The toilet you used this morning got its start in the 12th century in Baghdad. Kitty litter began as place for hens to lay their eggs. The guy who invented the modern safety pin sold the idea for a lousy $400. Six-sided dice are ancient things, at least 5,000 years old; dominoes, as Warner points out, are basically flat dice. A German woman invented coffee filters, but she had a string of bad luck for the rest of her life: because of war and more war, she lost her factory twice. The man who invented traffic lights was the son of former slaves. When they were new, ballpoint pens were considered to be a luxury and sold for more than $12 each. Some 14 million trees become paper bags each year in the U.S. And paper clips? They were once a “show… of defiance” against the Nazis.
The election is over. The semester’s almost finished. Even the year is running out of time. At the end of these (and your day), you want something light to relax with and “Brief Histories of Everyday Objects” is perfect.
Who doesn’t like to read comics? Yep, that’s how author-artist Andy Warner presents what you’ll learn here: quick chapters of illustrated info, offered in small bites of truth and funny bits of created dialogue. We get a good understanding of each main subject, and a few follow-up factlets to sweeten the enjoyment of a book like this.
(“Brief Histories of Everyday Objects” by Andy Warner, c.2016, Picador, $20/$28 Canada, 209 pages)
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