Have you ever wondered what the material things we gather around us say about our humanity? No, I hadn't either, until I read this engaging introduction to a subject that is formally called material culture, but which Miller calls "stuff".

Miller, a professor of anthropology, guides us through the subject in a manner heavily influenced by his academic approach. Despite his attempts to subvert it, his arguments remain a little dry and inpenetrable at times. He suggests this is not intended as an academic text. Indeed, he says: "Material culture thrives as a rather undisciplined substitute for a discipline: inclusive, embracing, original, sometimes quirky researches and observations."

It's hard to think of a better summary of this book itself. The chapter on houses, which Miller describes as "the elephants of stuff", offers an insight into how we form relationships with our homes and suggests complex origins for the DIY epidemic that underpinned the property boom. At least one of the drivers of that boom was the importance we place on the stuff we gather around us and what we think it says about us.