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hustlerofculture

hustlerofculture

I hustle culture. I am obsessed with small space living, architecture (mid-century modern & prefab), cooking, street art, video games, new media, and marketing.

www.hustlerofculture.com more »
  • member since July 25 2007

Reviews

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  • Making the Most of Small Spaces
    • Rated 4 stars

    I bought this book while living in Boston more than 6 years ago. While still a student and eventually a young professional, I found myself experimenting with SPACE and BUDGET year after year (sometimes several times a year). This book is the perfect gift/buy for anyone who's lived in subhuman conditions ranging from 200-750 square feet. There are many books out there that claim to solve all your SMALL SPACE problems but everything they show include homes with well over 750 square feet (not too small in some cities)!

    Anoop Parikh clearly shows you the basics and has TEXT that you actually want to read! The pictures are great although some show the fanciest of facilities and furniture ($$$ most certainly helps make small spaces nicer), but they give you a very good DESIGN sense & HOW TO information for very small lofts and studio apartments. The side bar notes are great short cuts if you haven't the patience to read everything. They outline all the basic rules to opening up your humble abode.

    This book has given me MANY ideas I still stick with today. I've lent this book out to siblings, future homeowners and friends from all walks of life and income brackets. They always return it with a "Cool book, got some good ideas from it" type of comment.

    I still whip it out today and use it to refresh my memory every time I move into another NEW small space. From a Boston studio in the Back Bay to a Santa Monica bungalow this book has followed me cross country and back and now sits on my shelves in my new 700 square foot home in New York.

    This book lives up to its name in Making the Most of Small Spaces. How else has it survived this long in a market so flooded with nice coffee books with no content?!

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Apartment Living: New Designs for Urban Living
    • Rated 3 stars

    I've lived in apartments for the last decade. Always on the lookout for books that guide oneself to small home perfection, I bought this book in hopes of learning something new.

    A collector of mid century modern furniture, the cover caught my eye. Hmmm, a hip looking couple with even cooler looking furniture. Why not? Flipping through, I noticed the book had delightful pictures nicely detailing wishful scenarios. What it lacked, I later found was serious content. Apartment Living promised new designs for urban living yet failed to deliver anything NEW.

    The book takes the reader through different kinds of apartment spaces: pieds-a-terre, empty nester retreats, lofts, larger apartments and then offers solutions for apartment living (making the most of your small space). The promise to transform your dull home into a chic living space is not realizable for most living with a reasonable budget. The solutions offered were recycled from the best books of the past.

    Apartment Living: New Designs for Urban Living is really more a look book than anything else. You look a few times and then forget about it.

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics
    • Rated 5 stars

    The Essential House Book: Getting Back to Basics is a must have for anyone that ever wanted to live in a home and make it all your own. Once again, the reigning champion of good design and master of style, Sir Terence Conran delivers the crème de la crème of home décor books.

    Page per page, this book is the most prized in my home design/decorating collection (believe me, I've got a few hundred). Conran offers so many helpful tips and tidbits of information, it's hard not to pull this one off the shelf and reread chapters over again. Chock full of practical solutions and helpful content, amazing photographs (the kind that make you dream for hours) and easy to follow guidance for better living, The Essential House Book lives up to its name. The book is vast with knowledge offering information for all things from flooring to lighting to painting and much more.

    The pure simple design and thoughtful information has made this book a staple in this genre of books. With so many books out there to choose from, time and again this will surface as the best available regardless of price.

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Rome (Popout Map)

    by Map Group
    • Rated 5 stars

    perfectly sized for travelling on the run! if you're in town for a short period of time and want the express route to everything, you must buy this book! the guidebook splits Rome into six sections/mini-maps highlighting places to eat, shop and visit. the opening front section gives you an overview of Rome and includes places with great views, green spaces, guided tours, churches, religious festivals, museums, shopping districts, restaurants, concerts/shows, summer festivals, tourist info, and websites to visit. the last section is a complete map of Rome's subway and rail lines with complete transport and hotel information for your holiday suggesting a handful of hotels at different price ranges. Rome airport information is handy and all public transport options are expained clearly.

    all the tourist hot spots are well documented including important information regarding hours of operation, map location, entrance fees and other notables. the pictures are updated and the maps are very thorough. a little bigger than a palm pilot; with it's expandable fold-out maps, it's hard to beat this guidebook!

    the book is not very thorough in detail (think of it as a cliff notes for travelling; you get the gist, but you miss out on the details). if you want historical information regarding a museum or monument you'll need a supplemental book--or just visit the place and learn all you want first hand!

    while planning my Rome holiday i purchased several other Rome guidebooks but found that they stayed in the hotel while this one was taken everywhere.

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • National Geographic Traveler: Rome (National Geographic Traveler)
    • Rated 4 stars


    4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
    NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC travel book very similar to travel shows, April 22, 2002

    your typical travel guidebook (a little on the heavy side) with the most detail oriented information at your disposal. good for the plane ride over to italy, it's full of information about everything you wanted to know about rome, starting with history and culture. the guidebook is not very practical for pulling out of your sack especially if your burdened with cameras and other heavy travel items. the book is very very very informative and true to national geographic, chock full of beautiful pictures! this guidebook offers a series of walking tours with national geographic as your guide; extremely useful if you have the time to walk and read as you go! while travelling i found it a little difficult to find the maps when i needed them (during those vacation rush periods). this book is useful for reference; with every point of interest explained thoroughly.

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Co-Op Bible: Everything You Need to Know About Co-ops and Condos; Getting in, Staying in, Surviving, Thriving
    • Rated 4 stars

    I bought a co-op in Manhattan (July 2001) and before doing so; I went to the bookstores and scanned the shelves for books that I thought would help me out. With so many titles to choose from, how could one know what is worth buying and the rest browsing? I ended up settling down with two books and I can happily recommend "The Co-Op Bible: Everything You Needed to Know About Co-Ops and Condos: Getting In, Staying In, Surviving, Thriving".

    With the first time home buying experience behind me, I found that there was so much more I needed to learn before buying into a co-op. There was so much I didn't know but quickly learned by reading the Co-Op Bible.

    Buying in NYC is an extremely detail oriented process; a process I believe no other city in the United States can match. The endless board package preparation is enough to deter anyone from being a homeowner (and even then, just technically, a shareholder) and the actual board meeting is something to have nightmares about (who likes being judged?). Sylvia's book put my mind to ease and easily defines the MUST HAVES and MUST KNOWS for Manhattan co-op buying. After reading and soaking in all the knowledge that I felt necessary, finding 12 letters of recommendation, three years worth of bank statements and tax returns didn't seem so daunting (hey, it's just all part of the process).

    Although the book covers information about "staying in, surviving and thriving" I found that all I really wanted to know was the "getting in" part. I didn't read much of the book after I absorbed everything I needed to know about co-op acceptance. My rating is based on the thorough knowledge Sylvia bestowed on me in the several chapters I did read!

    I can honestly say that reading The Co-Op Bible allowed me to focus my nervous energy elsewhere and five months after placing an accepted offer, I was able to move into my new home!

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Tipping Point
    • Rated 5 stars

    Very easy to read. Very anecdotal. Must read for anyone who works in marketing. MG wrote down everything we already knew about why some phenoms happen, but did it in an engaging way.

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )
  • Blink
    • Rated 3 stars

    A good overview of why we do what we do. Not as clever as The Tipping Point.

    hustlerofculture wrote this review Wednesday, July 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )

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