of Cool Tools blog or the WEC?..." Read more

"...And, as mentioned by others, the number of pixelated, over-enlarged photos is surprising in a book of this caliber...." Read more

"...Now if that wasn't enough, Kelly then goes on to list the very best clothes, the best foods, the best office products, the best technology, the best..." Read more

"A Fascinating catalog to look through - well written with great pictures, illustrations and QR codes for each item...." Read more

13 customers mention "Information content"9 positive4 negative

Customers have different views on the book's information. Some find it has clear explanations and pictures, with a clear table of contents. They appreciate the product descriptions and presentations. However, others feel there is too much information on each page and it's hard to read all the details.

"A Fascinating catalog to look through - well written with great pictures, illustrations and QR codes for each item...." Read more

"...have all of this in a physical book that you can lug around, write in the margines, etc. 3...." Read more

"...Not a lap book. 14 x 11 and the print is small= lots of information. It's big and heavy. Every page is thick & glossy...." Read more

"...NPR interviewed the author. His description sounded so intriguing that when I got to my destination in Tucson, I ordered a copy from Amazon as a..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • dgrover
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tools you need to know about
    Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    If you ever enjoyed reading the Whole Earth Catalog, read no further. Just buy this. You know why.
    If you are a reader of the Cool Tools blog, again, I'd say to just buy this. Yes, you've already read (or could read) much of the content on the site, but the book format (and the fact this is a hand-picked subset of the reviews from the blog) adds context and flow. You'll like curling up and paging through the oversize pages. Reviews within a category that were separated by months or years are side by side here in the book. QR codes take you directly to product pages. It is a nicely realized, physical thing.
    Never heard of Cool Tools blog or the WEC? Check out the Cool Tools blog to get an idea of the tone (tell us about a cool tool, one that you'd recommend to a good friend) and subjects. This is a compilation of "cool tools"--tools that represent things you either never knew existed, or an extraordinary value. (The book itself qualifies as among the coolest of tools.)
    The categories are wide ranging, from cooking, crafts, learning, music, family, electronics and more. There's certain to be some area of immediate interest, but half the fun is the insight into the tools of the trade of some activity you may never have considered like beekeeping or world travel on a shoestring budget.
    There are some images with jarringly-low resolution, a few typos here and there, but overall a very nicely done book.
    (Disclosure--I received an early copy because a review I contributed years ago to the site was included in the book, but I'll be ordering more copies.)
    20 people found this helpful
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  • Homely truths
    5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinarily useful, endlessly fascinating
    Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    COOL TOOLS is a sprawling compilation of useful tool reviews that author Kevin Kelly and a thousand contributors wrote over a 10-year period on Kelly's blog of the same name. Every tool in this massive (472 pages, 11" x 14") collection was recommended by an avid tool user who actually used the tool. Every tool in COOL TOOLS is either the best, the cheapest, or the only thing that works.

    A builder for 40 years, I thought I knew a bit about tools. Not anymore. Kelly and his crew have put together the most exhaustive, inventive and mind-bending selection of stuff I've ever seen. For starters, their definition of tools encompasses more or less every human activity on earth. So in addition to hand jacks that can raise 7000 lbs., the Teeny Turner (a pocket sized driver), portable band saws, and laser measuring tools, you can find the best source on how to buy a car cheaply, make a low-budget movies, brew your own beer, rear an optimistic child, design a logo, win a fight, soak in feral (!) hot springs, learn to swim efficiently, prepare for a natural disaster, vagabond the world, do something dangerous (and live to tell about it), run for local office and win, go solar on your roof, or (a great boon to Boomers) remember anything.

    This list doesn't scratch the surface of what's in COOL TOOLS and that's one of the things that makes it so irresistible--you return to it again and again. Open it at random and you experience something like being six again, with a child's sense of delight and wonder at how clever people can be and what abundance this world holds. Like the Whole Earth Catalogue from 40 years ago, COOL TOOLS might just delight and empower a new generation of people who love learning--and doing. A most remarkable book.
    70 people found this helpful
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  • Ron VanValkenburg
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and interesting resource
    Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Lots of entries I found useful. Not just for tools!
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  • J R Compton
    4.0 out of 5 stars Cool Tools is cool
    Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I still have a dozen or so Whole Earth Catalogs (WEC) from the last century. I visit author Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools site almost every day to see and read about the latest cool tools, and I could just afford this book, so I ordered it before it was published, and it has been open on my coffee table in my living room, ever since it arrived.

    I page through it often and spend a lot of time reading about specific topics of interest to me - and I always learn new things - and even give attention to areas I'll probably never use.

    It's a wish book and a daydream book and a down-and-dirty reality book. Nothing since the WEC has been as continually fascinating and educational. It reminds me of a New Age Sears Catalog of everything available - especially tools, which have always fascinated me.

    I like that the book is easier to navigate than the site, which is still great for browsing, and though many of the tools reviewed are too esoteric for my direct use, it is still vastly interesting.

    The type is a tad small. I keep wanting to command + it up to decent reading size for my elderly eyes, but I keep a bright lamp nearby for reading.

    It's over-sized and heavy, and it's not comfortable reading closer to my eyes like most books. So I hunker down over it - maybe I should buy a podium desk, since they're listed along with everything else in the book. Or I might have given in five stars.
    19 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • whalebone
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brought Back Many Memories
    Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This large, tabloid-sized book definitely reminds one of the old "Whole Earth Catalogs" of yesteryear. Tons of reviews on books and products you might never have come across except for finding a review in this marvelous publication. I spent many happy hours paging through this catalog and wound up buying several items from it. Highly recommended.
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  • ZombieWorkshop
    5.0 out of 5 stars Es un catalogo escrito por reseñas de personas
    Reviewed in Mexico on October 11, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Es un libro que te da muy buenas ideas y reseñas reales de muchas herramientas que uno no sabia que necesitaba
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  • Luiz
    5.0 out of 5 stars surpreendente e útil
    Reviewed in Brazil on April 9, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Toda vez que abro Cool Tools em uma página aleatória aprendo algo novo: sugestão de livros, produtos, documentários e dicas.
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  • AS
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tolles Buch dass seines gleichen sucht
    Reviewed in Germany on February 4, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Das Buch stand schon länger auf meiner Wunschliste da ich sehr Technik Interessiert bin und gerne selber mache.

    Im Buch findet man für eigentlich jede Lebenslage passende Werkzeuge oder auch nur Tips zum Thema. Die Inhalte wurden auf einer Internetseite zusammengetragen von Nutzern die sich länger mit der jeweiligen Materie beschäftigt haben und nach längerer Recherche das richtige/gute/hochwertige/günstige Werkzeug gefunden haben.
    Beim Stöbern im Buch findet man immer wieder interessante Werkzeuge von denen man noch nie gehört hat oder die einem unbewusst schon immer gefehlt haben.

    Leider sind viele Werkzeuge sehr amerikanisch geprägt. Sie sind in Europa oft nicht erhältlich oder nicht üblich. Bei vielen High Tech Themen ist das Buch auch oft schon überholt und nicht mehr aktuell, bei den Beiträgen steht zwar ob sie von Kevin Kelly selbst oder jemand anderem verfasst wurden, aber leider nicht wann. Die Informationen findet man auch auf der Internet Seite [...], oft aktueller und mit Datum und Suchfunktion. Hier kann man auch mitwirken.

    Zum Buch selbst ist zu sagen, dass es doch wirklich sehr groß und unhandlich ist. Der Paperback Einband ist empfindlich gegen Stöße an den Ecken, die Seiten sind dünn. Trotzdem ist das Buch sehr schwer und unhandlich zu lesen. Zum Nachschlagen oder kurzen stöbern ist das kein Problem, aber von vorne bis hinten lesen kann man das Buch eigentlich nicht.
    Die US Amerikaner nennen das ganze dann Coffee Table Book.

    2 von 3 Büchern die ich bestellt haben (super zum Verschenken...) wurden von Amazon beim Versand beschädigt. Amazon hat leider die perfekte Verpackung für das Buch noch nicht gefunden. Ich habe die Bücher also mit verknickten Ecken verschenkt. Je nach Verfügbarkeit aus den USA ist das Buch grade vor Weihnachten oft vergriffen.

    Fazit:
    Super Buch mit tollem Inhalt und wenigen Schwächen. Das perfekte Buch für jeden Bastler und Neugierigen.
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  • Bruce
    1.0 out of 5 stars Très très moyen
    Reviewed in France on November 14, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Certaines photos sont pourries et des erreurs dignes d'un stagiaire de 14 ans: Festool Domino avec une photo de scie ! Serieusement, ca se vend ce livre ? C'est ni plus ni moins qu'un vulgaire catalogue... Retour a Amazon illico.

    PS: il y a 4 pages imprimées en DOUBLE... effarant.
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    Bruce
    1.0 out of 5 stars Très très moyen
    Reviewed in France on November 14, 2015
    Certaines photos sont pourries et des erreurs dignes d'un stagiaire de 14 ans: Festool Domino avec une photo de scie ! Serieusement, ca se vend ce livre ? C'est ni plus ni moins qu'un vulgaire catalogue... Retour a Amazon illico.

    PS: il y a 4 pages imprimées en DOUBLE... effarant.
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