 Too much
I hate to be contrarian, but this was one of the worst books I have ever read. The author spends much of the book over-praising the genius of Buckminster Fuller, which should lead suspicious people to question what exactly is going on. It's possible that Mr. Fuller is the greatest genius of our time; but the author should simply show us his accomplishments, rather than say it. This style of over-inflated hype was so grating to me that I began to doubt whether Mr. Fuller had accomplished much of anything, a feeling re-inforced by the ridiculous jargon that he uses to obscure his ideas. I had hoped that this book would give me a glimpse of genius, but it ended up diminishing my view of Buckminster Fuller.
 GREAT BOOK
This biography of Bucky fuller is a very good read. It is detailed and well written. I ordered the book with no prior knowledge of the author or his writing style, but after the first few pages it became clear that this book is definitely worth the price.
 More books like this on Bucky, please
On the plus side, this book is written in clear English and gives a good overview of Bucky's inventions and ideas. It helps those of us who didn't live through it, understand what all the fuss about Buckminster Fuller is about. And Bucky's ideas are in fact quite relevant to the present time.
However, on the negative side, there is a bit too much pro-Bucky "cheerleading" in this book for my taste. Although, I have zero desire to hear any "dirty laundry" or negative personal anecdotes about Bucky, I really would have liked to have learned just a bit about what Bucky's intellectual critics thought as well. There are always other resources for that though. This book is unabashedly about Bucky "worship", and considering that Bucky was probably indeed a genius, perhaps it's excusable.
Another complaint I have about this book is that it doesn't give as complete a picture of Bucky's life as it pertains to his intellectual development, as I'd like. For instance it almost seems from this book that Bucky quits his job in his early 30's and becomes a genius based on a bit of naval experience and personal studying and little more. I can't help think that there is much much more to the intellectual development of Buckminster Fuller than we are shown in this book.
Still this is a good introduction to Buckminster Fuller. It doesn't delve deeply into Bucky's views on math, but I suspect that is because even the author of this book doesn't understand them! There are still a few parts of Bucky's philosophy as explained in this book, that I don't understand at all, but I suspect they may be very difficult concepts to explain and grasp, and that I'd probably have to pick up a much more difficult book than this one to understand them, assuming they are indeed understandable.
Excellent Introduction for a Non-Technical Reader
I've tried to dive into some of the books actually written by Buckminster Fuller without success. His ideas have always intrigued me, but I found his writing style to be rambling and confusing. This book, however, is an excellent introduction to Fuller's life and ideas, without the confusing detritus. I don't have a strong math or science background, so I appreciated the fact that the author was able to explain Fuller's ideas without resorting to complex equations or formulas. The biographical aspects of this book are also quite interesting. It is chronologically arranged so that the reader can track the evolution of Fuller's thoughts as he progressed through life.
Thank you-I finally understand Bucky
All I can say is thank you to Mr. Sieden for finally helping me to understand the great Buckminster Fuller.
I first became interested in Bucky when I was in college and over the years have tried repeatedly to read Bucky's books but was never quite able to finish them. I am not an engineer or even a techie just someone interested in brilliant minds. A brilliant mind Buckminster was but he was not so great at explaining his ideas in a way that most people can understand.
So when a co-worker and I got on the subject of the great inventors of our time we naturally came around to Bucky. I told him about my great interest in Bucky and about the trouble I had finishing any of his books. He told me a Fuller "must read" is Lloyd Sieden's Buckminster Fuller's Universe.
Finally, I understand more of the great man Fuller was, the huge impact he had on humanity and still does years after his death. Thank you Mr. Sieden!
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