Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities

COOL TOOLS is a sprawling compilation of useful tool reviews that author Kevin Kelly and a thousand contributors wrote over a 10-year period on Kelly's blog of the same name. Every tool in this massive (472 pages, 11" x 14") collection was recommended by an avid tool user who actually used the tool. Every tool in COOL TOOLS is either the best, the cheapest, or the only thing that works. A builder for 40 years, I thought I knew a bit about tools. Not anymore. Kelly and his crew have put together the most exhaustive, inventive and mind-bending selection of stuff I've ever seen. For starters, their definition of tools encompasses more or less every human activity on earth. So in addition to hand jacks that can raise 7000 lbs., the Teeny Turner (a pocket sized driver), portable band saws, and laser measuring tools, you can find the best source on how to buy a car cheaply, make a low-budget movies, brew your own beer, rear an optimistic child, design a logo, win a fight, soak in feral (!) hot springs, learn to swim efficiently, prepare for a natural disaster, vagabond the world, do something dangerous (and live to tell about it), run for local office and win, go solar on your roof, or (a great boon to Boomers) remember anything. This list doesn't scratch the surface of what's in COOL TOOLS and that's one of the things that makes it so irresistible--you return to it again and again. Open it at random and you experience something like being six again, with a child's sense of delight and wonder at how clever people can be and what abundance this world holds. Like the Whole Earth Catalogue from 40 years ago, COOL TOOLS might just delight and empower a new generation of people who love learning--and doing. A most remarkable book.

I had no idea how fun it would be to flip through a catalogue of things of all kinds. I got my book a few years ago so the content is probably outdated for some categories, but the general, core things should still apply. A great ”coffee table” book and conversation starter. Can be read quite casually, a LOT more engaging than some product review website. I hope this kind of product can be released and updated periodically.

This is the most exciting book I've seen in years. It's the Whole Earth Catalog come back to life in technicolor and updated for the 21st century. For 10 years, Kevin Kelly, one of the founders of Wired Magazine, has run the Cool Tools website/blog (kk.org), with daily reviews of useful tools of every nature, and this is a compilation in book form of the best and the brightest. It's a real book that knocks the socks off any kind of electronic media; for graphic books, print on paper has still got a magic that can't be duplicated digitally. It's been sitting on the kitchen table for a week now, and every single person that comes by sits down and gets immersed in it. If you're one of the millions of Whole Earth Catalog fans from years back, you're going to love this book. If you don't know what the WEC was or about its profound impact on American culture in the 60s and 70s, check it out on Wikipedia. There must be thousands of tools here, from lightweight tents to noise cancelling earphones to the best LED flashlights to grain grinders. Computer enhancements, books, work clothes, shop tools and kitchen tools and garden tools, sports bras, ukuleles, skateboards and baby strollers -- don't get me started! And the reviews are -- ahem -- way better (more informed and in my opinion more trustworthy) than Amazon reviews. Full disclosure: I was the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog back in the day, Kevin is a friend, I've written a bunch of reviews in the book, and a number of our books at Shelter Publications are reviewed here, so I'm hardly unbiased. But if none of this were true and if I had just picked this book up out of the blue, I would love it just as much.

This book is a wonderful, worthy successor to The Whole Earth Catalog, which is its spiritual as well as literal fore-bearer. Endlessly fascinating collection of a wide-ranging array of tools and reviews and factoids and ideas; even if I never in my life plan to, say, take up tethered swimming, it's just neat to know that there is such a thing (and what the best tether is, should I ever decide to try it). Endlessly browse-worthy; the kind of book you pick up to look up one thing, and instead end up flipping through as thoughts are chained and you go "Oh, and what about..." Unfortunately, the format of the book does not lend itself well to this casual browsing. Its large format (10.8 x 13.8 inches) is, I think, in part due to its being a successor to the aforementioned Whole Earth Catalog, which was large format too. But TWEC wasn't printed in full color on heavy coated stock; it didn't weigh a ton. Or, at least, 4.4 pounds, which feels like a ton when you're reading it. There's no comfortable way to browse it except sitting at a table with it laying flat in front of you. Sitting up in a chair with the book in your lap, you have to hold it up, and the heavy pages flop down and your arms quickly tire. Sit up in bed with your knees pulled up to support the book, it slides down into your lap so that the bottoms of the pages catch on the bed covers as you turn the pages. It's the kind of book I'd like to be able to read, say, one-handed while brushing my teeth, but that's never going to happen. I'm seriously considering slitting the spine to split the book into three or more manageable chunks. And, as mentioned by others, the number of pixelated, over-enlarged photos is surprising in a book of this caliber. The publisher should either get a new photo, show it smaller, or at least invest in proper image re-sampling software to make them look better.

This book is outstanding. Once I got started reading it, I got sucked in and stayed up way too late last night. If you're reading this review, you should just go ahead and order it. It will absolutely meet your expectations, hopes and dreams. I have long been a fan of the Cool Tools blog, and I also have fond memories of the Whole Earth Catalog. Much like the Whole Earth Catalog, the reviews are so thorough and insightful that not only do they recommend specific products, but they are also so informative that you can learn from them to make your own judgments as to whether a similar product is right for you or not. The book is also filled with sidebars and tips on related subjects that are useful enough they could be their own book! At first when I opened it, I admit I was slightly disappointed to see that many (not all, maybe not even most) of the images in the book are relatively low-res downloads from the web. It's not like you're getting anything less than what's on the web, but it's distracting to see such grainy art in such a big, beautiful book. It's also just a bit too large and floppy to comfortably read in bed, alas. I worry that it may not stand up to wear and abuse very well, but only time will tell. After finishing it, those niggling complaints drop its score not from five stars to four, but from 100% to 98%. Despite that, it's still an outstanding book and I'm very happy to have it in my collection!

First off I have to warn you: Do Not get this book. In fact, just navigate away from this page because Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools has the potential to suck up your spare time, empty your wallet, and put a strain on your marriage like nothing other than perhaps a long, riotous weekend in Vegas. Still here? Well, if I haven't scared you off, let me at least provide you with my unbiased review: Basically, Cool Tools chronicles each step of the author's 10 year journey to discover the absolute best tools for every imaginable task and in every imaginable category. Upon completion of this endeavor, and with everything neatly categorized and beautifully photographed, Mr. Kelly then proceeds to provide his readers with an estimated price and an up-to-date web link so that they'll know exactly where to go and how much they'll need to drop to own the very best gadget or gizmo. This book can literally empty your wallet and suck up your day, but it'll do so by sending you on the most wondrous web-based scavenger hunts. Now if that wasn't enough, Kelly then goes on to list the very best clothes, the best foods, the best office products, the best technology, the best..........Well, you get the idea; this is THE guide to not only keeping up with the Jones' but flat out pummeling them into submission and making them your %$!@*#s. For around $30 some potential buyers may need more persuasion than this review and Amazon's LOOK INSIDE, so for those folks I suggest going over to the Kelly's html version of the book and checking out his reviews in the Category section.

Cool concept, but the implementation is lacking. It looks like it has a lot of cool tools contained in it, but I don't know how "cool" they really are. The items listed about topics I am familiar with didn't seem exceptional or novel, which leads me to believe that the items listed about topics that I am not familiar with really aren't that novel either (except that I'm not familiar with them, so I'm learning something new but may not impress people with my knowledge of something that really isn't very novel). The biggest issue that I noted is that the book doesn't stand the test of time. Some of the technology tools (quantified self, fitness and nutrition trackers) are already outdated (picture of a previous model fitbit that isn't available anymore) or are no longer available (the zeo sleep tracker), and other things have been around for a while and have come into pretty common use (MyFitnessPal nutrition tracker). I didn't really pay attention to the fact that the book was already two years old when I purchased it, so it didn't occur to me that some of the cool tools would be outdated. There's really no way to get around the outdated technology issues in a printed book except to maybe write a blog instead (which the author does), or maybe to leave out the categories of items that are most likely to be constantly evolving. On the other hand, it's a neat coffee table book that crams a lot of stuff into a coffee table book-size package. Right now, it's like browsing through an old issue of SkyMall. But in a few years, it will be like a snapshot of the early 2010s and will be more like browsing through an old junk store to see what kind of surprises you might find. As a piece of history, it's pretty cool and will only become more cool as time passes. As a useful publication, I question the value. I bought it for my boyfriend, who is a tool geek, and I hope he will appreciate it in the same way that I do - as a window into our modern world that will be fun to look back on.

If you ever enjoyed reading the Whole Earth Catalog, read no further. Just buy this. You know why. If you are a reader of the Cool Tools blog, again, I'd say to just buy this. Yes, you've already read (or could read) much of the content on the site, but the book format (and the fact this is a hand-picked subset of the reviews from the blog) adds context and flow. You'll like curling up and paging through the oversize pages. Reviews within a category that were separated by months or years are side by side here in the book. QR codes take you directly to product pages. It is a nicely realized, physical thing. Never heard of Cool Tools blog or the WEC? Check out the Cool Tools blog to get an idea of the tone (tell us about a cool tool, one that you'd recommend to a good friend) and subjects. This is a compilation of "cool tools"--tools that represent things you either never knew existed, or an extraordinary value. (The book itself qualifies as among the coolest of tools.) The categories are wide ranging, from cooking, crafts, learning, music, family, electronics and more. There's certain to be some area of immediate interest, but half the fun is the insight into the tools of the trade of some activity you may never have considered like beekeeping or world travel on a shoestring budget. There are some images with jarringly-low resolution, a few typos here and there, but overall a very nicely done book. (Disclosure--I received an early copy because a review I contributed years ago to the site was included in the book, but I'll be ordering more copies.)

Das Buch stand schon länger auf meiner Wunschliste da ich sehr Technik Interessiert bin und gerne selber mache. Im Buch findet man für eigentlich jede Lebenslage passende Werkzeuge oder auch nur Tips zum Thema. Die Inhalte wurden auf einer Internetseite zusammengetragen von Nutzern die sich länger mit der jeweiligen Materie beschäftigt haben und nach längerer Recherche das richtige/gute/hochwertige/günstige Werkzeug gefunden haben. Beim Stöbern im Buch findet man immer wieder interessante Werkzeuge von denen man noch nie gehört hat oder die einem unbewusst schon immer gefehlt haben. Leider sind viele Werkzeuge sehr amerikanisch geprägt. Sie sind in Europa oft nicht erhältlich oder nicht üblich. Bei vielen High Tech Themen ist das Buch auch oft schon überholt und nicht mehr aktuell, bei den Beiträgen steht zwar ob sie von Kevin Kelly selbst oder jemand anderem verfasst wurden, aber leider nicht wann. Die Informationen findet man auch auf der Internet Seite [...], oft aktueller und mit Datum und Suchfunktion. Hier kann man auch mitwirken. Zum Buch selbst ist zu sagen, dass es doch wirklich sehr groß und unhandlich ist. Der Paperback Einband ist empfindlich gegen Stöße an den Ecken, die Seiten sind dünn. Trotzdem ist das Buch sehr schwer und unhandlich zu lesen. Zum Nachschlagen oder kurzen stöbern ist das kein Problem, aber von vorne bis hinten lesen kann man das Buch eigentlich nicht. Die US Amerikaner nennen das ganze dann Coffee Table Book. 2 von 3 Büchern die ich bestellt haben (super zum Verschenken...) wurden von Amazon beim Versand beschädigt. Amazon hat leider die perfekte Verpackung für das Buch noch nicht gefunden. Ich habe die Bücher also mit verknickten Ecken verschenkt. Je nach Verfügbarkeit aus den USA ist das Buch grade vor Weihnachten oft vergriffen. Fazit: Super Buch mit tollem Inhalt und wenigen Schwächen. Das perfekte Buch für jeden Bastler und Neugierigen.

This large, tabloid-sized book definitely reminds one of the old "Whole Earth Catalogs" of yesteryear. Tons of reviews on books and products you might never have come across except for finding a review in this marvelous publication. I spent many happy hours paging through this catalog and wound up buying several items from it. Highly recommended.

What a feast of tool delight! I had never heard of cooltools until someone mentioned this book in an Amazon review! So it's a website that features, reviews, reports and showcases tools, gadgets, new tech, how to's etc, etc. This book is a compilation of tools and LOTS of other stuff cooltools has shown on their website over recent years. The diversity of stuff is mind boggling, everything from hammers to bookbinding! As a complete tool geek fanatic I thought I knew of every tool worth knowing about but this book shows me otherwise, thankfully! I literally could not put it down! I went through it once, then had another pass with a note book to jot down all the stuff I just had to check out on line! Now I just keep going through my favourite sections to gorge some more! I was gratified to discover tools I already owned and highly regarded to be featured in it's pages, and motivated to mention some that weren't on the Cooltool website. Even the actual book itself was, researched, compiled, produced and printed with techniques and technology featured within it. Trust me, if you are a tool, tech, maker, trade, etc fanatic, you MUST have this book! If someone you know is, it's a great gift for them. Most highly recommended!

Certaines photos sont pourries et des erreurs dignes d'un stagiaire de 14 ans: Festool Domino avec une photo de scie ! Serieusement, ca se vend ce livre ? C'est ni plus ni moins qu'un vulgaire catalogue... Retour a Amazon illico. PS: il y a 4 pages imprimées en DOUBLE... effarant.

内容はとにかくとして、日本で開くには、大きすぎる。 テーブルに置くと、コーヒーも置けない。