
Fewer, Better Things
The Hidden Wisdom of Objects
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $15.26
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Glenn Adamson
-
By:
-
Glenn Adamson
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents Fewer, Better Things written and read by Glenn Adamson
Things matter. So why are we losing touch with them?
From the former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York comes a timely and passionate case for the role of the well-designed object in the digital age. In this delightful exploration of craft in its many forms, curator and scholar Glenn Adamson explores how raw materials, tools, design and technique come together to produce objects of beauty and utility.
A thoughtful meditation on the value of care and attention in an age of disappearing things, Fewer, Better Things invites us to reconnect with the physical world and its objects.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Craft
- An American History
- By: Glenn Adamson
- Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation’s origins to the present day. At the center of the United States’ economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology - while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers’ central role in shaping America’s identity.
-
-
It's. a religious guy passing god.
- By Rickey Lee Kimball on 03-13-24
By: Glenn Adamson
-
The Secret Lives of Color
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Kassia St. Clair
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of 75 fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from into a unique study of human civilization.
-
-
More about pigments than social history
- By Jason Toon on 12-13-20
By: Kassia St. Clair
-
Why We Make Things and Why It Matters
- The Education of a Craftsman
- By: Peter Korn
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this moving account, Peter Korn explores the nature and rewards of creative practice. We follow his search for meaning as an Ivy-educated child of the middle class who finds employment as a novice carpenter on Nantucket, transitions to self-employment as a designer and maker of fine furniture, takes a turn at teaching and administration at Colorado's Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and then founds a school in Maine: the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, an internationally respected nonprofit institution.
-
-
Must Read
- By Ray on 06-19-14
By: Peter Korn
-
The Inherited Mind
- A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental Illness
- By: James Longman
- Narrated by: James Longman
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A compelling memoir by ABC News correspondent James Longman in which he discusses mental illness and trauma in families, what the latest genetic science is telling us, and how to not only persevere but thrive.
-
-
Excellent Read !
- By Tricia on 02-12-25
By: James Longman
-
A Century of Tomorrows
- How Imagining the Future Shapes the Present
- By: Glenn Adamson
- Narrated by: Glenn Adamson
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Century of Tomorrows offers an illuminating account of how the world was transformed by the science (or is it?) of futurecasting. Beneath the chaos of competing tomorrows, Adamson reveals a hidden order: six key themes that have structured visions of what’s next. Helping him to tell this story are remarkable characters, including self-proclaimed futurologists such as Buckminster Fuller and Stewart Brand, as well as an eclectic array of other visionaries who have influenced our thinking about the world ahead.
-
-
Excellent
- By Julian C. Chambliss on 05-23-25
By: Glenn Adamson
-
The Anatomy of Melancholy
- By: Robert Burton
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 56 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1621, and hardly ever out of print since, it is a huge, varied, idiosyncratic, entertaining and learned survey of the experience of melancholy, seen from just about every possible angle that could be imagined. The Anatomy of Melancholy, presented here with all the original quotations in English, is, at last, available on audiobook in its entirety.
-
-
Nam Et Doctis Hisce Erroribus Versatus Sum
- By Darwin8u on 05-26-20
By: Robert Burton
-
Craft
- An American History
- By: Glenn Adamson
- Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation’s origins to the present day. At the center of the United States’ economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology - while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers’ central role in shaping America’s identity.
-
-
It's. a religious guy passing god.
- By Rickey Lee Kimball on 03-13-24
By: Glenn Adamson
-
The Secret Lives of Color
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Kassia St. Clair
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of 75 fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from into a unique study of human civilization.
-
-
More about pigments than social history
- By Jason Toon on 12-13-20
By: Kassia St. Clair
-
Why We Make Things and Why It Matters
- The Education of a Craftsman
- By: Peter Korn
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this moving account, Peter Korn explores the nature and rewards of creative practice. We follow his search for meaning as an Ivy-educated child of the middle class who finds employment as a novice carpenter on Nantucket, transitions to self-employment as a designer and maker of fine furniture, takes a turn at teaching and administration at Colorado's Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and then founds a school in Maine: the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, an internationally respected nonprofit institution.
-
-
Must Read
- By Ray on 06-19-14
By: Peter Korn
-
The Inherited Mind
- A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental Illness
- By: James Longman
- Narrated by: James Longman
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A compelling memoir by ABC News correspondent James Longman in which he discusses mental illness and trauma in families, what the latest genetic science is telling us, and how to not only persevere but thrive.
-
-
Excellent Read !
- By Tricia on 02-12-25
By: James Longman
-
A Century of Tomorrows
- How Imagining the Future Shapes the Present
- By: Glenn Adamson
- Narrated by: Glenn Adamson
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Century of Tomorrows offers an illuminating account of how the world was transformed by the science (or is it?) of futurecasting. Beneath the chaos of competing tomorrows, Adamson reveals a hidden order: six key themes that have structured visions of what’s next. Helping him to tell this story are remarkable characters, including self-proclaimed futurologists such as Buckminster Fuller and Stewart Brand, as well as an eclectic array of other visionaries who have influenced our thinking about the world ahead.
-
-
Excellent
- By Julian C. Chambliss on 05-23-25
By: Glenn Adamson
-
The Anatomy of Melancholy
- By: Robert Burton
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 56 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1621, and hardly ever out of print since, it is a huge, varied, idiosyncratic, entertaining and learned survey of the experience of melancholy, seen from just about every possible angle that could be imagined. The Anatomy of Melancholy, presented here with all the original quotations in English, is, at last, available on audiobook in its entirety.
-
-
Nam Et Doctis Hisce Erroribus Versatus Sum
- By Darwin8u on 05-26-20
By: Robert Burton
Very personalized
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.