The Best Books Written by Engineers for Engineers
Can You Even Consider Yourself A Budding Engineer Until You’ve Finished These Books?
Whether you have yet to complete your college applications, or you’re already in the thick of an engineering degree and are desperate for inspiration on a thesis topic, the right reading material can transform your experiences. Books written by people who have been there and done that have especially been staples of engineering curricula for years, showing students both how to engineer well, and what really happens if things go wrong. But, when you’re just starting on your journey (or if your college professor hasn’t exactly chosen the most inspiring texts), the chances are that you haven’t a clue where to begin with your engineering book bucket list.
Luckily, there are plenty of options worth your attention and each could furnish you with the furnace of ideas that you need to either secure a place on your engineering degree of choice or gain your ultimate qualifications. However, as you likely know already, engineering is a topic that can quickly get out of hand, meaning that you don’t want to jump straight in with the heavy stuff and leave yourself overwhelmed. Instead, it’s important to build up to the best engineering tomes by starting with the basics, the most essential of which we’re going to discuss here.
# 1 – Structures – Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down by J.E. Gordon
Thought to have been one of 14 books that most inspired Elon Musk, J.E. Gordon’s Structures provides an accessible and satisfyingly straightforward introduction into…you guessed it, structures and how they work.
Simultaneously managing to straighten out engineering misunderstandings and answer the fields most meaningful yet overlooked questions, Gordon especially weaves together knowledge foundations that are as relevant to experienced engineers as they are to newbies. Included explanations of concepts like stress, shear, torsion, fraction, and compression are especially likely to become mainstays in your engineering focus, meaning that you’ll want to invest in a hard-back copy and mark countless pages with printed foil bookmarks or just post-it notes that help to highlight those all-important lessons. Then, in years to come, you’ll be able to recommend this essential just like Elon Musk recommended it to you (sort of).
# 2 – Engineer to Win by Caroll Smith
Caroll Smith is a well-known name in the Formula 1 community, and Engineer to Win has earned her equal acclaim with engineers across the field, especially those interested in mechanics.
Focusing on cutting edge racing technology, Smith’s analysis of metallurgy, metal fatigue, and general materials technology is ultimately a tale about the commitment, mentality, and skills that you need to build a career here.
Smith’s accessible, personable language also shines much-needed light on fundamental elements of engineering, including aerodynamics, ground efforts, and much more, that’s guaranteed to help you with any specialities you go on to pursue.
# 3 – Set Phasers on Stun by S.M. Casey
Often prescribed as compulsory reading material for engineering students, Set Phasers on Stun is crucial because it discusses the one thing that other engineering books omit – the realities of what happens when engineering goes wrong.
Largely concerned with the scope of error between the technicalities of engineering and how humans actually think and function (we’re talking mechanically sound aircraft falling from the sky and other monstrosities), Casey provides a no-punches look at this high-stakes industry, and the role of engineers to translate design to reality.
Not one for the faint of heart, Set Phasers on Stun especially highlights the often-forgotten importance of factoring for human error at the design stage, thus raising generations of engineers who are better able to prevent frustratingly avoidable but ultimately catastrophic mistakes throughout their careers.
# 4 – An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
Engineering books written by astronauts (and the chief of the ISS no less) are the kind of wholesome content that we all secretly hope for when we first step tentatively into the field, and An Astronaut’s Guide to Life doesn’t disappoint.
Chronicling Hadifield’s years of training and space exploration (he spent 4000 hours in space overall), the book especially makes space science more accessible to all. Further than that, Hadfield’s smart observations and obsessively quotable turn of phrase all teach us something about life, love, commitment, and what it means to be happy in a career that can truly see us changing the world.
No doubt you’ll have a lot on your plate with all of that studying, but we promise that making time for these must-reads might just make your studies that bit easier in the long term.
