Why not...knot?

Not many books open with a poem by Sting, about knots of all things! ("For what is a rope but a story, a plot, A beginning, an end, and in the middle a knot...") Not many books are written by someone who has walked a wire illegally rigged between the World Trade Center's twin towers. Not many books have a cord embedded in the cover with a clear plastic cover over it! This book by Philippe Petit, Why Knot is about so many things. On the surface of it, it is indeed a book on how to tie knots. Sixty knots, to be precise. The author says he knows how to tie about 200 knots out of the estimated four thousand in existence. It's about the history of knotting and the different kinds of rope. There is a short illustrated chapter on terminology of knotting such as "To reeve or to dress: to pass the end of a rope through any hole or opening,(to reeve a pulley, to dress a block and tackle). Lastly, each knot and how to tie it is illustrated with drawings by the author and various stories about the use of the knot. Just a fabulous, unusual book! ML