The excellent Shedworking book from Alex (shed judge and bloke behind the legend)
Shedworking is an inspirational illustrated handbook which no shedowner will want to be without. The book features shedworkers and shedbuilders from around the world who are leading the alternative workplace revolution, and looks at why shedworking is a greener way of working, improves work-life balance and accelerates your productivity. It is inspired by the author’s Shedworking website which has been internationally acclaimed for the groundbreaking scale of its architectural coverage, featuring many previously unpublished images of garden offices and shedlike atmospheres, offices on roofs, sheds inside ‘traditional’ offices and on wheels, as well as cutting edge Le Corbusier designed models for the back garden, all-glass shed offices and buildings ‘built’ using living trees. Along the way it offers a whistle-stop tour of famous sheds from Pliny the Younger’s summerhouse and the composing retreats of nineteenth century composers Grieg and Mahler to award-winning twenty-first century fantasy writer Neil Gaiman’s gazebo. In short, Shedworking offers a manifesto for those wanting to change their working lives for the better and go to work in the garden.
Alex shed judge and that bloke who knows all about shedworking has launched some screencasts/Tellyshots and the like about his shedworking book which I reviewed here.
and here is a video book tour on Green shedworking
If you want to look at Alex reading from his book about other shedworking subjects then look here.
If you have been a long time follower of this blog and readersheds then you would know that Alex Johnson shed of the year judge and long term friend of the sheds, has a book coming out on the 3rd June 2010, so here’s some promotion for him and quick overview I mainly looked at the pictures, so I am sure better writers than me will do proper reviews.
Shedworking : the alternative workplace revolution.
Alex got his people to send me a copy to my people and so this is my biased review of it.
Right the important things first, readersheds, shedweek and me, uncle wilco get a mention, thanks Alex
The other thing you notice is the amount of great photos in the book and the great layout – well done to Alex and his team of busy bees its a great looking shedtable book, of course some of you will recognise some of the buildings in the book as they are some of the sheddies from readersheds.co.uk
Alex also gives a lot of the pages over to explain the history of shedworking, famous shedworkers, eco shedworking, alternative shedworking and the future of shedworking, so if you ever want to get inspiration for getting out the garden and setting up your 5 to 9 business then this book will give you loads of inspiration.
Myself and Alex have a running joke that “His Posh sheds for working in are not really sheds”, but his book proves me wrong, as the unique working environments are wonderful, and of course I am jealous of you shedworkers, as I would love to run my Shed Empire from my shed and hopefully with the success of Shed of the year I may be halfway there
Congrats to Alex on a great job done, I know he has worked very hard on this book and its wonderful that its now in print…. so time now to treat yourself to a cider or two mate.
anyway watch this space as Iam sure I can get Alex to give away a few of the books in a shedweek competition.
If you only buy one shed book this year, then make sure it’s Shed Working
Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution is an inspirational illustrated handbook which no shedowner will want to be without.
The book features shedworkers and shedbuilders from around the world who are leading the alternative workplace revolution, and looks at why shedworking is a greener way of working, improves work-life balance and accelerates your productivity.
It is inspired by the author’s Shedworking website which has been internationally acclaimed for the groundbreaking scale of its architectural coverage, featuring many previously unpublished images of garden offices and shedlike atmospheres, offices on roofs, sheds inside ‘traditional’ offices and on wheels, as well as cutting edge Le Corbusier designed models for the back garden, all-glass shed offices and buildings ‘built’ using living trees.
Along the way it offers a whistle-stop tour of famous sheds from Pliny the Younger’s summerhouse and the composing retreats of nineteenth century composers Grieg and Mahler to award-winning twenty-first century fantasy writer Neil Gaiman’s gazebo. In short, the book offers a manifesto for those wanting to change their working lives for the better and go to work in the garden.
# Paperback: 192 pages
# Publisher: Frances Lincoln (3 Jun 2010)
# Language English
# ISBN-10: 071123082X
The book is available from all good shed book stores but Click below to buy it from Amazon and unclewilco gets some cash, as of course with his massive fee for the book Alex wont need the cash
AS you may not know this shed stuff I do is in my spare time, what Iam not a fulltime sheddie, I hear you shout from the comfort of your deck chair in front of your shed working adobe.
Thanks to lovely Emma Jones (who is the brains behind enterprisenation.com) there is a term for this sort of thing, it is called Working 5 to 9 , ie after you finish your day job you work on something better
Anyway Emma has just got a book out profiling us 5 to 9ers and I am in there talking about readersheds, well its just a small bit, but it was nice to be asked to appear.
If you want to get inspiration from people more suitable than me then the book is worth getting.
How to start a successful business
in your spare time
by Emma Jones
A new book from best-selling author, Emma Jones, reveals that
over 5 million people are holding down a day job and building
a business at nights and weekends. Working 5 to 9 – how to
start a successful business in your spare time delves in to the
world of the part-time entrepreneur, offers 50 ideas for
businesses you can start on the side, and features 60 successful
5 to 9’ers alongside advice on sales, marketing, technology and
how to maintain a social life whilst working day, and night!
“It was in late 2008 when I spotted a new angle to the
businesses we were profiling on Enterprise Nation” says
Emma, “people were still identifying gaps in the market or
turning a passion, hobby or skill into a way of making a living,
yet they were doing so at the end of their normal working
day.”
Motivated by fear of being made redundant or just a desire to
earn extra cash and unleash creative talent, 5 to 9’ers are
operating across the UK and across a range of sectors, from
fashion to farming, and magic to mobile applications.
Thanks to alex for introducing me to Enterprise nation and Emma, they are a great bunch, I would love to run my shed empire full time but at the moment it seems to work 5 till 9
One of the revelations to emerge, albeit rather obliquely, from the MPs’ expenses shenanigans is that Gordon Brown is a shedworker. The PM decided to pay back £500 he had claimed on expenses for painting his summer house (pictured above – we can’t quite see if he has a MacBook Pro in there) as he believed it could be “questionable”. But here’s the key part: a spokesman for Brown said the summerhouse was actually more “a building in his garden” which he used as a home office rather than a traditional summer house.
