What Are Good Physics Books for Casual Reading?

[DiracPool]

I always like to have some popular physics book by the bed for "easy" reading late at night. I'm almost finished with my current book, "The strangest man," a biography on Paul Dirac, and need to look for another. Any suggestions? I was thinking of Dancing Wu Li masters, but it seems kind of dated. However, it never seems to leave the B&N bookstore shelves, so maybe there's something there. Also, maybe one of Lisa Randall's books. Or perhaps Cox's new book on QM? Please redirect if I'm in the wrong section here.

 

[George Jones]

There are too many good books to read.

I really liked this biography of Dirac, and I like Lisa Randall's latest book.

Although tough in places, I thing that the remarkable "The Road to Reality : A complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe" by Roger Penrose is a must.

"The Infinity Puzzle: How the Hunt to Understand the Universe Led to Extraordinary Science, High Politics, and the Large Hadron Collider" by Frank Close questions the legitimacy (fairly? unfairly?) of Abdus Salam's Nobel prize, and, using a detailed recent history of physics, shows just difficult the decisions with respect to Nobels for the Higgs boson will be.

"The Quantum Fontier: The Large Hadron Collider" by Don Lincln outlines some of the technical details of the LHC.

"Time Travel and Warp Drives: a Scientific Guide to Shortcuts Through Time and Space" by Allen Everett and Thomas Roman" gives the state-of-the-art science of time travel and warp drives, and talks about research the authors have done (in quantum field theory) that limits the possibility of these exotic beasts.

 

[n10Newton]

You are looking for Physics Books but not the textbooks, Some of them used by me are Never at Rest by Westfall, Genius by Gleick, Madam Curie by Eve Curie, The man who changed the world, The man who knows the infinity. others written by James Gleick, Roger Penrose, Stephen Hawking etc.

 

[DiracPool]

Thanks for the referrals, my personal recent favorite is Einstein's Mistakes, by Hans Ohanian, anyone read that one? It's a popular book but not dummied down, just the right amount of technicality. Anybody know of anything similar? Keep the reviews coming!

 

[Adyssa]

I read The Strangest Man recently and loved it! A few others I read and enjoyed in the last year or so are:

Genius by James Gleick (Feynman bio)
The Poincare Conjecture by Donal O'Shea
The Very First Light by John C. Mather (the COBE satellite story)
e: The Story Of A Number - Eli Maor

 

[DiracPool]

Anybody read the Oppenheimer book, American Prometheus?

 

[ImaLooser]

I greatly enjoyed Einstein: Life and Times, though there is hardly any physics in it. Of Germany in WWI Einstein wrote of "this idiot race that thinks that it has free will."

 

[NanaToru]

Is it obvious to talk about anything by Carl Sagan? I feel like The Demon Haunted World is a great anthem for science, recommend it to anyone identifying with "scientist."

 

[DiracPool]

I'm currently reading "The complete idiot's guide to string theory." It's actually pretty good. Don't tell anyone outside this thread, though, please, it's kind of embarassing.