Book Reports

The book reports provided here concern primarily business subjects. They are primarily about books that deal with technology or the development and introduction of new products. Take a look at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble to browse books of a similar nature if these sound interesting to you.

21st Century Jet	21st Century Jet is a book about the design and marketing of the Boeing 777 airliner. This book was written in parallel with the production of a PBS documentary that a film team created with the consent of Boeing. Its a good book. Read this first and then read Michael Crichton's book Airframe concerning the investigation into a fictional airplane incident. I watched one of the documentary segments on the local PBS station in 1998 and I'd love to see the entire sequence. Maybe next year's Christmas gift from Elaine!
Design Paradigms	Design Paradigms is basically a book about civil engineering. Its not a technical book but rather a book that talks about meta-design or the process of engineering and design with an emphasis on bridges and other civil engineering projects. The thesis of the book is that engineers must design considering failure mechanisms as well as success paths. When engineers design within a narrow scope concentrating on one or two aspects of the system being designed rather than the overall system the possibility of failure increases especially when the design envelope is being pushed.
No Downlink	This book, written by a Dane and first published in Denmark, is a report on the Challenger incident. The Challenger, one of the US space shuttles, blew up during a flight as it traversed the lower atmosphere in 1986 killing all seven occupants. The book first chronicles the US space program from its pre-NASA days up to the shuttle program. The book then reports on the Roger's Commission proceedings and summarizes its findings.
Innovation And Entrepreneurship	This book, written by Peter Drucker, provides an excellent examination of innovation strategies, innovation practices, and what kind of changes do organizations need to make to foster innovation. It's an enjoyable read with lots of illustrative stories culled from business history from the 1800's to the 1980's which is when the book was published.