If It's Broke, Fix It

Rating:
Summary: A broad overview
Review: As an avid do-it-herselfer, I was intrigued by the title of this book. In an age of sealed assemblies, planned obsolescence, and cheaply built consumer goods, repairing things rather than replacing them has indeed become rarer (and often impossible or prohibitively expensive). The philosophy of this book, then, is admirable: to provide people the help they need to try their own repairs.

Unfortunately, this book offers too few details on too many topics. It offers two to three pages of general remarks on each of hundreds of items. Masonry, motors, dolls, and drywall require drastically different repair techniques, while bicycles and sewing machines typically fill entire books for a reason. In three pages, I might learn to oil a chain or clean out a tangled bobbin case, but then, I would have tried that first, anyway. While this book might help to troubleshoot certain basic problems, I think that a beginner might benefit from more step-by-step detail, and an experienced fixer-of-things would find that most of the information could be easily discerned with careful examination and a bit of common sense.

If this book inspires folks to try fixing things, great! It might make a good general reference to get started. However, I'd prefer a book that focused a little more closely on a topic I needed.

Rating:
Summary: Bob Vila told me
Review: If you want to see what's inside, BobVila.com has about 50 of the Fix-It Guides from this book including some of the photos and repairs. I got there through FixItClub.com.

Rating:
Summary: Loads of tips and photos
Review: Many of the fix-it-yourself books seem to miss the mark with lengthy detail for a simple job or few hands-on photos. The Ramsey's latest book is right on target. It includes a brief description of how specific household things are supposed to work, tell you what typically goes wrong, then offers numbered and illustrated instructions for fixing more than 160 household things. It also includes tips on how to fix everything else around the house using basic tools, materials, and some common sense. Even if you're going to go out and buy a new one anyway it's a fun read!