Buckminster Fuller's Books, a Review Buckminster Fuller is one of my heroes, because he tirelessly crusaded for great ideas, in the face of huge opposition, and was able to make major contributions to science, design, ecology and others. Most of all, I love Bucky's desire to approach the entire problem (solve all aspects of it, not just the popular ones) and do completely discard preconceived attitudes at a solution, in order to create something totally novel which elegantly solves a problem like nothing else could. I have two small criticisms: first, he had many good ideas that he discarded in order to move on (his car, tension-based housing, polyphasic sleep) and that he so delighted in shocking people with his ideas that he was sometimes was not rigorous with his own ideas (teleportation, and "feeling the spin of the earth", to name two). All of Fuller's works are written in Bucky's trademark "BuckySpeak": an amalgam of run-on sentences, created words, seemingly disconnected thoughts, and strikingly unfamiliar uses of familiar words. Bucky spoke in exactly the same way that he wrote. In many ways, this reminds me of Mary Daly's "Webster's... Dictionary", which also seeks to redefine common words along a new philosophic interpretation (though, of course, Bucky long pre-date's Mary Daly). Thus, reading Buckminster Fuller is difficult, as you need to immerse yourself in his Universe, and pay close attention to details. If you commit the effort, you will be greatly rewarded by your investment. A collection of clippings, articles about and by Buckminster Fuller, Your Private Sky belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in Bucky. The book moves linearly through Bucky's "Chronofile", reproducing many of Bucky's own notes, sketches, and photographs of his life. Occasionally, some narrative from the editors explains what you're looking at, but mostly this book is a scrapbook culled from Bucky's own scrapbook, and for that very reason, it is a fascinating, unpolished and rough history of this man's work. Note that the book itself is beatifully put together: every page is on glossy paper, with hundreds of both black and white, and full color pages. The "Discourse" book is a collection of Bucky's writings. Many hard-to-find items are reproduced, such as a draft letter to Einstein. There are many photographs of Bucky's drawings and typed letters, most of which have never appeared before. A real treasure! James Baldwin's BuckyWorks - the book that introduced me to Buckminster Fuller, and probably the best overview of Bucky's many contributions. I especially like how the book covers so many of his contributions, almost as an "encyclopedia of ideas", rather than focusing on just the few famous inventions. Grunch of Giants - an analysis of world economics, and how multinationals have the dual effect of selfish profit-motivation, but at the same dissolve national boundaries through the pursuit of that goal. This book is now available for free on the web at the Buckminster Fuller Institute. Operating manual for Spaceship Earth - Bucky makes a convincing argument for why the Earth needs to be treated as on big spaceship, all alone in the universe. An outline of design science. This book is now available for free on the web at the Buckminster Fuller Institute. I also own an excellent video documentary, on Buckminster Fuller that I greatly recommend. For those of you thinking of building a geodesic dome to live in, let me say: don't. Before you go too far with that idea, join the dome-home mailing lists out there, and read about it. Then, you'll want to learn all about Monolithic Domes, a much better idea, and the kind of house I hope to build for myself one day. Other book categories: Science, History, Science fiction, Ayn Rand, Salman Rushdie Business