bookrastinating.com

Chris wants to read Tomorrow's Parties by Jonathan Strahan

Jonathan Strahan: Tomorrow's Parties (2022, MIT Press)

Tomorrow's Parties by Jonathan Strahan

Twelve visions of living in a climate-changed world.

We are living in the Anthropocene—an era of dramatic and violent …

Chris wants to read There Are No Accidents by Jessie Singer

Jessie Singer: There Are No Accidents (2022, Simon & Schuster)

There Are No Accidents by Jessie Singer

We hear it all the time: “Sorry, it was just an accident.” And we’ve been deeply conditioned to just accept …

Chris quoted Confessions of a Recovering Engineer by Marohn, Charles L., Jr.

Marohn, Charles L., Jr.: Confessions of a Recovering Engineer (2021, Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John)

So, today cars drive slowly and it is safe, but you want to flatten the street, straighten the street, widen the street, and remove all of the trees so that cars can drive fast? Only afterwards will you post a speed limit so that cars will slow down? And you say this is safer?

— Confessions of a Recovering Engineer by Marohn, Charles L., Jr.

Already in the introduction I can tell this book is going to make me seethe. Cities are built so that the car is king and pedestrians and residents are at best an afterthought, or at worst an annoyance. Civil engineers have a cookbook for how to build a road and make it safe, but that safety is for people inside a vehicle.

Chris wants to read Ansible for DevOps by Jeff Geerling

Jeff Geerling: Ansible for DevOps (Paperback, 2020, Midwestern Mac, LLC)

Ansible for DevOps by Jeff Geerling

Chris wants to read Immune by Philipp Dettmer

Philipp Dettmer: Immune (2021, Random House Publishing)

Immune by Philipp Dettmer

A gorgeously illustrated deep dive into the immune system that will forever change how you think about your body, from …

Chris reviewed Strong Towns by Charles L. Marohn Jr.

Charles L. Marohn Jr.: Strong Towns (Hardcover, 2019, Wiley)

Strong Towns: A Bottom Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward …

Eye opening

5 stars

Author Chuck Marohn is no stranger to civil engineering and his insights on how cities are built and maintained offer a point of view that I've never considered before.

As a reader living in North America if you aren't already following the trend of new urbanism, you need to go into this with an open mind. This book presents ideas on city development that go against most people's core beliefs, and many will find themselves unable to grasp that radical change is required. You will learn that after decades of unending growth, we are about to find ourselves in a situation where cities can no longer sustain themselves and the cracks are already beginning to show.

This book and the author have completely changed the way I look at cities.

Author Chuck Marohn is no stranger to civil engineering and his insights on how cities are built and maintained offer a point of view that I've never considered before.

As a reader living in North America if you aren't already following the trend of new urbanism, you need to go into this with an open mind. This book presents ideas on city development that go against most people's core beliefs, and many will find themselves unable to grasp that radical change is required. You will learn that after decades of unending growth, we are about to find ourselves in a situation where cities can no longer sustain themselves and the cracks are already beginning to show.

This book and the author have completely changed the way I look at cities.