What Makes a Book the Best? A Scientist's Perspective

[john16O]

In your opinion what are the best books ever published?

 

[Kurdt]

Physics books!

 

[Evo]

That's got to be the James Howe books - Stories based on a vampire bunny

Bunnicula

The celery stalks at midnight

Howliday Inn

and all the rest

The best reading a parent and child can do together.

 

[Kurdt]

For childrens books I thin Dr Seuss is fantastic. My favourite book is Penrose's Road to Reality.

 

[Evo]

For childrens books I thin Dr Seuss is fantastic. My favourite book is Penrose's Road to Reality.

I love Dr Seuss, but Howe's books are short novels that take days to read and keeps your attention. He has that ability to make it interesting for both child and adult. Read some, I guarantee you'll love them.

Other than that I love science fiction short stories by Bradbury, Anderson, Heinlein, Asimov, etc...

Fantasy by Eddings, Jordan, Feist, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman starting wih the Dragons of Autumn.

 

[waht]

Kurdt Vonnegut?

 

[Evo]

Kurdt Vonnegut?

Heh.

Slaughterhouse 5

 

[Kurdt]

I love Dr Seuss, but Howe's books are short novels that take days to read and keeps your attention. He has that ability to make it interesting for both child and adult. Read some, I guarantee you'll love them.

Well I'll certainly give them a look then.

 

[Evo]

Well I'll certainly give them a look then.

Take them as fun books, afterall, the main character is a vampire bunny rabbit that sucks the juices out of vegetables. They are kind of murder-mystery books.

 

[waht]

Slaughterhouse 5

That's a classic,

so it goes.

 

[Bladibla]

Sherlock holmes

 

[arunbg]

Sherlock holmes

Second that. Also the Lord of the Rings and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery.
All beautiful reads.
Btw, the Bible is the best selling book of all time, also the first to come out printed.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

"How to profit from the coming boom in nuclear technology" by Milt Downes.

 

[Yonoz]

"The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years" by Chinghiz Aitmatov.
I know it sounds like something Borat would recommend but I loved it and found it very unique. Don't read the synopsis, it will ruin the experience.

 

[Andre]

That book about that bear of very little brain? I'd have to ask Christopher Robin about it. Piglet has no idea too.

 

[mheslep]

.
Btw, the Bible is the best selling book of all time, also the first to come out printed.

That's the King James version. Lotsa different bibles.

 

[Math Jeans]

A Brief History of Time
Flatland
Flaterland
Beyond the Shadow (I don't think that name is accurate, but it studies the fourth dimension. I know is around here somewhere.)

 

[Kurdt]

Take them as fun books, afterall, the main character is a vampire bunny rabbit that sucks the juices out of vegetables. They are kind of murder-mystery books.

I like it already.

 

[siddharth]

Gotta add The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark to the list

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

That's the King James version. Lotsa different bibles.

Actually, he was referring to the Gutenberg Bible, a version of the Latin Vulgate translation printed in around 1455. The King James translation was not published until 1611, some 150 years later.

The Gutenberg Bible is not the first printed book, woodblock printing existed in China much earlier. In the section entitled "Gutenberg's printed books", this article suggests that the Bible may not have been Gutenberg's first printed book. In the section entitled "Hypotheses about East Asian origins", it suggests that movable type predated Gutenberg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg"

 

[mheslep]

Actually, he was referring to the Gutenberg Bible, a version of the Latin Vulgate translation printed in around 1455. The King James translation was not published until 1611, some 150 years later.

The Gutenberg Bible is not the first printed book, woodblock printing existed in China much earlier. In the section entitled "Gutenberg's printed books", this article suggests that the Bible may not have been Gutenberg's first printed book. In the section entitled "Hypotheses about East Asian origins", it suggests that movable type predated Gutenberg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg"

Well the Gutenberg was a Latin translation from the Greek/Aramiac, not sure that qualifies as best selling. Its the poetry of the King James english that made it the best seller.

 

[mgb_phys]

Fiction: Ringworld, Snow Crash, Good Omens, LOTR, Calvin+Hobbes, Peanuts

Science: Selfish Gene, Character of physical law, Art of Computer Programming.

 

[Archon]

I'll second LotR and Calvin and Hobbes for sure! :)

And Bunnicula...you haven't LIVED until you've read those (there has to be some irony in that...)...hehe if my 19-year-old self can enjoy them, so can anyone else. :)

 

[Moridin]

Second that. Also the Lord of the Rings and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery.
All beautiful reads.
Btw, the Bible is the best selling book of all time, also the first to come out printed.

The next best selling book of all time would be is Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, so I do not know how much relevance that has.

Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot, The Demon-Haunted World (Sagan)
Selfish Gene (Dawkins)
The Coming Plague, Betrayal of Trust (Garrett)

 

[Kurdt]

Well of course the best selling isn't necessarily the best.