Recommended Reading for Budding Engineers
Engineering students in the past have found that the following books give an interesting insight into engineering. Please remember that these books are NOT required reading for the course – you don't have to buy any books before you come to Cambridge. We hope you enjoy reading from this selection.
 | Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air This book is available as a free download from www.withouthotair.com/download.html | |
 | How Do Wings Work? Not a book but a paper published in the Institute of Physics journal Physics Education that is available as a free download from the Physics Education website | |
 | Sustainable Materials – With Both Eyes Open This book is available as a free download from http://withbotheyesopen.com/read.php | |
 | Engineering in Society An e-book published by the Royal Academy of Engineering that is available as a free (pdf) download from the RAEng website | |
 | Engineering: A Beginner's Guide | |
 | The New Science of Strong Materials – or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor | |
 | Structures – or Why Things Don't Fall Down | |
 | Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People | |
 | The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature's Book | |
 | What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History | |
 | Flying Buttresses, Entropy and O-Rings: The World of an Engineer | |
 | Bebop to the Boolean Boogie: An Unconventional Guide to Electronics | |
 | Invention by Design – How Engineers get from Thought to Thing | |
 | To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design | |
 | Remaking the World | |
 | Small Things Considered: Why There is No Perfect Design | |
 | Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering | |
 | Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering | |
 | Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design | |
 | The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems | |
 | Why Buildings Fall Down | |
 | Why Buildings Stand Up | |
 | The Science of Formula 1 Design | |
 | The Simple Science of Flight | |
 | Understanding Flight | |
 | Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century | |
 | Why Things Break: Understanding the World by the Way It Comes Apart | |
 | Seven Wonders of the Industrial World | |
 | The Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin | |
 | The Existential Pleasures of Engineering | |
 | Think Like An Engineer | |
 | How Things Work – The Physics of Everyday Life | |
 | Advanced Design and Technology |