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I just got an email notification that I have a package arriving tomorrow via UPS. Tracking says it was shipped in Changzhou City, China today, so that's *fast*! I have no idea what it is. I'm waiting for my glasses (Zenni says the order is still "processing") and a used Fitbit from Ebay (tracking says USPS is still awaiting package) so I'm clueless. I hope it's something good!

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I got another email about it, this time with a company name, Jiangsu Taojing Co., Ltd. Looks like it's my glasses. Yay! Apparently the Zenni website is a little behind on the order status.

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My brief review on Library Thing of Mario Salvadori's "Why Buildings Stand Up: the Strength of Architecture."

This had a lot of great information for someone like me; an interested layperson with no professional design training. The style is a classic sort of stuffy academic prose, and in places goes on at unnecessary length about how much of a genius someone was (the paragraph-plus extolling the mind of Gustave Eiffel being a good example), but it's certainly informative and engaging if I put that aside.

I did feel like a lot of what was here was similar to Edward Allen's (no relation!) book, How Buildings Work: The Strength of Architecture, which I read recently. Allen was rather broader in range of topics, and Salvadori more in depth in examining structural design theory and specific historical and modern buildings. It was worth a read, for sure.

basefinder, this book was written in 1980 and the author is quite excited and optimistic about the future of thin shell concrete construction! You might find that portion in particular interesting.

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And my brief review of Salvadori's other book (with Matthys Levy), Why Buildings Fall Down: How Structures Fail. I just finished that yesterday. As much as I miss biking, I do appreciate all this time on the train to read. Today, I'm starting on Alexandra Horowitz' "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know."

Salvadori's dedication notes that his mother-in-law thought that his book "Why Buildings Stand Up," was nice, but she would be much more interested in why they fall down. She had a good point; I found this book more engaging than the other one. As well as covering structural theory in a way that I mostly was able to follow (there's an appendix in the back that covers things at a more basic and abstract level too), that theory is tied into specific instances of building collapse, both famous and relatively unknown. One of the authors has professional experience as a forensic engineer and has testified in court proceedings in that capacit. His discussion of those proceedings in the book adds some interest too.

More strongly and clearly than the other books on architecture and design I've read, Why Buildings Fall Down gives me a sense of awe at the number of different pieces, both literal and metaphorical, that must fit nicely together for a building to do what it's supposed to do safely.