I’ve just finished “The Code Book” by Simon Singh, and really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed his book about Fermat’s Last Theorem. I’ve also recently read “A Brief History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson, which I also enjoyed.
I like reading books on science in general, the ones listed above are more indicative of the style than the subject matter that I prefer. I’m a CS/AI undergraduate, if that information may help someone recommend something.
I recently bought “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Kuhn, but found the text too dry. I can really only grab twenty minutes (at most) of reading time at a time, and found that book too hard to get back into in such a short period. I may attempt to read it again if I get chance, though.
Can anyone recomment any well written books on any area of science?
“The Professor and the Madman” about the history of dictionaries and the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary
“The Map that Changed the World” - about the understanding of geological strata
both by Simon Winchester - also has a book on Krakatoa, but I haven’t read it.
The Dancing Wu Li Masters - by Gary Zukav - about particle physics and how it relates to Eastern spirituality - I liked it much better than the Tao of Physics by Capra
Godel, Escher and Bach - about how the disparate disciplines of this mathemetician, artist and composer were in fact related.
A History of Nothing (?) about the history of recoginition of zero.
e=mc^2 - a history of the most famous equation by Bodanis - very readable book on relativity and the discoveries the predated it…
A decent start…
The Big Bang, by Joseph Silk. As the title suggests, a look at modern theories about the origin of the universe.
The Mathematical Tourist, by Ivars Peterson. A look at how computers allowed modern mathematicians to take on problems that were previously intractible.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a really meaningful book that you’ll be glad you read, but I don’t know that it is a particularly enjoyable read.
You might enjoy some Arture Perez-Reverte. I’m currently reading The Flanders Panel. It’s fiction with a chess puzzle theme, but very well written.
A classic Straight Dope recommendation is Guns, Germs and Steel.
You may also want to pick up some of the annual anthologies “The Best Science Writing of 200X.” This would fit well with your short time spans available to read, since they are collections of articles.
You have all listed some of my absolute favourites so I will name some more favourites in the hope they similarly please. Anything by Simon Singh is wonderful, so I am in tune with the OP. I also adored the Bill Bryson.
The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel.
The Man who Loved Only Numbers: the story of Paul Erdos and the search for mathematical truth by Paul Hoffman
ANYTHING by Ian Stewart - especially Does God Play Dice: the new mathematics of Chaos
The book which changed my whole thinking and I have read many times: Chaos: making a new science
cheers,
