The 13 Best Science Books for the General Reader

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Guardian, 13 Books

Steven Weinberg, The Nobel laureate, lists his 13 best science books for the general reader

This list was originally published in 2015 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
4163 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
180 On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin 1859 British English
15787 On A Piece Of Chalk Thomas Henry Huxley 1868 British English
6716 The Mysterious Universe James Jeans 1930 British English
15787 The Birth And Death Of The Sun George Gamow 1940 American English
10518 The Character Of Physical Law Richard P. Feynman 1965 American English
3446 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
2300 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 1976 British English
1748 The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes 1986 American English
17010 The Inflationary Universe Alan Guth 1997 American English
9875 The Whole Shebang Timothy Ferris 1997 American English
17010 Hiding In The Mirror Lawrence M. Krauss 2005 American English
17010 Warped Passages Lisa Randall 2005 American English