An absorbing narrative, "A Place of My Own" recounts Pollan's construction project and in doing so reveals the far larger and universal themes contained within. Pollan explores the nature and causes of a desire for a personal space, and the power that place has to shape our lives. Examining the process of process, he sees it fully for all of its components: planning, learning, dreaming, designing, doing, and redoing, to make his ideas real. Pollan also illuminates the rewards of immersing himself in the rich traditions of building and design, taking readers along on a tour of the centuries of wisdom and philosophy that inform the building in which we live.

A book about craft that is itself beautifully crafted, "A Place of My Own" links the world of material things to the world of the mind, the heart, and the spirit.