You might have already heard that Amazon opened its first physical bookstore earlier this week, called (in very non-SEO fashion) Amazon Books. Located in Amazon’s hometown of Seattle – ironically within a mall that used to house a Barnes & Noble – most everything in the brick-and-mortar store is linked to the experience of the e-commerce space.
Recommendations, instead of being heralded by professional critics or Review lists, are tagged by average ratings or online sales. Inventory is metered out by online popularity. Prices fluctuate with Amazon’s online rates. And individual books are accompanied by user review placards.
While Amazon Books tries to combine the best of online and offline book-browsing and buying, you just can't emulate some online abilities offline. Like the purely joyful act of reading disgruntled shoppers’ negative reviews of well-known books.
To this end, please enjoy this selection of one-star Amazon reviews from famous architecture texts. Some reviews have been edited for length.
S,M,L,XL, by Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau
“have no real contentof architeture” by Amazon Customer on December 11, 1999:
I was expecting an incisive analysis of modern architecture on different scales, filled with examples of projects, both dreams and real buildings. Instead, the book is a chaotic assortment of rubbish -- excerpts of floor-plans, littered with photos which are hopefully intended to create a mood rather than convey a sense of the building. All in all, innovative typography and an overtly abstract approach take the place of real content. For me it was a great disappointment, and after a first read, its silver spine is all of it I'm likely ever to see.
Image of the City, by Kevin Lynch
Only purchased because it was highly recommended by NCARB . . . by hieratic on March 24, 2013:
however, I did not find this book to be helpful at all. I had to put it down immediately. It is a difficult book to get through. I only flipped through it to get definitions and basic descriptions. The NALSA flash cards provided better info than this book.
City of Quartz, by Mike Davis
One of the biggest hoaxes ever pulled off in publishing. By A customer on September 20, 1998:
Not only was Mike Davis, who claims to be a native of LA, raised far from LA, but he spent most of his life in the years before writing this book in Europe returning to LA only a couple years before writing the book. After I found over five hundred made up facts, ficitious footnotes and errors, it was clear that even the years off and on he has spent in LA must have been in the stacks of a library and not on the streets of LA.
Not Really About L.A....... By F. Dalyon December 22, 2007:
Don't expect any factual basis or thoughtful analysis, however. This book is just "That's the way it is, thank you very much, and the place has gone to hell."
More Marxist Trash By A customer on March 12, 1999:
In my unfortunate days in the past as a leftist (I've recanted, thank God!), I heard Mr. Davis speak at, get this, a Trotskyite meeting of his peers. Don't read Marxist trash like this! Free your minds and do a body-bag count of the Communist/Socialist legacy!
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs
One star By Zhexing Lion July 12, 2015:
it is too old
Delirious New York, by Rem Koolhaas
euro-trash By Douglas B. Barron August 29, 2014:
an artsy fartsy, overly pretentious SNORE of a read, I believe some of the words used in this book don't even really exist at all, but the author simply wanted us to believe he knows a lot of things that other people dont know, like ALL overly pretentious, artsy fartsy BORES like to do. I would so rather read about a history of REAL New York and New Yorkers, the Bowrey for instance, than have to spend even one single minute forcing myself to make sense of this Euro-trash exercise in mental procrasstorbation by this here poser from Belgium. And I don't for one minute believe that any of these reviewers really enjoyed or even understood the book, but got hooked into this dudes self-hype and went along with him, believing he is as brilliant as he himself believes he is. They are afraid if they dont give this crap a glowing review then they might be seen as having not "gotten" it. I got news, THERE IS NOTHING TO GET! One thing he got right was the title. Trying to figgure out New York sure made the author delirious
Towards A New Architecture, by Le Corbusier
worthless and even dangerous By Timothy J. Duffyon November 7, 1999:
This is probably the stupidest book I've ever read. It amazes me that people still read it as if it has something worthwhile to offer. I read it 21 years ago when I was 17, and I filled the margins with harsh criticism. I looked at it again a couple years ago to see if I still agreed with those criticisms and I did. The book is a monument to illogic, and what's frightening is that it's been enormously influential. The basic thesis is this - airplanes, ships and grain silos look cool, so our buildings should look like them. If anyone tries to convince you that the message is deeper than that, don't be fooled. It's rubbish.
Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture
One Star By Emily Duranon March 27, 2015:
blah
Modern Architecture: A Critical History, by Kenneth Frampton
BLAAAAAAAAA By bawils0on December 20, 2011:
This might be the worst book I have ever been forced to read. Extremely boring, the author is arrogant as hell. God have mercy on your soul if this book is required by one of your classes. Learning from Las Vegas The Architecture of Happiness Not a page turner & not deep analysis
Architecture of Happiness, by Alain de Botton
Not a page turner & not deep analysis By H. Karaca Kestellion March 31, 2010:
I am finding De Botton a hard to read man. I think there is too much trying to make "perfect" sentences. However because it's not done on a perfect level, it gets tiring to read. I contemplated a lot whether I should stop the book after mere 50 pages. But I had to finish - God only knows why - so I pushed myself. There were maybe few points which I got from the book. But all in all it was a waste of my time to finish it. Sorry Alain!
Blah Blah Blah By Picky Buyeron November 8, 2010:
Here's what I remember about this book: blah blah blah blah blah. And yes, I read every word of it. There were maybe 4 or 5 sentences where I thought "yes, that's interesting and true," but the rest was a forgettable mishmash of topics that blended together and went nowhere. Even the chapter titles were confusing. The title is catchy, but don't waste your time reading this one. It's not for the common man.
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
No stars for this one By amy hanover on July 22, 2015:
What a bore! Hated it.
33 Comments
And is this supposed to garner more respect for our profession?
hilarious! (mainly Vitruvius and what appears to be a Chinese students assement of Jacob)........the Kolhaas crits are obviously by playa hating architects, because i know plenty architects and non architects who have read Delirious New York and absolutely agree.......someone really went out of their way for Delirious post
Another slow news day on Archinect...
i prefer this news actually
Learning from Las Vegas didn't make the cut?!
Depressing!
Miles, I was as surprised as you are. There simply aren't any 1-star Amazon reviews for Learning from Las Vegas. Same goes for Complexity and Contradiction.
I give this post on archinect 5 out of 5 stars!!!
Hilarious to read all the idiot haters on Amazon.
With all due respect, what is this bullshit research helpful for?
Next up: some people don't like spaghetti, and really hate brussel sprouts! Then, it's on to film, where we'll expose those morons who don't get Citizen Kane, or slept through Blade Runner.
Where will this difference of opinions end?
sameold and citizen you both need to have a beer, get laid, see some stand up comedy, get out more......Amelia took a fairly minor event, although interesting in regard to virtual companies always wanting to eventually be physical, and made it entertaining. i was getting Pizza, sushi, and beer when i read this, was humorous. now go back to your grumpy circle jerking.
How about books that don't get any reviews because nobody would ever read them let alone buy them?
Olaf, some of us come to archinect to learn useful information. The entertainment value of this article is below zero, perhaps much like the stand up comedy you probably watch.
Quondam, much respect to you, but you really need to take down your crazy hat.
jajaja. cranky old doctor. blah.
Schumacher's part 1 architecure autopoisis 1 star book review..... Part of the problem, not of the solution By Schinkel - March 30, 2012 Only waterboarding is more fun. In what is a torturous read and towering monument to reductionist, old-paradigm thinking, Schumacher attempts to construct a monumental theory of architecture by throwing everything but the kitchen sink into this book and dishing it out in a clankingly stiff, 19th-century germanic art historian's tone. But there is nothing new in Schumacher's "new" agenda. With its old-fashioned brand of technology-and-method-worship (now called "parametricism") and its call for an international hegemony of a single architectural style (huh?) this garbled and confused "theory" recalls the worst of the bad old days of positivist discourse. (Of course I give Schumacher the benefit of the doubt here in assuming that he was indeed seriously attempting to construct a theory and not just to construct another smoke-and-mirrors "theoretical" plumage as an academic appendage to another starchitect's shoot-from-the-hip signature brand architecture.) What architecture needs today is more wisdom and less pseudo-intellectual posing like this. 21 of 26 people found this review helpful
At least 2 of the 3 positive reviews of Shoemuncher's bible were written by staffers in his office. Probably the same toadies who only appear here to praise his posts then mysteriously vanish.
crazy hats are cool
Funny. It sounds like some of these reviews may have been written by some frequent Archinect commenters.
ha, Davvid I thought the same thing, especially when you get to the Eisenman reviews.
^ After that I had to look them up.
Nonsensical Posturing
Complete Rubbish
Thin & Superficial
Mmmm not worth a penny
But wait, there's more!
Incoherent and Rambling
Disposable
Predictable Blather
So Silly It Must Be Satire
Vapid and More Vapid
A few Archinecters could learn something from these reviews. At the very least they could take the place of Cliff's Notes.
nice Miles...so I own a few Eisenman books and this one with holes is just stupid
Chora L Works: Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman
62% 1 star reviews
you missed this one -
Quite possibly the dumbest book about architecture (or non architecture to be more precise), if not the dumbest book about anything - EVER.
Eisenman is, in the words of British Aesthetic Philoshopher, Roger Scruton, "a pretentious twit". This book, with its gimicky perforated pages, has more holes than Eisenman's logic.
Ms. Amy Hanover is certainly someone I would not like to date if she thought Invisible Cities was a bore.
/\ ha Josh. Wonder if EHarmony or Match.com has worked in dater's book reviews.
or just skip the dating website, go straight to Amazon.com and check the girl's book review out.
This post is worth saving as living proof of the need for "Ivory Towers" and those elitist Academia panels that you all hate. If we ever cater to "public taste" or "crowdsourced design" you can be assured that will be the end ....
I give 97% of humans 1-Star reviews.
addendum: in each book's case, the 1-star reviews account for 17% or less of the total number of reviews. Towards A New Architecture had the highest share of 1-star reviews.
Average ratings:
SMLXL: 4.4 stars
Image of the City: 4.3 stars
City of Quartz: 3.7
Death and Life of Great American Cities: 4.7 stars
Delirious New York: 4.6
Towards A New Architecture: 3.8
The Ten Books on Architecture: 4.2
Modern Architecture: A Critical History: 3rd edition: 3.7, 4th edition: 4.1
Architecture of Happiness: 4.1
Invisible Cities: 4.3
Eisenman's Blurred: 55% 1 star (6/11), Diagram: 45% 1 star (4/9)
One has to wonder how man good reviews are planted.
q- what is a fake review called?
a- reviola
I'm claiming a star to feel special about myself, I have low self-esteem, I'm still an architect after 15 years...and I'm tired of Alabama football always being this good....LSU come on!
long title - one reviewer mentions 5 items, one was my topic, so I get a star damnit!
Engineers get respect
Cecil Balmond
and Nebraska just won! (the last touchdown is questionable, but Tom Osborne blessed it with his heavenly powers)
Number 9:The Search for the Sigma Code is just a good book
Olaf Design Ninja, sir, you are killing it in the Forum lately! Well done, the parametric I review and all the other comments here.
Also, "Mental procrassturbation" is the best phrase I've heard in recent memory. I'm guilty, I admit!
"imagine how stupid the average person is...half of the population is even dumber,"
-George Carlin
Yes, let's mock the snooty architecture books with their archispeak and blah blah blah. Oh, but the one star reviews are only a small fraction! Archinect likes to mock the cake and then pretend to eat it too.
I'll admit I still fall asleep reading Frampton (or is it Brampton?). 1 star!!!!!!!!!!!!
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