Very early in my career, early enough that I could fully appreciate its relevance for another few decades, I stumbled across a copy of Arthur Boch's Murphey's Law and other reasons things go wrong. The fundamental truth of the astute, or more often, pained, observations of engineers continues to impress me.

The 26th anniversary edition was released (or escaped) in 2003.

http://www.amazon.com/Murphys-Law-26th-Anniversary-Edition/d...