The Greatest Technical Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6212 Darwin's Black Box Michael J. Behe 1996 American English
6328 Turn Left At Orion Guy Consolmagno, Dan M. Davis 1989 American English
6365 Notebooks Leonardo da Vinci 1883 Italian Italian
6820 Our Lady Of Darkness Fritz Leiber 1977 American English
6823 The Ants E. O. Wilson, Bert Hölldobler 1990 American English
6858 Astrophysics For People In A Hurry Neil deGrasse Tyson 2017 American English
6887 Critical Mass Philip Ball 2004 British English
6910 The Backyard Astronomer's Guide Terence Dickinson 1991 Canadian English
7204 Black Holes And Time Warps Kip S. Thorne 1994 American English
7204 Hyperspace Michio Kaku 1994 American English
7204 Six Easy Pieces Richard P. Feynman 1994 American English
7286 Resources, Values And Development Amartya Sen 1984 Indian English
7317 The Alchemy Of The Heavens Ken Croswell 1995 American English
7358 The Diversity of Life E. O. Wilson 1992 American English
7377 The Taming of Chance Ian Hacking 1990 Canadian English
7410 Basic Physics Karl F. Kuhn 1996 American English
7455 Nifft The Lean Michael Shea 1982 American English
7472 Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers Max Planck 1922 German German
7475 The Great Influenza John Barry 2004 American English
7524 Climbing Mount Improbable Richard Dawkins 1996 British English
7570 Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli 2015 Italian Italian
7630 Phantoms In The Brain Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee 1998 American English
7712 Global Health Ann Lindstrand 2006 Unknown English
7789 The Magic Furnace Marcus Chown 1999 British English
7789 Five Ages Of The Universe Fred C. Adams, Greg Laughlin 1999 American English
7848 The Information James Gleick 2011 American English
7882 The Fabric Of The Cosmos Brian Greene 2004 American English
8024 Spillover David Quammen 2012 American English
8075 The Checklist Manifesto Atul Gawande 2009 American English
8176 The Code Book Simon Singh 1999 British English
8300 The Whole Internet Ed Krol 1992 American English
8362 Here Comes Everybody Clay Shirky 2008 American English
8466 The Craftsman Richard Sennett 2008 American English
8611 Big Bang Simon Singh 2004 British English
8611 Charged Up Jacqui Bailey 2004 British English
8772 The Cosmic Landscape Leonard Susskind 2005 American English
8903 The Master Switch Tim Wu 2010 American English
8958 The Trouble With Physics Lee Smolin 2006 American English
8993 Essays On Music Theodor Adorno 2002 German English
9076 The Whole Shebang Timothy Ferris 1997 American English
9112 The Periodic Table Adrian Dingle, Simon Basher 2007 British English
9246 The Black Hole War Leonard Susskind 2008 American English
9287 Life 3.0 Max Tegmark 2017 Swedish English
9311 The Language Instinct Steven Pinker 1994 American English
9358 The Mysterious Universe James Jeans 1930 British English
9755 After The Music Stopped Alan S. Blinder 2013 American English
10086 Earth Richard Fortey 2004 British English
10188 The Weather Makers Tim Flannery 2005 Australian English
10337 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
10356 The Revenge of Gaia James Lovelock 2006 British English
10540 Stalin And The Bomb David Holloway 1994 American English
10540 Overcoming Law Richard A. Posner 1995 American English
10723 Bright Air, Brilliant Fire Gerald M. Edelman 1992 American English
10872 Darwin Among The Machines George B. Dyson 1997 American English
11244 The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder 1981 American English
11707 The Emperor's New Mind Roger Penrose 1989 British English