Saturday, June 20, 2015

Cork Boat by John Pollack

Travel/Memoir

Since he was a kid, John Pollack has been fascinated with boats and has been saving up corks to build his own cork boat. As an adult, working as a speech writer on capitol hill, John still can't shake the dream. He sends out some emails to friends asking for calculations on how many corks would be needed and to see if anyone would be available to help. A team comes together and eventually they determine they need over 150,000 corks. Collecting from businesses and friends, they find a place to store everything and then start determining how to build the thing.

This is a childhood dream come true. It's one that seems rather impossible at first. A cork boat isn't something that's easy to build, and yet they find a way to make it happen. There are many problems along the way but they still find a way to make it happen.

Primarily, this book is about making a childhood dream come true. However there's also some interesting historical facts on cork, rubber bands, and wine. John also gives us a little bit of background about his job as a speechwriter in the White House (having written a bit for Clinton). All of these put together make for an interesting and fun read.

My only complaint about this book is why the hell is there not a picture of the cork boat in this book!?!? The guy spends the whole book talking about this amazing boat and the reader is left to dream about what it actually looks like.

First Line: "My first boat sank."

Rating:
(45)

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