Now I Sit Me Down: From Klismos to Plastic Chair: A Natural History

A delightful book of discovery. The author never disappoints!! It’s my fourth book written by him and my husband and myself relish and value his delightful rendition of ordinary items and housebound constructs.

An excellent overview of seating. Prof. Rybczynski starts with pre-history and moves forward. This gives an overview of body mechanics and cultural/environmental influences. He gave me a great perspective on chair design. HIs words helped to to better understand my own preferences when it comes to chairs. As a Swedish trained human factors engineer I found his work useful. Illustrations were line drawings - I'll go back to other books in my collection to see chairs he mentioned yet lacked space to illustrate.

This is an interesting history of the development of chairs from ancient Egypt and China till our time. Unfortunately the book includes many verbal descriptions of various chairs without their pictures, and as a result these descriptions are not so clear.

A short but delightfully detailed history of chairs, imperial and lowly, gilded and plastic--with simple line drawings which enhance the information. It made me walk around the house critiquing my conglomeration of seating products. Author even cites The Onion's satirical claim that the US doesn't need to produce any more chairs, there are plenty available in houses and stores and garage sales. From French courts to IKEA, chair designers want to solve the simple problem of where to sit and how to make an inviting and attractive chair. Rybczynski distills their quest into this tight account.

The history of the chair is fascinating. Who would have thought that chairs are not universally used by all societies? However, there are few illustrations and NO photos of the described chairs. I keep losing interest in reading because I must go to the internet to find illustrations of the described chairs.

An architect knows that little things mean a lot. This is a gem of a book. It's about chairs: their importance and their history. There is fascinating history behind the designs and designers... why chairs look (and sit) the way they do. I especially like the thumbnail biographies of the designers: the crafting and marketing of this household work of art and science that we take for granted. All is covered in a great story telling fashion.

Now where ever I go and there are chairs I'm able to better identify where and whom they originated from. I better understand as well the history of the world though the evolution of the chair.

This the 5th book I have read by this author and as with the previous 4 it was a pleasure. The author manages to distill an entire history of a particular subject into a enjoyable read for the most pedestrian historian. I plan to work my way through many more of his sizable works.

The book is great; however, the almost 2 month delay past the initial delivery date was off-putting.

Just loved this book. I read Home years ago as obligatory university reading and it always stayed with me as an insightful book. Picked this one up, for our enjoyment and it was a thought-provoking, fascinating read. Thank you!

Just started reading so can't say much about it

Comprehensive look at chair design.