An Elementary Course of Civil Engineering: For the Use of Cadets of the United States' Milit... Book

It offers a good overview of the basic concepts but the format is perhaps too much that of a handbook, leaving you with little creative study space for extracting definitions, creating summaries, etc. Too much of a good thing.

I don't think I have ever included this in a book review, but the size and choice of paper just made it difficult to handle. So far for reading up in bed, slipping it in your bag, stealing some extra hours by studying on the train. It seems so trivial but over the course of a semester I do notice those things actually do make a difference.

Since the concepts in this books are so basic, I made up for lost study time with Khan Academy, and actually think the courses there could have substituted this book (and the entire semester, for that matter).

On a more positive note: the 'stories' were a great addition I think, really bringing the basics back to the 'real world'.