I've only read about two dozen of the 253 patterns, but I'm extremely impressed by this book so far. It is clear that the authors are passionate about humanity. The tone of the writing is a pleasant mix of expert confidence and still-learning exploration. I've started photocopying some of the more interesting patterns for my wife to read.
From the outset I decided I would not read the book from front to back. Rather, I started with a pattern I was interested in and followed a reference to a related pattern, repeating the process with each new pattern. In this way I have travelled from the mid-level patterns (buildings) to the high-level patterns (towns) to the low-level patterns (construction) very quickly, always reading what interests me most. I haven't hit any dead ends yet. --DaveHoover
What do you make of the photographs? The ones used to illustrate A Pattern Language and TheTimelessWayOfBuilding I find a most welcome respite form the overly dramatic, ego-filled style of much architectural photograhy. Maybe it's becasue each shot captures only a part of a scene relevant to the pattern it illustrates? Anyway, the content and treatment of the pictures seems a very nice fit with the pattern approach. --KeithBraithwaite
The photos are excellent. They have a quality that is hard to describe. In at least some cases, the authors chose a photo prior to writing the pattern: they reference the photo from the text of the pattern. The photos are usually taken from a human-oriented perspective. They are candid, capturing the humanity that the pattern relates to.
I appreciate the drawings' bare sufficiency. They illustrate just enough of the pattern to apply it without stifling the reader's creative interpretation of the pattern. --DaveHoover
See also: Wiki:PatternLanguage, Wiki:TheTimelessWayOfBuilding, Wiki:TheOregonExperiment.
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