Good Books

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Al

Al

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I'm getting backed up on my reading lately. I bought two books the other day"Nothing Like It in the World" by Steven Ambrose. Its about the Building of the Trans Con Railroad-great read. and Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant- its about a pre WWII secret lab where a significant development in Radar Technologh supposedly changed the course of WWII (haven't started it yet)

Then I was at the public library checking out their new arrivals and got hooked on "Inviting Disaster" by James Chiles. The book chronicles major Technological foibles ( Challenger, Hubble/Fubble, Ocean Ranger Drill Rig, TMI, Appolo 13 and others) It details the event and the really big picture of why it happens. He draws common threads tying them together. Facinating-can't put it down.

Anyone have any "Must reads??"
 
Not into fiction these days, too busy with technical stuff.

Here is my pick:

Richard Feynman, "The Pleasure of Find things Out."
 
Golly, I am doing a lot "fat fingering" these days.

The title should have read,

Richard Feynman, "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out."

Funny you should mention Al, I have been reading about radar development as well and I will post the title (now where in my pile of books did I put that?).

As you can see, I am also highly organized!
 
Al,

Here's the title:
Robert Buderi, "The Invention that Changed the World: How a small group of pioneers won the second world war and launched a technological revolution." Simon and Schuster.
ISBN 0-684-81021-2.
 
I'm 3/4 through this one:

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I can't recommend this book enough. Its a science book and a history book. The progress that was made in the 30's by by Bohr,Fermi, Szilard, Openheimer, Chadwick, Lawerence, etc is mind boggling. Consider that the Newtron was only discovered in 1932 and it was only in December of 1942 that Fermi's reactor produced more neutrons than it absorbed (sustaining chain reaction) The author Richard Rhodes is obviously so knowledgeable that you are in awe of the genious of these scientists.

Also striking are the resources and technology that the U.S. was able to muster in spite of the resources already allocated to other war effort projects. Its a lengthy book (886 pages) but over 100 of those pages are pictures, notes,index, etc. This book is a classic.
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Yeah I can type, too.
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The above should be: "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress"

Also a great book "1421, The Year China Discovered America". I mentioned this book earlier, a fascinating read - even though the writer is not really a "professional". Just a good read to loosen our poor but tight grip on Eurocentric history.
 
How about "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
Mein Kampf by hitler
The prince by Machiavelli
Republic by Plato
The Second Treatise on government by John Locke
Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The blank slate by Pinker
The Players of Null A by A.E. van Vogt
Dune by Frank Herbert
Sten series by Cole
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The combat 45 auto by Bill Wilson
Crime and Punishment in American history by Friedman
The Death of common sense by howard
Civilization and its discontents by Sigmund Frued
More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott

I think that's enough for now.

Dan
 
quote:
Originally posted by Al:
I'm getting backed up on my reading lately. I bought two books the other day"Nothing Like It in the World" by Steven Ambrose. Its about the Building of the Trans Con Railroad-great read. and Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant- its about a pre WWII secret lab where a significant development in Radar Technologh supposedly changed the course of WWII (haven't started it yet)

Then I was at the public library checking out their new arrivals and got hooked on "Inviting Disaster" by James Chiles. The book chronicles major Technological foibles ( Challenger, Hubble/Fubble, Ocean Ranger Drill Rig, TMI, Appolo 13 and others) It details the event and the really big picture of why it happens. He draws common threads tying them together. Facinating-can't put it down.

Anyone have any "Must reads??"
Click to expand...
My suggestion is a very old one. It's
"Man for Himself" by Erich Fromm.

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Jae
 
the wasp factory by ian banks, the best book i ever read.
street car named desire
catcher in the rye

all excellent non mainstream books.
 
Sorry I only read his other (first?) book, O'Reilly Factor. I actually agree with his writing, but find his style kinda campy boring. I mean I don't expect Vonnegut or racy stuff....but do I need a book to tell me that (most) Chinese food in the USA sucks, or that my kids should read more (and watch TV less)? OK OK wasn't his main point....so maybe I should his latest.

This just in
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wife just picked up (at the Library): "The Dancing Wu Li Masters, An Overview of the New Physics" by Gary Zukav. I will start now!
 
A few odds 'n ends:

Freefall: A true story book about a Canadian airliner where everything goes wrong and they end up at cruising altitude out of gas. Then everything goes right and the manage to land it. The plane ends up with the nick name "The Gimli Glider"

The Truth About Chernoble: An as told by one of the engineers that was there. Chilling, it will give you some incredible mental images as you read it.

The City of Light: A bit of a slow read at times, but worth the effort. It chronicles the development of fiber optics (and it starts way way back). A good book that will give you a better appreciation of the internet age.
 
I read a lot of Richard Feynman books a couple years ago. MolaKule, try Feynman's "Lectures on Physics." I admit after the first volume I gave up and read his easier "Five Easy Pieces," which was really not all that easy, but at least I was not totally lost. One of the Feynmen books mentioned this book: Michael Faraday's "Chemical History of a Candle," another great read. My favorite Feynman books were the first two I read, "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman: the adventures of a curious character," and "What do you care what other people think" (possibly not quite correctly quoted that title), which has a big section on the Challenger space shuttle explosion investigation, the politics of the investigation committee (which had selected the desired outcome before the investigation began), and how Feynman exposed the seal problem on national television.

Another good book recently read (forgot the title) was about Charles Protaeus Steinmetz, who (relying on memory here) made hundreds if not thousands of discoveries in electrical engineering and ended the AC DC debate forever by developing the first AC power plant at Niagara Falls. Right in front of me is "Making of the Electrical Age (1963, by Harold I. Sharlin), waiting to be read.

Also recently read "Glory Days, When horsepower and passion ruled Detroit," a great book all about the GTO, by the man who marketed it, Jim Wangers.

Too many others to list. Don't get much time for fiction, though there is a lot of good stuff there too.

[ January 06, 2004, 12:42 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]
 
quote:
Originally posted by Last_Z:
Has anybody read "Who's looking after you?" from Bill O'Reilly? How is it?
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I think Bill is a litt to "Full of Himself " There are just a ton of those type of books out there. His is just one more. (IMHO)

The Dancing Wu Li Masters looks good
 
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