Hello; my name is Thomas Thwaites; and I have made a toaster. So begins The Toaster Project; the authors nine-month-long journey from his local appliance store to remote mines in the UK to his mothers backyard; where he creates a crude foundry. Along the way; he learns that an ordinary toaster is made up of 404 separate parts; that the best way to smelt metal at home is by using a method found in a fifteenth-century treatise; and that plastic is almost impossible to make from scratch. In the end; Thwaitess homemade toastermdash;a haunting and strangely beautiful objectmdash;cost 250 times more than the toaster he bought at the store and involved close to two thousand miles of travel to some of Britains remotest locations. The Toaster Project may seem foolish; even insane. Yet; Thwaitess quixotic tale; told with self-deprecating wit; helps us reflect on the costs and perils of our cheap consumer culture; and in so doing reveals much about the organization of the modern world.
#2600831 in eBooks 2013-06-17 2013-06-17File Name: B007M948Z0
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Great Information but long winded.By DarkenGSIm reading this book as part of coursework for a Green MBA. It takes some effort to get into the meat of the book and the author makes a good effort at being somewhat verbose. The writing style is certainly not efficient however. the content is pertinent and very valuable. As the reader applies more effort and thought. the book rewards with deeper value. Its certainly not one of the new/trendy green books but the message and content will probably outlast most of those anyway.
