Book recomendations

This morning I was at a Friends of the Library book sale looking for interesting books. Did not find any that were really good, but plan to go back tomorrow when the books are half price. But thought it would be interesting to get recommendations on books from people that frequent this group.

I will start off with a few that are kind of off topic.

One is "American Steel." Below is a review found on Amazon. Nucor has continued to grow and is now the largest producer of steel in the USA.

In 1987 a maverick and minor-rank steel company named Nucor set out to challenge American "big steel" and foreign competition by crash- building on Indiana farmland a new facility, of German design, to produce sheet metal for consumer products, profitably and at competitive prices. In order to document this partial reversal of America's steel-industry decline, Preston ( First Light ) lived for months with Nucor's principal players: down-to-earth CEO Ken Iverson, larger-than-life project boss Keith Busse, cool unit manager Mark Millet and bossy Westphalian inventor-machinists. Also present are dozens of proud "hot metal" workers sweating around the clock to iron out start-up kinks, surviving fiery explosions and runaway meltdowns, and occasionally belting down boilermaker highballs to ease the tension. Preston's skillful narrative, deft characterization, authentic dialogue and description of operations make this an absorbing, informative, moving reading experience. First serial to the New Yorker. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Another book worth reading is " Making Great Decisions in Business and Life ". One of the Amazon reviews below. Yes not directly related to metal working, but in metalworking you do have to make decisions.

This brilliantly written book is a stimulating, fun read filled with great stories and examples. It has practical applications for business people, and yet is written for everyone. If my predecessors at the companies I turned around had read and understood this book, their companies wouldn t have needed me. I wish I had had this book when I taught decision analysis at Harvard. It would make a great supplementary text for virtually any course I teach. It is, simply, a great book. --John O. Whitney, Columbia Business School

And last is " Design of Weldments " by Blodgett. Very much on topic. Available from Lincoln Welding. Do not get a used copy. Lincoln sell them new for less than most book sellers sell the used copies.

Try your local library before buying. I do not think my local library has any of these books on the shelf, but can get them through an inter-library loan.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster
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Did the book mention Nucor's strange history of surviving on the edge of bankruptcy for 75 years, first as the REO Motor Company and then Nuclear Corporation of America?

Other good ones: The Yard, about the workers who build destroyers at the Bath Iron Works

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it came out I was working for a brilliant engineer and manager on a similar project, so it was very interesting to read a writer's perspective on the group dynamics of what we too were doing the same way.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

It mentions that Nucor had REO roots, but there was not much about that. There was more about how Nuclear Corp of America went essentially bankrupt. The only asset they had was losses good for tax right offs. The CEO left. And Iversen was persuaded by Samuel Siegel to become the CEO.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

Two more books that are good.

Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics. The first one came out about four years ago. Ought to be easy to get from your public library. The second one is a current release. I had to wait some weeks before getting a copy. Both books are easy reading with lots of footnotes. SuperFreakonomics is 216 pages so about two hours of reading, not counting laughing time.

An example of the topics covered is drunk driving vs drunk walking. Their analysis shows that about 5 times more hazardous to walk drunk than to drive drunk.

Any big believers in Climate Warming should not read SuperFreakonomics. It points out all the problems with the current approaches to global warming. An example is that cutting out burning fossile fuels will not make much difference. CO2 is a small portion of the greenhouse gases. Methane and water vapor swamp the CO2 contribution.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

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