Paperboy: Confessions of a Future Engineer (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "ON MY TWELFTH BIRTHDAY, our family moved from the city that we knew to the suburbs that we did not..." (more)
Key Phrases: circulation office, flipping papers, route book, Cambria Heights, Long Island, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Petroski wrote this charming memoir while on sabbatical from Duke University (where he is chair of the civil engineering department) to show how being a paperboy "prepared [him] for becoming an engineering student and, ultimately, an engineer." The book focuses on his adolescent years from 1954 to 1958, following the family's move on his 12th birthday from Brooklyn to Cambria Heights, Queens. Petroski (The Evolution of Useful Things) was given a bicycle for that birthday and shortly thereafter acquired a paper route. He maintained the route for four years, as he moved from grammar school to high school and broadened his interests into girls, reading, machines, etc., and along the way learned about life as only adolescents can. The writing is Petroski at his best: clear, flowing, interesting, and fun. Readers get a glimpse of life in the 1950s, with delightful details, for example, on train sets, bicycles, street layouts, newspapers, and bingo, none of which slows down the story as readers are drawn into the Petroski family. Highly recommended for all collections. Michael D. Cramer, Schwarz BioSciences, Raleigh, NC
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In the early 1950s, 12-year-old Petroski's move from Brooklyn to Queens meant a shift from city to suburban life. On his first day in his new Cambria Heights neighborhood at the edge of Queens, the last outpost before one encountered Manhattan, Petroski received a birthday present that figured heavily in his life--a bike. The author's fascination with his bike's construction foreshadowed his engineering future, and the freedom it brought enabled him to get a job delivering the Long Island Press, providing him with income, camaraderie with the Press boys, and a sense of purpose. Petroski tells of his coming-of-age largely through vignettes about his paper route, highlighting significant world events as they appeared in the paper and explaining how this experience (and others) led him to take the path in life he did. Though he occasionally bogs the story down with too much detail, Petroski (a popular science writer whose works include Remaking the World, 1997) offers a charming account of adolescence in a much different era. Beth Warrell
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (March 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375413537
• ISBN-13: 978-0375413537
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,759,615 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another winner by Henry Petroski, May 26, 2002

By	Lawrence W. Prichard "lj-and-me" (Kent, OH, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Paperboy", by Henry Petroski is another one of his intelligent, friendly, winning books.Petroski, of "The Pencil", and "The Evolution of Useful Things,"wrote about his family's move from the city to the suburbs in the 1950s.However, there's more- how he had difficulty finding a place in a school that would provide him with the challenge and stimulation he needed, the comfort of family, the joy of friendship, and the challenges of the physical world.Petroski is one of the great scientist=writers, like Lewis Thomas, Primo Levi, and Stephen Jay Gould. However, Petroski is a mapper of the world of bridges, buildings, and the one who ddeply notices pencils, paperclips. and how to fold a newspaper.This is a good book, and would be a great book for many men- Father's day, birthdays, high school graduations--And, a great gift for women, too

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Local Recollections, November 23, 2006

By	W. Holubowich - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great compilation of memories for anyone who grew up in Cambria Heights in the 1950s/1960s. From the stores on Linden Boulevard to the nuns at Sacred Heart School, to the kids in the neighborhood it will bring back memories of a time and place once enjoyed and long forgotten.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, September 13, 2005

By	Jpellenberger "big reader" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paperboy: Confessions of a Future Engineer (Paperback)

Not only an interesting recalling the 50's, but full of thought provoking insights. They creep in on the story and all of a sudden you realize you have read something deeper than throwing a paper across a lawn.