The Basement Bugger’s Bible

Get ready for your next weekend read! The Basement Bugger’s Bible is a unique book, blending STEM with espionage (non?)fiction. And it’s been one of my favorites for 15 years.

While this is primarily an educational book, each section is interspersed with supposedly real world anecdotes from the author’s career as a spy. While most books in this genre are dry step-by-step guides, this one stands out with a fitting noir tone to the narrator’s voice and lots of period appropriate references (i.e. comparing noisy audio circuits to smashing a guitar at Woodstock) that really lend the narrative authenticity. While I’m not certain how true each account is, I still refer back to this book for inspiration in both engineering and creative writing because it’s so much fun.

A few other honorable mentions are the “For the Evil Genius” books. They don’t have as many anecdotes, but as a kid, it was still pretty cool learning how to hack a camcorder into a night vision omnocular or convert a disposable camera into a taser.

I realize that’s probably not a glowing recommendation to most people. The parents who read this are wondering if these books are safe, while their kids are asking what a camcorder is and everyone else is seeing a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I admit I zapped myself more than once with the tasers. And you know what? I learned a lot of valuable lessons that I still use today.

These books fostered a (relatively) safe environment where I was able to experiment and fail without catastrophic consequences. Which is why I’m happy to tell you about Skillshare. (Just kidding. I wish I had sponsors lol.)

But seriously, it’s so satisfying to look back and see how far I’ve come.

And that’s one of the things that makes fiction great. It gives us a taste of that same satisfaction for others and promises growth from our failures.

Neil Gaiman said it this way:

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

What’s something you’re glad you learned?