The Big Read Project 2.0

[Zankapfel]

Pop-Sci Big Read, a natural evolution of The Big Read ;]
Inspired by BBC's list (http://neabigread.org/index.php), let us compile a similar thing for popular science books. The emphasis here is on popular: books that are engaging and accessible to a truly general reader or laymen, ideally with a strong narrative component.
I took a superficial inventory of the many books on science scattered about our home and compiled a potential list. I have some obvious biases: physics, maths and science history, with the odd foray into forensics and chemistry - plus, a few notable fictional works that have a history of inspiring present and future scientists.

The rules, as always are simple:

Bold those you have read.
Italicize those you have started but haven't finished.
Place an asterisk by those you intend to read/finish someday *
Mark in red the books you love/found most useful.
Mark in blue those you read, but are not particularly fond of.


I know I'm missing many significant titles. But one has to start somewhere. Ergo, I offer the following popular science book list, in no particular order.


Micrographia - Robert Hooke
The Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
Never at Rest - Richard Westfall
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
Tesla: Man Out of Time - Margaret Cheney
The Devil's Doctor - Philip Ball
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos - Dennis Overbye
Physics for Entertainment - Yakov Perelman
1-2-3 Infinity - George Gamow
Guns, Germs And Steel - Jared Diamond
Warmth Disperses, Time Passes - Hans Christian von Bayer
Alice in Quantumland - Robert Gilmore
Where Does the Weirdness Go? - David Lindley
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip Thorne
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Universal Foam - Sidney Perkowitz
Vermeer's Camera - Philip Steadman
The Code Book - Simon Singh
The Elements of Murder - John Emsley
Soul Made Flesh - Carl Zimmer
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments - George Johnson
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
The Curious Life of Robert Hooke - Lisa Jardine
A Matter of Degrees - Gino Segre
The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
E=mc<2> - David Bodanis
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife
Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Tom Shachtman
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines - Janna Levin
Warped Passages - Lisa Randall
Apollo's Fire - Michael Sims
Flatland - Edward Abbott
Fermat's Last Theorem - Amir Aczel
Stiff - Mary Roach
Astroturf - M.G. Lord
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Longitude - Dava Sobel
The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg
The Mummy Congress - Heather Pringle
The Accelerating Universe- Mario Livio
Math and the Mona Lisa- Bulent Atalay
This is Your Brain on Music- Daniel Levitin
The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
Krakatoa- Simon Winchester
Pythagorus' Trousers- Margaret Wertheim
Neuromancer- William Gibson [odd choice, I know]
The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios
The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump - Sandra Hempel
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe - Katrina Firlik
Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps - Peter Galison
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
Consilience - E.O. Wilson
Wonderful Life - Stephen J. Gould
Teaching a Stone to Talk - Annie Dillard
Fire in the Brain - Ronald K. Siegel
The Life of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
Coming of Age in the Milky Way - Timothy Ferris
Chaos - James Gleick
The Carbon Age - Eric Roston
The Black Hole Wars - Leonard Susskind
Copenhagen - Michael Frayn
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne

We have 30 more to go.
This is not an official list, so correct my imbalances (you know you want to!) - what are some of the titles that you would add?
I have faith there are enough Aprigeeks around for us to complete this list :thumb001:

[Nameless Son]

Only read The Origin of the Species and From the Earth to the Moon. Both are great.

I would add Godel, Escher, Bach; and The Hot Zone.

EDIT: actually I see that GEB is already present.

[Groenewolf]

Micrographia - Robert Hooke
The Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
Never at Rest - Richard Westfall
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
Tesla: Man Out of Time - Margaret Cheney
The Devil's Doctor - Philip Ball
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos - Dennis Overbye
Physics for Entertainment - Yakov Perelman
1-2-3 Infinity - George Gamow
Guns, Germs And Steel - Jared Diamond
Warmth Disperses, Time Passes - Hans Christian von Bayer
Alice in Quantumland - Robert Gilmore
Where Does the Weirdness Go? - David Lindley
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip Thorne
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Universal Foam - Sidney Perkowitz
Vermeer's Camera - Philip Steadman
The Code Book - Simon Singh
The Elements of Murder - John Emsley
Soul Made Flesh - Carl Zimmer
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments - George Johnson
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
The Curious Life of Robert Hooke - Lisa Jardine
A Matter of Degrees - Gino Segre
The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
E=mc<2> - David Bodanis
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife
Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Tom Shachtman
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines - Janna Levin
Warped Passages - Lisa Randall
Apollo's Fire - Michael Sims
Flatland - Edward Abbott
Fermat's Last Theorem - Amir Aczel
Stiff - Mary Roach
Astroturf - M.G. Lord
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Longitude - Dava Sobel
The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg
The Mummy Congress - Heather Pringle
The Accelerating Universe- Mario Livio
Math and the Mona Lisa- Bulent Atalay
This is Your Brain on Music- Daniel Levitin
The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
Krakatoa- Simon Winchester
Pythagorus' Trousers- Margaret Wertheim
Neuromancer- William Gibson [odd choice, I know]
The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios
The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump - Sandra Hempel
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe - Katrina Firlik
Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps - Peter Galison
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
Consilience - E.O. Wilson
Wonderful Life - Stephen J. Gould
Teaching a Stone to Talk - Annie Dillard
Fire in the Brain - Ronald K. Siegel
The Life of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
Coming of Age in the Milky Way - Timothy Ferris
Chaos - James Gleick
The Carbon Age - Eric Roston
The Black Hole Wars - Leonard Susskind
Copenhagen - Michael Frayn
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne



We have 30 more to go.
This is not an official list, so correct my imbalances (you know you want to!) - what are some of the titles that you would add?
I have faith there are enough Aprigeeks around for us to complete this list :thumb001:

I have some other pop science books but they are practically all in Dutch except for this one :

The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe - Stephen W. Hawking

And maybe some others.

[Eldritch]

Micrographia - Robert Hooke
The Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
Never at Rest - Richard Westfall
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
Tesla: Man Out of Time - Margaret Cheney
The Devil's Doctor - Philip Ball
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos - Dennis Overbye
Physics for Entertainment - Yakov Perelman
1-2-3 Infinity - George Gamow
Guns, Germs And Steel - Jared Diamond
Warmth Disperses, Time Passes - Hans Christian von Bayer
Alice in Quantumland - Robert Gilmore
Where Does the Weirdness Go? - David Lindley
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip Thorne
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (the illustrated version for retards, though)
Universal Foam - Sidney Perkowitz
Vermeer's Camera - Philip Steadman
The Code Book - Simon Singh
The Elements of Murder - John Emsley
Soul Made Flesh - Carl Zimmer
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments - George Johnson
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
The Curious Life of Robert Hooke - Lisa Jardine
A Matter of Degrees - Gino Segre
The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
E=mc<2> - David Bodanis
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife
Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Tom Shachtman
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines - Janna Levin
Warped Passages - Lisa Randall
Apollo's Fire - Michael Sims
Flatland - Edward Abbott
Fermat's Last Theorem - Amir Aczel
Stiff - Mary Roach
Astroturf - M.G. Lord
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Longitude - Dava Sobel
The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg
The Mummy Congress - Heather Pringle
The Accelerating Universe- Mario Livio
Math and the Mona Lisa- Bulent Atalay
This is Your Brain on Music- Daniel Levitin
The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
Krakatoa- Simon Winchester
Pythagorus' Trousers- Margaret Wertheim
Neuromancer- William Gibson [odd choice, I know]
The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios
The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump - Sandra Hempel
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe - Katrina Firlik
Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps - Peter Galison
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
Consilience - E.O. Wilson
Wonderful Life - Stephen J. Gould
Teaching a Stone to Talk - Annie Dillard
Fire in the Brain - Ronald K. Siegel
The Life of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
Coming of Age in the Milky Way - Timothy Ferris
Chaos - James Gleick
The Carbon Age - Eric Roston
The Black Hole Wars - Leonard Susskind
Copenhagen - Michael Frayn
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne


There'll be 30 more of these? Me like. :D

[Nameless Son]

Oh, Men of Mathematics should surely be included. Definition of a classic right there.

[Pallantides]

0


:D

[Zankapfel]

^ Not a man of Science, I see ;]

Updated with new suggestions:


Micrographia - Robert Hooke
The Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
Never at Rest - Richard Westfall
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
Tesla: Man Out of Time - Margaret Cheney
The Devil's Doctor - Philip Ball
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos - Dennis Overbye
Physics for Entertainment - Yakov Perelman
1-2-3 Infinity - George Gamow
Guns, Germs And Steel - Jared Diamond
Warmth Disperses, Time Passes - Hans Christian von Bayer
Alice in Quantumland - Robert Gilmore
Where Does the Weirdness Go? - David Lindley
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip Thorne
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Universal Foam - Sidney Perkowitz
Vermeer's Camera - Philip Steadman
The Code Book - Simon Singh
The Elements of Murder - John Emsley
Soul Made Flesh - Carl Zimmer
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments - George Johnson
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
The Curious Life of Robert Hooke - Lisa Jardine
A Matter of Degrees - Gino Segre
The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
E=mc<2> - David Bodanis
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife
Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Tom Shachtman
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines - Janna Levin
Warped Passages - Lisa Randall
Apollo's Fire - Michael Sims
Flatland - Edward Abbott
Fermat's Last Theorem - Amir Aczel
Stiff - Mary Roach
Astroturf - M.G. Lord
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Longitude - Dava Sobel
The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg
The Mummy Congress - Heather Pringle
The Accelerating Universe- Mario Livio
Math and the Mona Lisa- Bulent Atalay
This is Your Brain on Music- Daniel Levitin
The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
Krakatoa- Simon Winchester
Pythagorus' Trousers- Margaret Wertheim
Neuromancer- William Gibson [odd choice, I know]
The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios
The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump - Sandra Hempel
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe - Katrina Firlik
Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps - Peter Galison
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
Consilience - E.O. Wilson
Wonderful Life - Stephen J. Gould
Teaching a Stone to Talk - Annie Dillard
Fire in the Brain - Ronald K. Siegel
The Life of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
Coming of Age in the Milky Way - Timothy Ferris
Chaos - James Gleick
The Carbon Age - Eric Roston
The Black Hole Wars - Leonard Susskind
Copenhagen - Michael Frayn
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne
The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe - Stephen W. Hawking
Men of Mathematics - E. T. Bell




There'll be 30 more of these? Me like. :D

We have to come up with them ourselves, so feel free to suggest more titles ;]
28 to go now.
I'm blank atm, been busy moving.

[Pallantides]

^ Not a man of Science, I see ;]


Well this book is missing from the list:
http://www.baby-books-guide.com/image-files/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-01.jpg

[Logan]

1.Micrographia - Robert Hooke
2.The Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
3.Never at Rest - Richard Westfall
4.Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
5.Tesla: Man Out of Time - Margaret Cheney
6.The Devil's Doctor - Philip Ball
7.The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
8.Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos - Dennis Overbye
9.Physics for Entertainment - Yakov Perelman
10.1-2-3 Infinity - George Gamow
11.Guns, Germs And Steel - Jared Diamond
12.Warmth Disperses, Time Passes - Hans Christian von Bayer
13.Alice in Quantumland - Robert Gilmore
14.Where Does the Weirdness Go? - David Lindley
15.A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
16.A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
17.Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip Thorne
18.A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
19.Universal Foam - Sidney Perkowitz
20.Vermeer's Camera - Philip Steadman
21.The Code Book - Simon Singh
22.The Elements of Murder - John Emsley
23.Soul Made Flesh - Carl Zimmer
24.Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
25.The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments - George Johnson
26.Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
27.Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
28.The Curious Life of Robert Hooke - Lisa Jardine
29.A Matter of Degrees - Gino Segre
30.The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
31.E=mc<2> - David Bodanis
32.Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife
33.Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Tom Shachtman
34.A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines - Janna Levin
35.Warped Passages - Lisa Randall
36.Apollo's Fire - Michael Sims
37.Flatland - Edward Abbott
38.Fermat's Last Theorem - Amir Aczel
39.Stiff - Mary Roach
40.Astroturf - M.G. Lord
41.The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
42.Longitude - Dava Sobel
43.The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg
44.The Mummy Congress - Heather Pringle
45.The Accelerating Universe- Mario Livio
46.Math and the Mona Lisa- Bulent Atalay
47.This is Your Brain on Music- Daniel Levitin
48.The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
49.Krakatoa- Simon Winchester
50.Pythagorus' Trousers- Margaret Wertheim
51.Neuromancer- William Gibson [odd choice, I know]
52.The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios
53.The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump - Sandra Hempel
54.Another Day in the Frontal Lobe - Katrina Firlik
55.Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps - Peter Galison
56.The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
57.The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins
58.The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
59.An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
60.Consilience - E.O. Wilson
61.Wonderful Life - Stephen J. Gould
62.Teaching a Stone to Talk - Annie Dillard
63.Fire in the Brain - Ronald K. Siegel
64.The Life of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
65.Coming of Age in the Milky Way - Timothy Ferris
66.Chaos - James Gleick
67.The Carbon Age - Eric Roston
68.The Black Hole Wars - Leonard Susskind
69.Copenhagen - Michael Frayn
70.From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne

[Zankapfel]

Well this book is missing from the list:
http://www.baby-books-guide.com/image-files/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-01.jpg

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not, but I'll include it.
It's had a huge influence as a teaching aid for children.

[Pallantides]

Well at least now there is a book I have read on the list:D
Also I own The Origin of the Species but I haven't read it yet.

[Zankapfel]

Well at least now there is a book I have read on the list:D
Also I own The Origin of the Species but I haven't read it yet.

Well, do you plan to do so? You seem very interested in this sort of topic.

*Updated*


Micrographia - Robert Hooke
The Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
Never at Rest - Richard Westfall
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
Tesla: Man Out of Time - Margaret Cheney
The Devil's Doctor - Philip Ball
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos - Dennis Overbye
Physics for Entertainment - Yakov Perelman
1-2-3 Infinity - George Gamow
Guns, Germs And Steel - Jared Diamond
Warmth Disperses, Time Passes - Hans Christian von Bayer
Alice in Quantumland - Robert Gilmore
Where Does the Weirdness Go? - David Lindley
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip Thorne
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Universal Foam - Sidney Perkowitz
Vermeer's Camera - Philip Steadman
The Code Book - Simon Singh
The Elements of Murder - John Emsley
Soul Made Flesh - Carl Zimmer
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments - George Johnson
Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
The Curious Life of Robert Hooke - Lisa Jardine
A Matter of Degrees - Gino Segre
The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
E=mc<2> - David Bodanis
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife
Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Tom Shachtman
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines - Janna Levin
Warped Passages - Lisa Randall
Apollo's Fire - Michael Sims
Flatland - Edward Abbott
Fermat's Last Theorem - Amir Aczel
Stiff - Mary Roach
Astroturf - M.G. Lord
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi
Longitude - Dava Sobel
The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg
The Mummy Congress - Heather Pringle
The Accelerating Universe- Mario Livio
Math and the Mona Lisa- Bulent Atalay
This is Your Brain on Music- Daniel Levitin
The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
Krakatoa- Simon Winchester
Pythagorus' Trousers- Margaret Wertheim
Neuromancer- William Gibson [odd choice, I know]
The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios
The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump - Sandra Hempel
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe - Katrina Firlik
Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps - Peter Galison
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
Consilience - E.O. Wilson
Wonderful Life - Stephen J. Gould
Teaching a Stone to Talk - Annie Dillard
Fire in the Brain - Ronald K. Siegel
The Life of a Cell - Lewis Thomas
Coming of Age in the Milky Way - Timothy Ferris
Chaos - James Gleick
The Carbon Age - Eric Roston
The Black Hole Wars - Leonard Susskind
Copenhagen - Michael Frayn
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne
The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe - Stephen W. Hawking
Men of Mathematics - E. T. Bell
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

[Nameless Son]

Well this book is missing from the list:
http://www.baby-books-guide.com/image-files/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-01.jpg

hahaha I used to love that book :D

[Magister Eckhart]

Where's The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein?