Reading list
Last updated: April 2026Books I keep coming back to, am working through, or plan to read — mostly engineering, design, and the people behind both.
The bible of mechanical engineering. Every shop and design office needs a copy.
Parmley’s visual catalog — a reliable first stop for mechanisms.
Blodgett’s classic. The definitive guide to strong, cost-effective weldments.
Essential anthropometric reference for physical product design.
Practical FEA focused on product design, not academic theory.
The GD&T reference. Loucks’ treatment of geometric tolerancing for engineering drawings.
Papanek’s argument that design must serve human need over commerce. Still provocative.
A history of precision manufacturing and the obsessives who made it possible.
Petroski on why things fail — and why failure drives good engineering.
Ferguson on visual thinking in engineering — a case for drawing over calculation.
Compact lessons from practice. Good for students and seasoned engineers alike.
Same format, design school lens — useful overlap with engineering thinking.
Ben Rich’s account of Lockheed’s legendary advanced projects division. Reads like a thriller.
Flyvbjerg on why megaprojects fail and the planning discipline that prevents it.
Pre-Wright aviation attempts — how engineers thought about flight before it was solved.
Nevil Shute’s memoir — half engineering career, half the story of building the R100 airship.
Carroll Smith on material selection and engineering for motorsport. Deeply practical.
Inside ASML, the Dutch company that makes the machines that make all our chips.
Decades of aerospace competition between two giants, told from the inside.
An intro to engineering design thinking — what school doesn’t always teach explicitly.
A fictional account of a private launch vehicle company — surprisingly rigorous.
Perrow’s argument that complex tightly-coupled systems will inevitably fail.
Roma Agrawal on the invisible engineering holding up the built world around us.
Feynman’s wit and irreverence make physics feel like a game.
Stanley Hooker’s autobiography — turbine designer, Merlin engine. Remarkably candid.
Gleick’s deeper biography — the science itself, not just the anecdotes.
Epstein’s case for generalists in a world obsessed with early specialization.
Scott Young’s framework for aggressive, self-directed skill acquisition.
Adler on analytical reading — how to actually get the most out of what you read.
Hamming’s lectures on how great scientists and engineers actually learn to think.
Tetlock on what separates accurate forecasters from everyone else.
Jane McGonigal on using futures thinking to prepare for large-scale disruption.
The Harvard Negotiation Project’s guide to having the conversations you’ve been avoiding.
Cialdini on what happens before the ask — how context shapes receptivity.
Dated in places, durable in most. The most efficient intro to interpersonal dynamics.
A short guide to qualitative customer research. Often recommended alongside The Mom Test.
How to talk to non-designers about design choices without losing your sanity or the room.
Purpose-driven career guidance for engineers — thinking beyond the technical track.
Staying relevant across a long technical career — skills, habits, and adaptability.