THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO EVERYTHING SOLD...

THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO EVERYTHING SOLD IN HARDWARE STORES by Steve Ettlinger (Collier: $15.;432 pp.). For people adept at home repairs, a trip to a hardware store can be a mundane errand or an agreeable diversion; but for readers who number themselves among the “repair impaired,” that same trip becomes a perilous voyage into terra incognita. Ettlinger provides simple, clear descriptions of common tools and their uses, including alternate names and brand names: e.g. a bar clamp (also called a furniture or cabinet clamp) is different from a C-clamp and a pipe clamp. Mechanically disinclined homeowners will welcome this handy guide as an ego-saving Baedecker.