Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities

This book is a wonderful, worthy successor to The Whole Earth Catalog, which is its spiritual as well as literal fore-bearer. Endlessly fascinating collection of a wide-ranging array of tools and reviews and factoids and ideas; even if I never in my life plan to, say, take up tethered swimming, it's just neat to know that there is such a thing (and what the best tether is, should I ever decide to try it). Endlessly browse-worthy; the kind of book you pick up to look up one thing, and instead end up flipping through as thoughts are chained and you go "Oh, and what about..."Unfortunately, the format of the book does not lend itself well to this casual browsing. Its large format (10.8 x 13.8 inches) is, I think, in part due to its being a successor to the aforementioned Whole Earth Catalog, which was large format too. But TWEC wasn't printed in full color on heavy coated stock; it didn't weigh a ton. Or, at least, 4.4 pounds, which feels like a ton when you're reading it. There's no comfortable way to browse it except sitting at a table with it laying flat in front of you. Sitting up in a chair with the book in your lap, you have to hold it up, and the heavy pages flop down and your arms quickly tire. Sit up in bed with your knees pulled up to support the book, it slides down into your lap so that the bottoms of the pages catch on the bed covers as you turn the pages.It's the kind of book I'd like to be able to read, say, one-handed while brushing my teeth, but that's never going to happen. I'm seriously considering slitting the spine to split the book into three or more manageable chunks.And, as mentioned by others, the number of pixelated, over-enlarged photos is surprising in a book of this caliber. The publisher should either get a new photo, show it smaller, or at least invest in proper image re-sampling software to make them look better.

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. For 10 years, Kevin Kelly, one of the founders of Wired Magazine, has run the Cool Tools website/blog (kk.org), with daily reviews of useful tools of every nature, and this is a compilation in book form of the best and the brightest. It's a real book that knocks the socks off any kind of electronic media; for graphic books, print on paper has still got a magic that can't be duplicated digitally. It's been sitting on the kitchen table for a week now, and every single person that comes by sits down and gets immersed in it. If you're one of the millions of Whole Earth Catalog fans from years back, you're going to love this book. If you don't know what the WEC was or about its profound impact on American culture in the 60s and 70s, check it out on Wikipedia. There must be thousands of tools here, from lightweight tents to noise cancelling earphones to the best LED flashlights to grain grinders. Computer enhancements, books, work clothes, shop tools and kitchen tools and garden tools, sports bras, ukuleles, skateboards and baby strollers -- don't get me started! And the reviews are -- ahem -- way better (more informed and in my opinion more trustworthy) than Amazon reviews. Full disclosure: I was the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog back in the day, Kevin is a friend, I've written a bunch of reviews in the book, and a number of our books at Shelter Publications are reviewed here, so I'm hardly unbiased. But if none of this were true and if I had just picked this book up out of the blue, I would love it just as much.

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.

To best describe what this book is we need to understand the book that inspired it, the Whole Earth Catalog.In 1968 Stewart Brand traveled around American hippie communes selling from his truck store. He put together a catalog of his recommendations of the best tools to show to customers "Here's a tool that will make drilling a well, or grinding flour easier", people liked the catalog so much it became his most popular product. The catalog had a massive effect on hippie culture as people used it to discover how to do things like raise bees or build their own homes.When the internet came along the Whole Earth Catalog faded from view as you could get the same information off the net.But Kevin Kelly (editor of book) kept the idea alive with a website and we now the modern successor in the form of Cool Tools.The book itself is 472 pages and a massive 11 x 14 inches in size. It covers a huge range of subjects with over 1,500 recommendations in subjects such as tracking animals, chainsaws, rice cookers, making a low budget movie, world travel on a shoestring budget, build an underground home, ergonomic keyboards, websites with free eBooks, improve your memory, grow edible mushrooms, raise chickens, publish a eBook, wilderness survival, start a business, draw comics, make your own chair, best bike light, make books, solar panels and wind turbines, bread making, home brewing and far too many other things for me to list them all.If I was to criticised this book I would say I don't agree with some of the choices, some recommendations will be outdated in a few years and to state the obvious it is just a catalog e.g your not actually going to learn how to build a underground home from the catalog, it just tells you some of the basics and recommends a tool or book with more details.It is easy to see why the hippies loved the Whole Earth Catalog so much, it is incredibly inspiring to think you can do all this stuff and this modern version is just as great, so go get it now!

What a feast of tool delight! I had never heard of cooltools until someone mentioned this book in an Amazon review! So it's a website that features, reviews, reports and showcases tools, gadgets, new tech, how to's etc, etc. This book is a compilation of tools and LOTS of other stuff cooltools has shown on their website over recent years. The diversity of stuff is mind boggling, everything from hammers to bookbinding! As a complete tool geek fanatic I thought I knew of every tool worth knowing about but this book shows me otherwise, thankfully! I literally could not put it down! I went through it once, then had another pass with a note book to jot down all the stuff I just had to check out on line! Now I just keep going through my favourite sections to gorge some more! I was gratified to discover tools I already owned and highly regarded to be featured in it's pages, and motivated to mention some that weren't on the Cooltool website.Even the actual book itself was, researched, compiled, produced and printed with techniques and technology featured within it.Trust me, if you are a tool, tech, maker, trade, etc fanatic, you MUST have this book! If someone you know is, it's a great gift for them.Most highly recommended!

This is a great book which will give you and any like-minded visitors hours of happy browsing. Basically it's a compendium of the best of practically anything - website, tool, book, and so on. Curated from thousands of submissions, and published in a single large paper tome, it feels a bit overkill in some ways - after all, what's the Web for if not this? But actually you come across just dozens and dozens of things that you would never have found, and I felt instantly compelled to look them up and bought not a few!One note is that this book is physically large. It's a coffee table book, and not going to fit on your bookshelf. All the better for that, but fair warning!

My husband has bought 6 copies of this fantastic book for Christmas Presents because he rates the book very highly, in so much it has become a go to resource for information about items that he is interested in. The format provides an insight into a wide range of products, some of which have been bought on the opinion of the editor. Although the book is biased toward the USA, Amazon can provide some of the products. This book is recommend because it gives you a glimpse into subjects you had never considered before. Purchase and lose yourself in a tremendous tome.

Utterly engrossing.What I really valued: having someone so sentinent as editor to curate the mountains of information on the web, which brings just what is needed so that I can easily access what I need.Although it appears counter-cultural, it was delightful being able to read a paper book rather than attempt to browse a website.I've now bought 3 further copies for friends.