Gadget Nation

Last night I cooked hot dogs. They were good enough, but if I’d had the Octodog, I could have made them look like octopi. Curious? So was I. And what about Clocky? It's an alarm clock that rolls away from you when you hit the snooze button, forcing you to get out of bed and chase it down the next time it goes off. Or what about a metal crank that you put in your jar of natural peanut butter that mixes it up without making a mess?

The Octodog, Clocky and the peanut butter mixer are all inventions chronicled in a new book called Gadget Nation, a journey through the eccentric world of invention. Its author, Steve Greenberg, is a self-confessed gadget junkie, a former reporter for HGTV, a freelance writer and member of a family of patent filers.