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Tonight we gathered at Nicoline’s place for our latest BookBusters serious volume discussion. And we had a new member. Amelie, from Lagnö Bo joined us, thinking it was going to be an evening of intellectual discourse and serious consideration of a book about maintenance. The night was full of silliness, laughter and a lot of fun. We shall see if she returns next time.
The book was Maintenance: of Everything Part One by Stuart Brand.
Most of us agreed it was an easy read and, surprisingly given the subject matter, I think everyone finished it. Mind you, KSP wasn’t too keen given a lot of the book discussed guns, cars, motorbikes and other ‘male’ subjects. This led us to try and understand why Brand hadn’t included some females in the book.
My biggest complaint about the book was how Brand went all fanboy for Elon Musk near the end of the book. He seemed to turn 180° from his original intent when he started raving about Tesla cars and how maintenance was taken out of the hands of the individual and given holus bolus to the money making machine that is driven by the capitalist ideal.
He also claimed that a battery switching infrastructure had never been successfully implemented for electric cars which is just completely wrong. Battery switching for the original electric cars worked well and, had electric cars continued being introduced, would have grown into a part of every day life just like petrol is today.
Had he started with his assertion about battery switching stations, I would have found it hard to keep reading the book given I would consider it founded on a lie. He was a bit canny, saving it up for the end.
In the end, the book seemed to appeal more to the men in the room (Jonas and me). KSP, especially, thought there could have been some stuff about knitting and looming. Nicoline wasn’t so sure, thinking that a section on knitting would have been quite boring.
To be fair, I’m not sure what kind of maintenance is required for knitting needles. Though balls of wool need to be kept in good order otherwise a knitter would be forever unknotting the strands.
Anyway, there was a lot of lively discussion, including a bit of chat about shit sheet metal workers instigated by Jonas and verified by me, given I’ve been one. In a past life. And another country.
I made thumbprint cookies for everyone which went down well and Nicoline supplied copious cups of hot and cold beverages.
It was an excellent night with great bouts of hilarity as well as intellectual stimuli. I really hope Amelie returns for next time.
Our next book is the massive Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp. A big subject which clearly called for a big door stop of a book. I hope, for KSP’s sake, that it includes some women.
