100 Best Astrophysics Books of All Time

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Dan HooperEverybody knows Hawking’s greatest contributions: understanding that black holes radiate light and other particles, that they contain entropy and all these things that no one imagined before him. Hawking and Roger Penrose also worked out the Big Bang singularity, the very moment of creation. To hear him describe some of these things with his own word choices, his own phrasing—not to mention his... (Source)

Adam Hart-DavisWhen Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time..his publisher told him that every equation he left in would halve the number of readers (Source)

Vinod KhoslaGreat, very quick overview of astrophysics. Easily accessible. (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Bill NyeThe story of my other hero, Carl Sagan. The other guy who inspired me to do what I do now. (Source)

Ante ShodaIt explains 14 billion years of the evolution of the universe, a sort of engineering experiment on the largest possible scale. It spans all scales of space and time, describing everything from the largest scales of the universe to the smallest scales of molecules and atoms. It’s a good book for putting everything in perspective. (Source)

Mark KurlanskyI love this book. Brian Greene makes quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity really make sense, so you can understand something which nobody seems to understand (Source)

Tom ClarkeThis book is perhaps the public debut of string theory – an attempt to explain how the best of the big and the small theories might be linked to explain the entire universe. (Source)

Steven GubserThe book works at many levels – I gave a copy to my mom when it came out, and I also received very positive impressions about the book from Norman Ramsey, who is a Nobel Prize physicist at Harvard. So it’s a great achievement, and part of why it’s a great achievement is that it covers not only string theory but also the accepted pillars of 20th-century theoretical physics, namely, quantum... (Source)

Walter IsaacsonThis is the clearest explanation of Newton and Einstein available, and Greene does it with a great sense of humour and wonderful visual thought experiments. (Source)

Sean M CarrollIt covers issues that don’t get attention in other places, such as the nature of time, the nature of space and really gives you a profound understanding of the universe. (Source)

Amanda Palmer[Amanda Palmer recommended this book in the book "Tools of Titans".] (Source)

Fabrice GrindaI have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. (Source)

David GoldbergWhat I really liked about A Short History of Nearly Everything is that it gives an excellent account of a lot of the personalities and the interconnectedness of important discoveries in cosmology and elsewhere. He does such a great job of bringing together our understanding of cosmology, evolution, paleontology, and geology in a very, very fluid way. (Source)

Sergey BrinBrin told the Academy of Achievement: "Aside from making really big contributions in his own field, he was pretty broad-minded. I remember he had an excerpt where he was explaining how he really wanted to be a Leonardo [da Vinci], an artist and a scientist. I found that pretty inspiring. I think that leads to having a fulfilling life." (Source)

Larry PageGoogle co-founder has listed this book as one of his favorites. (Source)

Peter AttiaThe book I’ve recommended most. (Source)

Benjamin HumphreyThis book covers the history of the science behind the universe. Hawking is a good writer, and he has a knack for explaining complex concepts in smart metaphors. I like the book (and his other work) because it really hammers home the cosmic scale and how little time we all have to make an impact and enjoy our life. (Source)

Deborah BlumI picked this book because, as I talk about science as part of the everyday world, it is so good to find writers who really make an effort to reach out to a wider community. I really admire Mary Roach’s ability to take science and make it both fascinating and accessible to people who wouldn’t normally love science. She does a great job of keeping science incredibly accurate and yet making it very... (Source)

James RandiFirst of all, Carl was my very good friend, and we had a lot of confidences over the years. He was the epitome of the scientific mind and the scientific thinker. In The Demon-Haunted World, one of his later books, he investigates pseudoscience, frauds and fakes, and the mistakes that scientists made over the years. It’s very comprehensive. He had a whole chapter devoted to “Carlos” – or Jose... (Source)

Philip PlaitHe holds your hand and shows you the wonders of science and the universe. The Demon-Haunted World is probably his best book. (Source)

Dallas Campbell@TheChilterns Even if you profoundly disagree with Clarke, it’s very detailed. The classic is of course ‘The Demon Haunted World’ by Carl Sagan. When I’m Prime Minister it will be compulsory reading at school! Best book on what science is/isn’t and why we think the way we do. 👍 (Source)

Dan HooperThis book is just plain fun. I said before that if somebody asked me for a book to learn about relativity, I probably wouldn’t pick Einstein’s: I would pick Kip Thorne’s. (Source)

Sean M CarrollKip Thorne’s book mostly focuses on space time. It is really the most modern exposition yet at a popular level of Einstein’s theory of relativity…So if you want to know what a wormhole is, and how time machines might work, this is the book for you. (Source)

Dan HooperSteve Weinberg is arguably the most brilliant physicist of the last many decades. He’s an absolute luminary. He also happens to be a really good writer and communicator. I’ve liked all of the books of his I’ve read, but I picked The First Three Minutes because it is the classic book about the Big Bang and the first three minutes of our universe’s history. (Source)

Tim RadfordNot only is it the beginning of the universe, it’s the beginning of books about the universe. (Source)

David GoldbergAnother one that has to be on any list like this is The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg, a Nobel Prize-winner. It’s a relatively slim volume, in which he describes what happened in the first three minutes of the Big Bang, as it was known and understood back then [1977]. We’ve learned a fair amount since then and some of the details in his original version are a little off, but the basic... (Source)

Elon MuskHighly recommend. (Source)

Dan HooperMost physicists think they’re good at philosophy when they’re actually terrible at it. That’s why I thought The Big Picture really stood out. It’s asking questions that philosophers of science might ask, from the perspective of a physicist who is also informed as a philosopher. (Source)

K Ken NakamuraI finished "The BIG Picture" by @seanmcarroll It is a great book, must read for everyone. I have 2 comments: 1) In P134, the author implied that even History can be considered a science, which was quite surprise for me. (to be continued) https://t.co/NVKKA7qxpB (Source)

Naval RavikantI’ve read that one at least twice. (Source)

Ryan HolidayI loved Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck. There’s a reason this book is blowing up. It’s that good. (Source)

Ella BottingYou’ll meet a lot of d*ck heads at work. This book helps you prioritise how you spend your energy. I liked how Mark used examples from his real life to explain his points, means you can relate to his whole ideology more. (Source)

Chris GowardHere are some of the books that have been very impactful for me, or taught me a new way of thinking: [...] The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. (Source)

Craig BarrettThis book didn’t really change my mind, but rather reinforced the concept of the power of the individual. At a time when we depend more and more on big institutions to solve our business and social problems the real solutions are crafted by individual actions and initiative. This is true in the business world, where ideas from individual researchers or entrepreneurs can create mega companies... (Source)

Dan Christensen@EconTalker @cable_co1 The Martian... hey it can’t all be economics and it’s a great book (Source)

Patrick Chovanec@acgleva The book was great. (Source)

Caspar HendersonHe’s got a good, simple style, and he has a great capability to explain. (Source)

Sean M CarrollThis book discusses some of the deepest features of the laws of nature. (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011.] (Source)

Elon MuskI didn't read actually very many general business books, but I like biographies and autobiographies, I think those are pretty helpful. Actually, a lot of them aren't really business. [...] I also feel it’s worth reading books on scientists and engineers. (Source)

Scott Belsky[Scott Belsky recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Jim Al-KhaliliBecause they are translated from the original Italian, Rovelli’s books retain a beautiful poetry which, combined with his deep knowledge of fundamental physics, make for a wonderfully charming mix. (Source)

Adam SavageI felt like I was getting a Chinese version of Chinese culture. And that frame felt unique. (Source)

Ben Brode@noahmp @devonzuegel I thought book 2 and of the series that starts with “the three body problem” fulfilled this condition and was awesome (Source)

The Centre for the Study of Existential RiskIt makes the point that humanity is fairly weak, and that if we’re ever faced by a really big threat, we most likely won’t survive it. (Source)

Eric Weinstein[Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)

Kirk Borne#Gravity is the only one of the four fundamental forces of #Physics that doesn’t (yet) have a quantum explanation — learn how our understanding of Gravity has evolved, from Newton’s great insight to Einstein’s: https://t.co/DZJz9OJ9Lv 👇See this gravitationally heavy 3-kg book👇 https://t.co/9whUOUJqxi (Source)

Seamus BlackleyA couple things saved me. One of them I found the other day, slipped into my all time favorite physics book. It was a simple note from my dad, still in it’s envelope. It said that he believed in me, and that things would work out. https://t.co/z48r12w6m6 (Source)

Marcus ChownWhen Feynman was at Cal Tech, this wealthy couple who’d grown up in the same New York neighbourhood as he had said, Look, you’ve won this Nobel Prize, now explain to ordinary people what for. And Feynman said, No, it’s too complicated. But eventually he did this series of public lectures, and that was the book. It’s a tiny book and in it he describes the whole of quantum electrodynamics without a... (Source)

Ryan Shea@jaltma @AriannaSimpson Incredible book. Perhaps my favorite physics book. (Source)

Michael DellKaku interviews some of the world's best and brightest scientists to find out what they're working on. What he unveils is a future of sci-fi-like innovations and breakthroughs worth sticking around for. (Source)

Philip PlaitMike Brown was finding objects that were as big or possibly bigger than Pluto in the outer solar system. It’s a great story. (Source)

James AltucherAnd while you are at it, throw in “Bounce” by Mathew Syed, who was the UK Ping Pong champion when he was younger. I love any book where someone took their passion, documented it, and shared it with us. That’s when you can see the subleties, the hard work, the luck, the talent, the skill, all come together to form a champion. Heck, throw in, “An Astronaut’s Guide to Earth” by Commander Chris... (Source)

Chris GowardHere are some of the books that have been very impactful for me, or taught me a new way of thinking: [...] An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. (Source)

Simon CarleyAlso love the idea of being a zero. Totally agree that some of my finest colleagues are that. I’m fact the doc I want to look after me in resus is defo a zero. (Read the book to find out why). (Source)

Kate Lee (St Paul's Girls' School)Feynman could write about difficult physics and teach it in a way that no one else could. He is widely regarded as one of the best physics teachers of all time. His discussions of Newtonian gravitation and how we came to it, phenomena like tides, and how you can measure the speed of light by observing Jupiter’s moons are described with such humour and clarity. He conveys the excitement of physics (Source)

Jerry CoyneOf all these books, this is the one that resonates most for me. It was edited by his wife and published in 2006. It’s a distillation of the Gifford Lectures, a very prestigious series of lectures given in Scotland, endowed to give famous people a chance to talk about natural theology i.e. the relationship between science and religion. They’ve been going more than 100 years by now and they gave... (Source)

Philip PlaitThis book, written by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw, is wonderful. Brian, who is a friend of mine, is a physicist in England. By exploring the equation “energy equals mass times the speed of light squared”, this book helps you to understand why the universe is what it is. (Source)

Phil Plait“Why Does E=mc^2” is a *great* book. It’s short, well-written, and makes it a lot easier to understand just why the speed of light is what it is. https://t.co/nfuYjouX0r (Source)

Sean Seton-Rogers[Currently reading] Contact, by Carl Sagan. Not expecting to gain anything...I just love scifi books. (Source)

Sean M CarrollThe author’s theory has set the agenda for theoretical cosmology for the last 30 years and here is the man himself explaining it to you. (Source)

Barack ObamaAs a devoted reader, the president has been linked to a lengthy list of novels and poetry collections over the years — he admits he enjoys a thriller. (Source)

Mark ZuckerbergIt's a Chinese science fiction book that has gotten so popular there's now a Hollywood movie being made based on it. This will also be a fun break from all the economics and social science books I've read recently. (Source)

Adam SavageI felt like I was getting a Chinese version of Chinese culture. And that frame felt unique. (Source)

Richard CohenAlthough he is an astronomer, by training and disposition in many ways, he’s also a wonderful historian of science. (Source)

Marcus ChownIt’s a series of interviews with all the astronauts that have been to the moon. (Source)

Christopher RileyAndrew Chaikin writes about all the difficulty of trying to invent all of this stuff at that time. He’s a brilliant writer and journalist. He took the time, back in the early 1990s, to go around and interview as many of the key players—including the astronauts themselves—who turned this dream into a reality. That, to me, is what makes A Man on the Moon the really definitive biography of Apollo,... (Source)

Philip PlaitIt’s a history of the Apollo missions, telling why we went to the moon, what happened when we got there, and why we stopped going after Apollo 17. I could not put it down. (Source)

Ezra KleinThis is a good place to recommend @seanmcarroll's new book "Something Deeply Hidden," which is great if you like feeling very confused about the nature of reality, which I guess I do https://t.co/C2gfupSJAO (Source)

Kate Lee (St Paul's Girls' School)His descriptions of the Big Bang are the most lucid I’ve ever read. The book is very beautiful. It’s bang up-to-date, and almost soulful. I listen to it when I’m driving more than I read it. (Source)

Pedro G FerreiraIt turns out that even simple equations can have such complicated behaviour that, in practice, it’s impossible to predict the outcome, which is described as ‘chaotic’. (Source)

Adam MaloofJames Gleick is a former science writer for the New York Times and in this book Gleick describes the science of chaos, and how complex systems can also be interpreted in terms of simple rules and simple (but interacting) behaviours. (Source)

Barbara KiserThis is a firecracker of a book—a shot across the bows of theoretical physics. Sabine Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist working on quantum gravity and blogger, confronts failures in her field head-on. (Source)

Bill GatesHelps you appreciate that physics is pretty basic stuff. (Source)

Steven SinofskyBooks, 2018 by @DeanHach https://t.co/OJTX8TT1xt // I'm partial to "Rocket Men" in this great book list. (Source)

Eric Weinstein[Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)

Stuart ClarkAnil Ananthaswamy is like a pilgrim on a journey, travelling to these great scientific establishments and trying to understand the universe. (Source)

Dominic D'agostinoGene Kranz has always been a huge inspiration. Just finished his book "Failure is not an option". The level of detail he goes into describing mission control is fantastic. https://t.co/ii5UpJBKty https://t.co/wPc9anl07C (Source)

Bryan Johnson[Bryan Johnson recommended this book on Twitter.] (Source)

Brian CoxThis great podcast from @seanmcarroll talking to David Albert about the measurement problem in Quantum Mechanics introduced me to a terrific book - What is Real? by Adam Becker. It’s fascinating on the history of QM, Bell’s theorem, Many Worlds .... https://t.co/Cl5cNMbjPq (Source)

Eric RiesKelly spent a record-breaking year in space and this book is a fascinating account of that time and what he learned about humanity and himself. (Source)

Anoop AnthonyReading Endurance puts things in perspective; some of us have callings with remarkable purpose — the very future of humankind — at significant risk to one's own life and creature comforts. It may sound corny, but it makes one wonder: can the work we do in our industries and businesses have a higher purpose than just commercial success? (Source)