I am a member of a book club, a fairly geeky literary fiction book club, and one of the things I love about it is that it makes me read more regularly – it also makes me read books I almost certainly wouldn’t have read otherwise – I learn something every time. We meet monthly, and in between my book club books, I try to read a design book. The problem is that without the discipline of a book club, I’m not as good at sticking to that ambition. But I’ve read so many amazing design books and learnt so much when I have managed to squeeze in the design books that I have decided to form a design book club. It’s been a plan I’ve been hatching for a while, so I’m delighted to announce that it’s finally here!
Given that it’s Cornish Design Season on confessions of a design geek this month, the first book we’re going to read is Tim Smit’s Eden – a really inspiring book about one man’s vision for a disused China clay pit in Cornwall.
Having discovered and rescued the Lost Gardens of Heligan, against all the odds Tim and his team built the largest conservatories the world has ever seen – two bio-domes housing a the world’s largest indoor rainforest and a complete Mediterranean environment. It’s a feat of engineering, a feat of imagination and a feat of determination – as Philip McMillan Browse says in the book: “You can only achieve the impossible by asking the young, because they don’t know it can’t be done.” As well as enlisting and inspiring a brilliant team of young people, Tim relies on two theories: Tinkerbell Theory and Last Man Standing. “In Peter Pan, Tinkerbell is a fairy who exists only if people believe in her,” he explains. “I know that if enough people can be made to believe in something, it will happen. Last Man Standing, on the other hand, is a polite way of saying that you intend to turn being an awkward bugger into an art form. In other words, you won’t take no for an answer.” If you have ever tried to achieve the impossible (and let’s be honest, it certainly feels that way for most designers, makers and entrepreneurs at some point), this book will convince you not only that you can, but that you should. A great book to kick off the New Year with.
You have until January 07 2016 to read this one. I really want this book club to be accessible to people further afield than just London, so for now at least, it’s going to be an online venture – please share your thoughts on the book via the comments section below or on twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #designbookclub. There will also be a tweet-chat for a live discussion – use the same hashtag at 9pm on Thursday 07 January to join us. Afterwards, I’ll gather together all the comments and add them into this post.
And the next two books we’ll be reading (in case you want to put them on your Christmas list!) will be The Craftsman by Richard Sennet (Jan – Feb) and Design Like You Give a Damn by Cameron Sinclair (Feb – Mar).
Happy reading!
