Ridley, Space, Time and Things. Useful pop-sci discussion of
some fundamental physical concepts.
Feynman Lectures on Physics
Schwartz, Principles of Electrodynamics. I took the usual
Jackson course, but this is where I really learned E&M.
Fermi, Thermodynamics. And this is the one that really taught
me thermo.
French, Newtonian Mechanics
Taylor & Wheeler, Spacetime Physics. (The old red paperback
edition that had all the problems worked out in the back.)
Rindler, Relativity: Special, General, Cosmological. Really
strong on intuition. A bit weak on tensors.
Ohanian, Gravitation and Spacetime. He works out the
linearized equations for GR based on heuristic arguments, allowing him
to cover a lot of physics before dumping Riemannian geometry in your
lap.
Mermin, Space and Time in Special Relativity. He rewrote this
as It's About Time.
Fowles, Analytical Mechanics, 3rd ed.. I really liked the uncomplicated
approach when using this for background reading in my graduate
mechanics course.
Landau & Lifschitz, Mechanics. Elegant as always. The book to
remind you that classical mechanics is beautiful, not just a grind.
Gasiorowicz, Quantum Physics. This was my undergrad text, so
there may be an element of nostalgia here. Reviewing it now, I like
the no-nonsense approach, find it very strong on showing you how to do
calculations, but perhaps a little weak on stressing some
fundamentals (they're there, but would probably slide past the uninitiated).
Schwinger, Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements.
An amazing book. He works out the algebra of the Dirac formalism
inductively using Stern-Gerlach type experiments. This gives you a
strong feeling for the physical meaning of the mathematics. And
that's just the first 80 pages or so, there's lots of fascinating
stuff here. He also works out all the calculations in great detail.
I'm sure it would have been even better if Schwinger had lived to
finish it himself, but it's still very readable.Spiegel, Mathematical Handbook. Everyone needs this.
