Reader Request–Gadget Nation
Posted by: Alan in Book Reviews, Books, Business, Non-Fiction
Thank you to blog reader PB for suggesting today’s title. Steve Greenberg’s Gadget Nation is a lavishly illustrated over-sized hard cover filled with two page spreads about hundreds of inventions and the inventors behind them. I was particularly intrigued by the "Clocky"– a rugged alarm clock designed by an MIT student with a bad habit of hitting the snooze button and sleeping in. The Clocky is outfitted with large rubber wheels and when you press its snooze button, the Clocky rolls itself off of the night table and onto the floor, forcing the sleeper out of bed to hunt down and turn off the loud alarm.
Other especially interesting gadgets include a toddler’s food dish that you store in the freezer so that it will quickly cool down foods that are too hot for a young child, supposedly saving Mom from hours and hours of blowing on forkfulls of food and comforting a child with mouth burns and something called the "Head Blade" a bizzare looking contraption with wheels and a squeegee-protected oversized razor blade which supposedly makes it a lot easier to shave your head if you are going for the chrome dome look. I have to confess that none of the features products inspired me to rush to a web site and place an order, though the toilet tank aquarium (the fish and plants go in a transparent lucite box that surrounds the holding tank for flushing) and the "conedom" ice cream cone holder did intrigue me.
For anyone who is tinkering away in a garage or basement trying to invent the next big thing Gadget Nation would be an excellent resource for learning more about successful inventions and the people behind them. Non-inventors will probably find enough that is interesting and unusual to enjoy the book as well. Recommended. Thanks again to PB for suggesting this one.
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