View source for Shipping Container (Object Lessons) by Craig Martin

{{infobox1
|title=Shipping Container (Object Lessons)
|author=Craig Martin
|reviewer= Zoe Morris
|genre=Popular Science
|summary= Focussing on the transportation of shipping containers rather than their perhaps more interesting future use, this is a succinct introduction to the subject but failed to draw our attention.
|rating=3
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=160
|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic
|date=March 2016
|isbn= 978-1501303142
|cover=1501303147
|aznuk=1501303147
|aznus=1501303147
}}

Shipping Containers are bizarrely interesting things. Did you know, for example, that although they are frequently used for outdoor structures, Scottish building regs dictate that units are clad in larch if they are to be visible to the public? Or that, south of the border, English law states that planning permission is not required when a 20 footer is reduced to 15 feet under 'permitted development' legislation? Or, and this is the most astonishing fact of all, a 5 foot 2 cheerleader can single-handedly drive a forklift, pick up a shipping container and whizz it to the other side of the yard with only 3 minutes instruction?

With the exception of the, ahem, personal experience of the final point, these would have been good things to learn from a book like this. Interesting. Fun. Relevant. But although shipping containers are increasingly being used for building projects in the UK, this book focusses more on their original purpose, i.e. the transportation of goods from point A to point B. Now here's something – shipping containers have become so in demand they are frequently being shipped ''empty'' from China, simply to get them over here for conversion, but sorry, that's another piece of personal insight that's not shared in this book. 

This book is small, not even 150 pages of text, and more like 100 if you exclude the index, references and acknowledgements so perhaps it's unsurprising that it had to choose a more limited focus. There is plenty still to learn from the book. The word 'dunnage' is used daily and everyone knows what it means (the stuff inside containers to protect contents from damage during transit) but it was interesting to learn the origin of its use. Twist locks – the mighty strong connectors that can be used to link containers together – are also heavily featured.

The book is about more than just containers. It talks about maritime accidents, and let's face it, we all like it when things go wrong. It also references the fact that previously 71% of the world's manufacturing was from just 4 countries which is hard to imagine now, though I'm sure ''Brexit'' campaigners could put a spin on it.

I wanted to like this book but the prose was far from compelling and the pictures often grainy. In this instance a colour edition would have made a big difference, I feel. They are also rather dated so at first glance you might be forgiven for thinking this book was written in the 70s. The book is heavily reliant on references (there are 22 in the introduction alone), but I found the design of these quite unusual and irritating as they are referenced within chapter, so to find the source you need to know whether your 3 relates to chapter 1, chapter 2 or so on. You often have to flip back several pages to find which chapter number you are in, and then forward several pages to find the list of notes for that particular section at the back of the book, so it's a rather overcomplicated process.

Alas, this book was not meant for me. It's small enough to fit in a pocket but I still struggled to finish it. It just wasn't really informative in a fun way. I like anecdotes, sound bites, things I can remember and litter into conversation at an opportune time, but these did not feature heavily in this book. Who might like it? Perhaps someone whose entire business is concerned with the modification and conversion of shipping containers? Someone who has a 3 acre yard full of the things, stacked 5 high (or to put it another way, a 3200 TEU capacity)? A person who is trying to convince his darling fiancé that she might like a shipping container cake for their wedding next year? As I ponder this out loud, I turn and look at the Boy, lounging next to me on the sofa watching the F1. Without taking his eyes off Jenson, he lifts one hand and gives me a thumbs down. Yes, full disclosure, I got this book for him. We both read it. Neither of us loved it. Which really leaves me scratching my head for who the audience for it might be. 

The publishers sent us a copy to review, for which I thank them. It's the sort of book we wanted to read very much but unfortunately it was a bit dry. Hopefully our wedding cake won't be.

Other books in this series include [[Dust (Object Lessons) by Michael Marder]], [[Personal Stereo by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow]] and [[Bookshelf (Object Lessons) by Lydia Pyne]].

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