Holiday Reading List 1

[appot]

With the holidays fast approaching, I am excited to elbow through the crowds at Amazon to buy myself some more books, but I would appreciate some suggestions in the nonfiction category (I have read many older threads on this topic, but new books hit the markets everyday).

Books I have recently read and would recommend:
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
History of Strength of Materials (this book was recently discussed in one of the other forums).
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down
Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of Hoover Dam

I have yet to find a good book about the westward expansion in the United States. I have a Lewis & Clark book listed above, but I would greatly appreciate any recommendations for a book about building the railroads through (over) the Rockies, and also about the interstate highway system. The next book that I am going to tackle is The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible, this should cover the railroad and interstate topics, but I am not sure how in-depth it goes.

Regardless of my list above, I am also open to books on other topics:
[ul]
[li]They can be non-engineering related[/li]
[li]They can cover time periods other than 1800 - 1950 +/-[/li]
[li]They do not need to be about the United States[/li]
[/ul]

Hopefully someone can find a good read off of my short selection in this post, and hopefully I can find a book or two from your recommendations.

Edit: fixed a link

 

[SWComposites]

Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 , by Stephen Ambrose is just what you want

 

[Sparweb]

I've read JE Gordon's Structures, which you mentioned, as well as his "Science of Strong Materials", and I think both are worthy of your list.
Timonshenko's "History of Strength of Materials" is interesting; I'd known him only as an academic writer until now. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

My contribution to the list:
Not Much of An Engineer - Sir Stanley Hooker
More Than My Share of it All - Clarence "Kelly" Johnson
Skunk Works - Ben Rich
Failure Is Not an Option - Gene L. Kranz

For a little more fun (this is holiday reading after all) try browsing carefully through the Haynes Manuals.
Among the piles of Toyotas and Chevies, you will come across some surprises, if you haven't already found them.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the depth of detail and thorough mission descriptions of the "Gemini Mission Manual, 1965-1966".
It is much more complete that the typical "dumbed down for the public" version of the story, but very readable.
Also gives a nod to designers such as Jim Chamberlin who deserve so much credit for that successful program.

STF

 

[SomptingGuy]

Undaunted Courage kept this non-American riveted. I can see that other Ambrose book appearing on my Xmas list! Thank you.

Steve

 

[PittEng88]

I just started reading The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge a few weeks ago. Its an awesome read. McCullough does an outstanding job relaying the technical aspects of the story to all its readers. One does not need to be familiar with bridge engineering or possess an engineering degree to understand the book. So, I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

My contribution to this list would have to be:

Why Buildings Stand Up
Why Building Fall Down

Both are pretty easy reading, and contain a lot of information on historic structures.

 

[Jboggs]

Thanks for the suggestions! Will check them out. I can attest to the value of The Great Bridge. The amount of new technology, amazing creativity, and just plain strength of will and determination that it took to build the Brooklyn Bridge, especially against the backdrop of the political alliances and shenanigans of the day is absolutely fascinating. Read it twice.

For those with an interest in aviation, the space race, the history of computers and software, and a fascination with the intricacies of the motions of true "free bodies" I can recommend Digital Apollo by David Mindell. A true "nerd's book", but could not put it down.

I can also very strongly recommend this DVD, Moon Machines. 94% 5 star ratings! I'll just quote from an Amazon review "Unlike most programs dealing with space flight, this series is about engineers rather than astronauts. Seeing the cleverness that went into the different elements of Apollo should make you proud of your species." The segment on the development of the navigation computer is especially captivating. (Segments are also available on YouTube.)

 

[JAE]

I've heard good things about this book - more illustrated so not sure how much content is there, though:

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[Lomarandil]

I'll second the Ambrose and McCullough titles mentioned above. Both very good.

 

[SLTA]

It's completely not engineering-related, but I CANNOT WAIT to read The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Please remember: we're not all guys!

 

[HamburgerHelper]

The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World - this is a pretty neat book about the groups of people that were racing to try to secure the rights to the game from Russia. It is kind of an odd story because everyone had to interface with this bloated bureaucracy that was cash strapped and had no understanding of capitalism or marketing. The game was tweaked to be palatable to the western markets and included art of Rust's plane landing in Red Square, which they objected to but not enough to want to meddle with the cash cow. It is much more interesting than other books on iconic games.

 

[kacarrol]

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
I really like just about anything by Henry Petroski also (i.e. To Engineer is Human)

 

[Sparweb]

Since David McCullough has been mentioned, and his prolific writing has touched many american industries, I'd like to drop one warning about the one book of his that I read:
When writing The Wright Brothers, McCullough made no effort to gain any understanding how aircraft fly, or what the Wright Brothers did that was so special that allowed them to be the first.
According to his book, they wrote a few letters to Octave Chanute, figured out the missing pieces, and got started making parts. The rest of the book is concerned with all the nice places they went with their airplanes.
IMHO, McCullough missed the most valuable part...
According the Wright Brothers themselves (How We Invented the Airplane) they explain that much of Chanute (and other correspondents) was quite wrong, and they spent years testing everyone's ideas until they were equipped well enough to test their own ideas and prove they would succeed. They built a wind tunnel, for pete's sake, but that accomplishment was not mentioned at all in McCullough's book.

McCullough had an opportunity to show his readers (hidden within all of the technical notes) the persistence and meticulous care the put into the research and testing they did, in order to make their accomplishment happen. It was sufficient for him to show their dedication through the many test flights, but IMO they wouldn't have got that far if they hadn't started many years before.

STF

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, I read the 'Wright Brothers' book as well and while it's true, as mentioned by SparWeb, that there was not a lot of information about their research and experimentation before they actually started to build full-size aircraft, there was still a lot of personal information in there that I had never heard or read before, and that proved to be very interesting indeed, particularly their relationship with their father and sister. When you consider what it was that their father did, he was a preacher who went around the country (and the world) giving lectures and holding religious revivals, but he believed that his children should learn the sciences and to be curious about the world so their leaning toward technology and spending their lives working first with bicycles and later with airplanes, should not have been a surprise. And as a family, they stayed very close living at home with their father and sister.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Jboggs]

Having read several books about the Wright brothers, including McCullough's and another popular one, The Bishop's Boys, I'll say I have learned something new from all of them. I agree with SparWeb's assessment of McCullough's book but I did not find that to be a fault. Other books have fully explained the technical details. His book filled in many more details about their lives as human beings, not inventors, and I appreciate that.

 

[IceNine]

I'd recommend all of Erik Larson's books:

Devil in the White City
In the Garden of Beasts
Dead Wake
Isaac's Storm

He has a gripping way of keeping you interested while already knowing the general outcome of the historical events...

 

[jari001]

I second the Erik Larson suggestion.

I also recommend anything related to The Lord of the Rings.

The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver is a decent read.

The Physics of Wall Street by James Owen Weatherall is an interesting introduction about "PhDs on Wall Street trying to predict the market".

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis is a nice foray into high frequency trading via a case study of someone trying to fight against the practice.

 

[jgailla]

I just finished Devil in the White City. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Sparweb]

Got this one for christmas: Digital Apollo.
A fascinating, behind the scenes, look at the development of the SYSTEMS that made the Apollo mission work.
Very detailed, and of particular value to any systems engineer, especially one who is integrating design work from many contractors/subcontractors into a final product, big or small.
I see many "systems integration" issues in my work, and some of the solutions that I tentatively put forth in my workplace have actually been used effectively in many spheres, including the NASA space program.
Joe Shea is my new hero.


STF

 

[Jboggs]

So glad someone else was able to enjoy Digital Appollo. David Mindell did such a good job of putting you right there in the midst of the times and the challenges with the engineers struggling to even define, much less solve, problems that humans had never really encountered before. I can also HIGHLY recommend the documentary series, Moon Machines, based on his work.

 

[ornerynorsk]

My daughters usually get me either books or bookstore gift cards for Christmas. This year I received "The Demon in the Freezer" by Richard Preston, a 14 year old work that had never caught my attention. Fascinating read about the eradication of smallpox, the subsequent decisions to destroy and then save the remaining stocks of smallpox variela, and the anthrax incident after 9/11, all inter-related by the players involved. Very sobering bit about virus weaponization, and the relative ease at which it is accomplished.

Digital Apollo sounds great, that will be my next one.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.