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A review by laci
Primitive Technology: The complete guide to making things in the wild from scratch by JP
1.0
It's been almost a year since I've finished this book, but I've been meaning to write a review this entire time. I'll also use this opportunity to subtract one more star from the rating.
I've picked this book up because I liked John Plant's Youtube channel, Primitive Technology - I assume that's the case with most of the book's buyers. I expected this book to be a good companion to that channel, and to serve as a summary and an offline guide to some of the useful tech.
The cover is really pretty, visually and to the touch. Looks really well done and enticing. And that is the only good thing about this disaster of a book.
The visual quality is just atrocious. You'd get the exact same result if you went over the videos, copy-pasted crappy screenshots into a word document, and pasted a few lines from subtitles as image commentary. My favourite parts are the big photos, blown up to take full 2 pages - in at least one case they show Plant's hands, but the thing you're actually supposed to be looking at is in the gutter and can't be seen at all.
There are a few complex guides that could really use more detailed explanations, notes, or close up images - you get none.
Last but definitely not least, there are absolutely no supplemental materials of any sort. And this is the sort of book where are so many good options! If he elected to include some basic knots, or some advanced knots he recommends to hold up roofing beams for instance, the book's utility would be greatly improved, and it wouldn't even be that hard to add. But no.
Don't buy this; don't gift this to anyone. Maybe go and watch his YT channel instead.
I've picked this book up because I liked John Plant's Youtube channel, Primitive Technology - I assume that's the case with most of the book's buyers. I expected this book to be a good companion to that channel, and to serve as a summary and an offline guide to some of the useful tech.
The cover is really pretty, visually and to the touch. Looks really well done and enticing. And that is the only good thing about this disaster of a book.
The visual quality is just atrocious. You'd get the exact same result if you went over the videos, copy-pasted crappy screenshots into a word document, and pasted a few lines from subtitles as image commentary. My favourite parts are the big photos, blown up to take full 2 pages - in at least one case they show Plant's hands, but the thing you're actually supposed to be looking at is in the gutter and can't be seen at all.
There are a few complex guides that could really use more detailed explanations, notes, or close up images - you get none.
Last but definitely not least, there are absolutely no supplemental materials of any sort. And this is the sort of book where are so many good options! If he elected to include some basic knots, or some advanced knots he recommends to hold up roofing beams for instance, the book's utility would be greatly improved, and it wouldn't even be that hard to add. But no.
Don't buy this; don't gift this to anyone. Maybe go and watch his YT channel instead.