这是一本非常有趣的建筑科普读物。它从最简单的帐篷搭设到摩天大楼的建造，把各种形态的建筑原理、结构力学以及构件材料的选用，讲得清清楚楚。最为生动的是，全书附有大量示意图，指导读者用手工实验的方式来理解结构原理，做实验的材料多是唾手可得的生活用品或废物。这就把及其复杂、奥妙的建筑原理化为人人可知的常识了，对制作其它器皿或工艺作品也有参考价值，能极大地丰富人们的结构想象。

——原书书目页简介

Mario G. Salvadori (March 19, 1907 – June 25, 1997)[1] was a structural engineer and professor of both civil engineering and architecture at Columbia University.

Salvadori was born in Rome, Italy in 1907. His father, an engineer who worked for the telephone company, became the chief engineer of the city of Genoa when the phone company merged with their French counterpart. Salvadori's father later became the head of the gas and electric company in Spain. As a consequence, Salvadori spent many years of his youth in Madrid and only returned to Italy in 1923. Two years later, when he was 18, he started what the first student jazz band in Italy; one of his youthful dreams was to become a concert conductor, although his parents did not encourage this.

He earned doctoral degrees in both civil engineering and mathematics from the University of Rome in 1930 and 1933 respectively. The next two years he did graduate research in photoelasticity at University College London. Subsequently, he returned to Rome, where he served as an instructor at the University of Rome. Salvadori was an outspoken critic of the regime of Benito Mussolini,[1] and he subsequently left Italy in 1938 or 1939[1] for New York at the recommendation of his teacher and friend, Enrico Fermi.

……

（以上摘自维基百科，未为尽举。但我们已经知道，这位结构界的大牛，生活从来鲜明：父亲是意大利电气公司派驻在西班牙的分部老大；他少年时代在西班牙读过，大学时代成立了意大利的第一个爵士乐队；当时的理想是做个指挥家…… 后来去美留学，是出自他的良师益友的建议：他就是费米。）