Origins of Everyday Things

Examines the secrets behind the origins of ordinary things, including false teeth, safety pins, hula hoops, holidays, toys, and vaccinations

On any given day, you are enmeshed in a web of secret histories. Even if you're not an investigator of the paranormal for the FBI, you can still find conspiracies behind your paper-clip stash and an outer-space connection with your stainless-steel cookware, in The Origins of Everyday Things. From the Academy Awards to zoological gardens, you'll find more than you expected underlying the seemingly mundane bits and pieces of our ordinary lives. Organized in sections such as "House and Home," Fashion and Beauty," and "Moving About," the book uses well-researched, encyclopedia-style text entries augmented by gorgeous photographs and line drawings to illustrate the beginnings of everything we never think about.

Refrigerators, bicycles, and New Year's Day all get their due, and the pleasure of learning about these and hundreds of other good things is enhanced by browsing back and forth between the interconnected essays--this is one of the few useful reference books that bear straight-through reading. The beautifully reproduced vintage pictures, such as the old snakes-and-ladders board game, are worth the price of the book. The next time your VCR frustrates you, open up The Origins of Everyday Things and revel in the knowledge of its secret past, even if you can't set its clock. --Rob Lightner