Favorite books to read on subjects ranging from Astronomy

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tribdog said:
I'm reading a book right now and I'm sort of getting into it. It's a little bit different than all the ones mentioned so far, but it is interesting. "The Voyage of the Beagle" by Charles Darwin

A few months ago I was looking around at the bookstore near me and they had a copy of 'The Darwin Compendium' (Which is all of his books in one 2000 page hardback book) for $5.00. I'll have to read it sometime, although it could very well take me over a year to finish it.:bugeye:
 
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CJ2116 said:
A few months ago I was looking around at the bookstore near me and they had a copy of 'The Darwin Compendium' (Which is all of his books in one 2000 page hardback book) for $5.00. I'll have to read it sometime, although it could very well take me over a year to finish it.:bugeye:

He's a lot more interested in geology than I am, but I like his interesting animal experiments. He also cares a lot less for the sanctity of life than he would have to nowadays but that's how it was back then. I'm also cheating and not really reading the book, I have it on my ipod. I put the earphones in when I go to bed and slowly drift into sleep listening to it.
 


CJ2116 said:
A few months ago I was looking around at the bookstore near me and they had a copy of 'The Darwin Compendium' (Which is all of his books in one 2000 page hardback book) for $5.00. I'll have to read it sometime, although it could very well take me over a year to finish it.:bugeye:

Wow. That is a steal. I'd take it off your hands if you'd like! :smile:
 


Black Holes, Wormholes & Time Machines - Jim Al-Khalili
The Magic Furnace - Marcus Chown
Parallel Worlds - Michio Kaku
The Extravagant Universe - Robert Kirshner
Chaos - James Gleick
E=mc2 - David Bodanis
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat - John Gribbin
In Search of Superstrings - John Gribbin

reference-
Nature's Building Blocks - John Emsley
Particle Astrophysics - Donald Perkins
Fusion: Energy of the Universe - Garry McCracken and Peter Stott
Exploring Black Holes, introduction to general relativity - Edwin Taylor and John Wheeler

fiction-
Iain M banks Culture novels, Consider Phlebas a personal favourite

other-
The Search For El Dorado - John Hemming
 
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I'm about done reading physics books for a while. It seems like it is the same stuff over and over. I do like some of the personality stuff about physicists, but I can only read about the twin paradox so many times.
 


For classics I suggest H.G. Wells and Alexdre Dumas. If you like short stories check out a more complete selection of Edgar Allen Poe. He was a major influence in short story writing and is credited as writing the first dectective story ('The Purloined Letter' I think). Unless you're already familiar with his work most people don't realize that he didn't just write 'goth' material. He also wrote satire, dark comedy, adventure, and even a scifi spoof called 'The Balloon Hoax' making fun of the authors and dupes of the space travel hoaxs of the time.
 


If you want a very complete understanding of the events leading up to the formation of the Big Bang theory, check out "Big Bang" by Simon Singh. Learned a whole lot from that book.

Another favorite that I've been meaning to re-read is "The Secret Pulse of Time" by Stefan Klein. Very insightful.
 


stevebd1 said:
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat - John Gribbin
In Search of Superstrings - John Gribbin

I have one book by John Gribbin that I use quite often. Almost on a daily basis. 'Q Is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics'. 560 pages of nothing but hard info, definitions, great Physicists and what they did.

IMO, a necessity to any book collection.