<p>What are some books that you enjoyed reading that are about Engineering/Math/Science/Technology but are not text books?</p>
<p>I liked
"The Code Book" by Simon Singh (Deals with cryptography)</p>
<p><em>Am interested in this.</em></p>
<p>Polya’s “How to Solve It” is a must-read.</p>
<p>I haven’t read it yet, but i’ve purchased it and plan on reading it when i get back to school, but I’ve heard good things about “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. From Ars Technica:</p>
<p>"There are no end of good books science, but what if your dad slept through high school chemistry and nearly flunked biology? Just consider A Short History of Nearly Everything one of the best remedial classes, ever. Nobel Intent editor John Timmer says, “Bryson not only brings out nearly all of the big scientific ideas we’ve developed, but he describes how they developed, and keeps you awake while doing it. He provides a window into the history of scientific fields, describing how slowly some ideas—even those we now view as ludicrous—died off, and the staggeringly venomous attacks that sometimes greeted those who came up with new ones.”</p>
<p>Bryson’s gift with language especially pays off when he launches into a discussion of some of the outlandish personalities that drove much of this unfortunate behavior. In the end, science comes across as a series of sometimes hilarious personal tragedies that, because the natural world keeps correcting us, have produced a collective triumph."</p>
<p>Well they aren’t necessarily explicitly about science and technology, but that is a theme that pervades them, so I will suggest these anyway. Basically, anything from the [Jack</a> Ryan Series](<a href=“Tom Clancy - Wikipedia”>Tom Clancy - Wikipedia) by Tom Clancy.</p>
<p>Richard Feynman’s memoirs… “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” and “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”</p>
<p>“Contact” by Carl Sagan</p>
<p>“Why Buildings Stand Up” by Salvadori. If I remember correctly, his mother-in-law, upon being presented with an autographed copy of Salvadori’s book said, “Well, that’s interesting, dear, but what I’m really interested in is why buildings fall down.”</p>
<p>“Why Buildings Fall Down” by Salvadori. ;)</p>
<p>Anything by Henry Petroski is usually pretty interesting, too.</p>
<p>The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom
By Brian Cathcart</p>
<p>A short text: Science and Human Values by J. Bronowski. It is 3 essays (originally speeches at MIT) and a dialogue. I’m only halfway through it, but so far it has discussed in great detail how and why scientific ideas are developed, in the process overviewing some science history. There is also some discussion of poetry, literature, art, and anecdotes (Bronowski relates hikers picturing Mount Everest to the creation of scientific ideas). It is sort of dense (maybe because I’m reading it near midnight), so I’m going to re-read it when I finish. </p>
<p>I think Technopoly by Postman is a good book if you want to look at technology and related things in a slightly different way.</p>
<p>I actually keep a list.</p>
<p>The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene (Physics)
The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene (Physics)
In Search of Memory - Eric Kandel (Psychology)
The Drunkard’s Walk - Leonard Mlodinow (Science)
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (Physics)
Descartes’ Dream - Davis & Hersh (Mathematics)
Better - Atul Gawande (Medicine)
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard Feynman (Science)</p>
<p>Physics of the Impossible - Michio Kaku</p>
<p>Q. E. D. - Richard Feynman</p>
<p>Also, “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” by Sachs. Basically gives some cases of specific people with very weird nuerological phenomenoms. An interesting read, to say the least.</p>
<p>Anything by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt </p>
<p>“Who Moved my Cheese” - Spencer Johnson</p>
<p>“Cubes and Punishment: A Dilbert Book” by Scott Adams</p>