From Truths to Tools by Jim Tolpin and George Walker

"From Truths to Tools" is the third book from the geometry-loving team of Jim Tolpin and George Walker. Their first book, "By Hand & Eye," makes the case that simple whole number ratios are the underpinning to the built world and our furniture. Their second book, "By Hound & Eye," gives you the exercises that open your eyes to the way geometry and ratios govern our world. And the third, "From Truths to Tools," shows how geometry creates our tools and, once understood, leads to a deeper grasp of the things we build, the world around us and even our language.

"From Truths to Tools" is a hand-illustrated work that masquerades as a children’s book. There are funny drawings. There aren’t a lot of words. You can read the entire 208-page book in one sitting. Good books give you a glimpse of small truths - about workbenches, joinery or sharpening, for example. Great books, on the other hand, stitch together seemingly disparate ideas to present a new way of looking at the whole world, from your marking awl, to your hand or to the line of the horizon.