Don't Throw This Away! The Civil Engineering Life

by Brian Brenner

If you keep your ties for so long, they start to curl up...If you think the Firth of Forth Rail Bridge is a dream vacation destination...If you evaluate infrastructure for your daughter s hamsters...If you one-up your techno-nerd neighbor by offering to network his toilets...you must meet Brian Brenner, a civil engineer s civil engineer. In Don t Throw This Away! The Civil Engineering Life, Brenner reports on what it s like to be a civil engineer in the 21st the mindset, the practice, the profession. Equally skilled as a writer and an engineer, Brenner ranges from serious discussions of suburban sprawl, technology run amok, and bridge aesthetics, to comical accounts of packrat habits, quacking moments, and engineering fashion. This entertaining collection of essays displays Brenner s distinctive combination of quirky humor and engineering right stuff.

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2006

Reviews

[Michael Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall the book is a decent read and enjoyable considering that it could have quickly jumped into engineering principles. The author does a great job of connecting the world with what engineers (in particular civil engineers) not only do but in a way with how we live life.

However with how the author approached his writing I felt that he was in a way seeing things from only his personal view. While many times I agreed with the author, I also was bothered by how he viewed innovation and comparison to Boston (where the author is from) to name a few. An example with innovation was that he felt it was more appropriate to do things as they were intended versus being creative with an approach. An example of how things didn't compare to his beloved Boston was with the walkway sysyem in Mnneapolis being ineffective in that the streets are baren whereas in Boston the city steets are alive with markets and shops.

Overall this is a good book and would be enjoyable to many. I would just caution you to take some of his articles with a grain of salt in that just because he doesn't like something doesn't mean he is right.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays, humorously written (although as a civil engineer myself, I'm biased) and quick to read. A few essays are kind of in-jokes to engineers, but by and large the essays should be enjoyable to anyone out there.