Summer Science Reading List
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009--
On June 9, 2009, @scifri asked on Twitter for suggestions for "light but informative, science-y summer reading - geek beach books. any recommendations?" Here's what our followers came up with, with links where possible. Thanks for all the comments!
Non-fiction arranged (roughly) alphabetically by author
"Last Chance to See" by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine (suggested by EclectChick)
"Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions" by Dan Ariely (suggested by bouldernet)
"To the Ends of the Universe" by Isaac Asimov (suggested by Osmyn)
"The Roving Mind" by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke (suggested by Osmyn)
"100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know by John D. Barrow (suggested by maricarjagger)
"Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment" by David Bodanis (suggested by DaftGretel)
"Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments" by Alex Boese (suggested by mars_marvel)
"Lives of a Biologist: Adventures in a Century of Extraordinary Science" by John Tyler Bonner (suggested by bioman1)
"Letters of Euler on Different Subjects in Natural Philosophy: Addressed to a German Princess" by Sir David Brewster (suggested by ravensjester)
"Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist" by John Brockman (suggested by wedio)
"What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty" by John Brockman (suggested by wedio)
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson (suggested by heather_bergman ArdithBowman esagashi valdemort15 Ekdale tonyfelicepr)
"Your Mother's Tongue: A Book Of European Invective" by Stephen Burgen (suggested by eazecs)
"Circles : Fifty Roundtrips Through History Technology Science Culture" by James Burke (suggested by mmmfiber)
"Connections" by James Burke (suggested by mmmfiber)
"Self-Organization in Biological Systems" by Scott Camazine, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Nigel R. Franks, and James Sneyd (suggested by KarmaHitDogma)
"The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom" by Brian Cathcart (suggested by melissajt)
"Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species" by Sean Carroll (suggested by jeffra)
"Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo" by Sean Carroll (suggested by KarmaHitDogma)
"The Sun Kings: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began" by Stuart Clark (suggested by DrStuClark)
"Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry A. Coyne, (suggested by corvidbird)
"The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins (suggested by corvidbird)
"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond (suggested by haaspolicy EclectChick )
"Why We Do It: Rethinking Sex and the Selfish Gene" by Niles Eldredge (suggested by WesTheAlchemist)
"Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles" by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey (suggested by bobpatin)
"Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats" by Steve Ettlinger (suggested by m_cowan79)
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)" by Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton, Edward Hutchings, and Albert R. Hibbs .(suggested by raphaelcm MinusTheBeard)
"What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character" by Richard P. Feynman and Ralph Leighton (suggested by MinusTheBeard)
"Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum" by Richard Fortey (suggested by eazecs)
"Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America" by Thomas L. Friedman (suggested by corvidbird)
"Woz: The Prodigal Son of Silicon Valley, The Amazing Steve Wozniak and his Apple Computer" by Doug Garr (suggested by bobpatin)
"Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell (suggested by Comprendia)
"Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Gleick (suggested by scientistlady)
"The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive" by John Graham-Cumming (suggested by geekatlas thatdonwood jgrahamc)
"Growing Up with Lucy: How to Build an Android in Twenty Easy Steps" by Steve Grand (suggested by eazecs)
"The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" by David Grann (suggested by jawoodward)
"Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion" by Loree Griffin Burns (kids book). (suggested by KateMessner)
"Five Equations that Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics" by Michael Guillen (suggested by valdemort15)
"Summer World: A Season of Bounty by Bernd Heinrich (suggested by KateMessner)
"Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival" by Bernd Heinrich (suggested by KateMessner)
"Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam (suggested by ptmagnus)
"The Invention of Air" by Steven Johnson (suggested by kishizuka)
"Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination" by Robert Jourdain (suggested by grantl808)
"The Soul Of A New Machine" by Tracy Kidder (suggested by drivers99)
"Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It" by Gina Kolata (suggested by PlantDrEMB haaspolicy)
"Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky (suggested by haaspolicy)
"Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever" by Ray Kurzweil Ph.D. and Terry Grossman M.D..(suggested by Nathur)
"How We Decide" by Jonah Lehrer (suggested by MinimumFailure)
"Proust Was a Neuroscientist" by Jonah Lehrer (suggested by JuliaBronwyn)
"Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist" by Thomas Levenson (suggested by BoraZ and others)
"Einstein's Dreams" by Alan Lightman (suggested by paulactor)
"Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air" by David JC MacKay (suggested by N_E_I dlcox1958)
Make Magazine (suggested by Ekdale)
"The BLDGBLOG Book" by Geoff Manaugh. (suggested by ehahnus)
"Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art" by Scott Mccloud (suggested by raphaelcm)
"Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior" by Geoffrey Miller (suggested by plingyplang)
"Humor Us - The Power of Laughter America's Funniest Humorists on the Power of Laughter" by Brad Montgomery (suggested by juliegintzler)
"Dancing Naked in the Mind Field" by Kary Mullis (suggested by JATetro)
"The Best American Science Writing 2008" by Sylvia Nasar and Jesse Cohen (suggested by eahiv)
"Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine" by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams (suggested by Nathur)
"Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex" by Mary Roach" (suggested by Nikwa)
"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach. (suggested by raphaelcm photonics_Lynn)
"The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat" by Eric Roston (suggested by TomLevenson and numerous others)
"An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales" by Oliver Sacks (suggested by EclectChick)
"Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood" by Oliver Sacks (suggested by wedio)
"Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" by Carl Sagan (suggested by userealbutter)
"Monkeyluv: And Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals" by Robert M. Sapolsky (suggested by anubisbastet)
'Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" by Robert M. Sapolsky (suggested by EclectChick)
"A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science" by Michael S. Schneider (suggested by KitEastman)
"Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife. (suggested by codemonkey37)
"Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body" by Neil Shubin (suggested by wsteinhu)
"Apollo's Fire: A Day on Earth in Nature and Imagination" by Michael Sims (suggested by tiimsterboer)
"Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" by Dava Sobel (suggested by rockityroll)
"Secret Science: 25 Science Experiments Your Teacher Doesn't Know About" by Steve Spangler (suggested by juliegintzler)
"Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities" by Ian Stewart. (suggested by PeterJDunn)
"SYNC: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order" by Steven H. Strogatz (suggested by candynick)
"The Geeks' Guide to World Domination: Be Afraid, Beautiful People" by Garth Sundem (suggested by bhoutik)
"The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (suggested by shapah)
"My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey" by Jill Bolte Taylor (suggested by CassieRodenberg)
"Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" by Kip S. Thorne and Stephen Hawking (suggested by userealbutter)
"The Pluto Files" by Neil deGrasse Tyson (suggested by aswinamer)
"The Art and Politics of Science" by Harold Varmus (suggested by BoraZ)
"The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness" by Jeff Warren: (suggested by sattygalle)
"Sand: The Never-Ending Story" by Michael Welland (suggested by clasticdetritus)
"The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World" by Eric Weiner (suggested by ArdithBowman)
"The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman (suggested by heather_bergman photonics_Lynn)
"Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883" by Simon Winchester, (suggested by JoeNemec)
"The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology" by Simon Winchester (suggested by JoeNemec)
Fiction
"Still Alice" by Lisa Genova (suggested by MinimumFailure)
'Soon I Will be Invincible" by Austin Grossman (suggested by doncarlo)
"A Swiftly Tilting Planet" by Madeleine L'Engle (suggested by MeghanJG)
"A Wrinkle In Time " by Madeleine L'Engle (suggested by MeghanJG)
"The Department of Off World Affairs" by Russell Lutz (suggested by du_puy)
"Iota Cycle" by Russell Lutz (suggested by du_puy)
"The Shimmer" by David Morrell (suggested by JROgden)
"The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel" by Yoko Ogawa (suggested by C_Spaghetti)
"The Ice Limit" by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (suggested by JoeNemec)
"Tyrannosaur Canyon" by Douglas Preston (suggested by JoeNemec)
Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. by Kim Stanley Robinson (suggested by radiobabe)
"Experimental Heart: A Novel". by Jennifer L. Rohn (suggested by BoraZ)
"Hominids" by Robert J. Sawyer (suggested by jisabella)
"The End of Mr Y" by Scarlett Thomas (suggested by eazecs)
The "anything by" section
Any of the science essay collections from Asimov (suggested by Osmyn)
Anything by Malcolm Gladwell. (suggested by EclectChick)
Any of Gould's Natural History essay collections. (suggested by WesTheAlchemist)
Anything by Jonah Lehrer.(suggested by JuliaBronwyn)
Any by Mary Roach. (suggested by doncarlo)
Anything by Oliver Sacks. (suggested by aquafortis)
Any by Neal Stephenson. (suggested by doncarlo)
Anything by Simon Winchester (suggested by JoeNemec)
--SciFri Staff
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