The Greatest Books of All Time on Physics

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 745 '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
315 Relativity Albert Einstein 1916 German German
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
1015 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
1050 Treatise on Radioactivity Marie Curie 1910 French French
1120 A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 1988 British English
1276 The Feynman Lectures on Physics Richard P. Feynman 1963 American English
1449 Corpus Aristotelicum Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1463 Camera Obscura Nicolaas Beets 1839 Dutch Dutch
1475 Flatland Edwin A. Abbott 1884 British English
2026 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2320 The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu 2006 Chinese Chinese
2357 One Two Three . . . Infinity George Gamow 1947 American English
2361 On Growth and Form D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson 1917 British English
2424 The Physicists Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1962 Swiss German
2710 Mission Of Gravity Hal Clement 1954 American English
2866 Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard P. Feynman 1985 American English
3199 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
3279 What Is Life? Erwin Schrödinger 1944 Austrian English
3447 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
3839 The Fractal Geometry Of Nature Benoît Mandelbrot 1977 French English
4636 Micrographia Robert Hooke 1665 British English
4840 Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey Lillian Schiessel 1982 American English
4969 The First Three Minutes Steven Weinberg 1977 American English
5031 The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out Richard P. Feynman 1999 American English
5928 The Turning Point Fritjof Capra 1982 American English
6474 Coming of Age in the Milky Way Timothy Ferris 1988 American English
6718 The Mysterious Universe James Jeans 1930 British English
7015 The Fabric Of The Cosmos Brian Greene 2004 American English
7060 E=Mc2 David Bodanis 2000 British English
7749 In Search of Klingsor Jorge Volpi Escalante 1999 Mexican Spanish
8166 Timescape Gregory Benford 1980 American English
8177 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8836 The Emperor's New Mind Roger Penrose 1989 British English
8957 A Short History Of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 2003 American English
9562 American Prometheus Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin 2005 American English
9876 The Whole Shebang Timothy Ferris 1997 American English
10071 We Have No Idea Daniel Whiteson, Jorge Cham 2017 Unknown English
10480 Shadows Of The Mind Roger Penrose 1994 British English
10519 The Character Of Physical Law Richard P. Feynman 1965 American English
11080 The Quantum Rose Catherine Asaro 2000 American English
11480 How To Build A Time Machine Paul Davies 2002 British English
12197 The Tao of Physics Fritjof Capra 1975 Austrian English
12668 The Devil Reached Toward The Sky Garrett M. Graff 2025 American English
13011 Collisions Alec Nevala-Lee 2025 American English
13149 Destroyer Of Worlds Frank Close 2025 British English
13181 Stuff Matters Mark Miodownik 2013 British English
13305 The Radioactive Boy Scout Ken Silverstein 2004 American English
14136 Tau Zero Poul Anderson 1970 American English
14165 Einstein's Dreams Alan Lightman 1992 American English
14165 Copenhagen Michael Frayn 1998 British English
14256 How To Randall Munroe 2019 American English
14364 Einstein Walter Isaacson 2007 American English
14477 For The Love Of Physics Walter Lewin 2011 American English
14599 Thing Explainer Randall Munroe 2015 American English
14686 The Works of Archimedes Archimedes -287 Greek Ancient greek
14701 The Chemical History Of A Candle Michael Faraday 1861 British English
14901 Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli 2015 Italian Italian
14901 Eon Greg Bear 1985 American English
14901 In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat John Gribbin 1984 British English
15520 The Outline Of Science J. Arthur Thomson 1922 British English
15786 Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature Niels Bohr 1932 Danish English
15786 The Expanding Universe Arthur Eddington 1933 British English
15786 Science and Hypothesis Henri Poincaré 1902 French French
15786 Uncertainty Principle Werner Heisenberg 1927 German Unknown
15786 Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism James Clerk Maxwell 1873 Scottish English
15786 The Origin And Development Of The Quantum Theory Max Planck 1922 German German
15786 The Radium Woman Eleanor Doorly 1939 British English
15786 Physics For Entertainment Yakov Perelman 1913 Russian Russian
17010 Physics and Philosophy Werner Heisenberg 1958 German German
17010 Discussion with Einstein on Epistemology Niels Bohr 1949 Danish Unknown
17010 The Universe In A Nutshell Stephen Hawking 2001 British English
17010 Electric Universe David Bodanis 2005 British English
17010 The Particle At The End Of The Universe Sean Carroll 2012 American English
17010 The Fabric Of Reality David Deutsch 1997 British English
17010 The Edge Of Physics Anil Ananthaswamy 2010 Indian English
17010 Big Bang Simon Singh 2004 British English
17010 Mapping The Heavens Priyamvada Natarajan 2016 American English
17010 The Black Hole War Leonard Susskind 2008 American English
17010 Bathtub Science Shar Levine 2001 British English
17010 Candy Experiments Loralee Leavitt 2013 Unknown English
17010 Mythbusters Science Fair Book Samantha Margles 2011 American English
17010 Charged Up Jacqui Bailey 2004 British English
17010 Hyperspace Michio Kaku 1994 American English
17010 The Age Of Entanglement Louisa Gilder 2009 American English
17010 The Magic Furnace Marcus Chown 1999 British English
17010 Only The Longest Threads Tasneem Zehra Husain 2014 Pakistani English
17010 101 Quantum Questions Kenneth W. Ford 2011 American English
17010 Most Wanted Particle Jon Butterworth 2015 British English
17010 Martians Of Science Istvan Hargittai 2006 Unknown English
17010 Six Easy Pieces Richard P. Feynman 1994 American English
17010 The Cosmic Landscape Leonard Susskind 2005 American English
17010 Edge Of The Universe Paul Halpern 2012 American English
17010 Classical Mechanics Leonard Susskind, George Hrabovsky 2013 American English
17010 The Trouble With Physics Lee Smolin 2006 American English
17010 The Inflationary Universe Alan Guth 1997 American English
17010 Hiding In The Mirror Lawrence M. Krauss 2005 American English
17010 Warped Passages Lisa Randall 2005 American English
17010 Qed Richard P. Feynman 1985 American English
17010 The Cosmic Code Heinz R. Pagels 1982 American English
17010 Heisenberg's War Thomas Powers 1993 American English
17010 How To Dunk A Doughnut Len Fisher 2002 British English
17010 The Anthropic Cosmological Principle John D. Barrow, Frank J. Tipler 1986 British English
17010 Zero Charles Seife 2000 American English
17010 Isaac Newton James Gleick 2003 American English
17010 Deep Space Govert Schilling 2024 Dutch English
17010 The Impossible Man Patchen Barss 2024 Unknown English
17010 Quantum Drama Jim Baggott, John L. Heilbron 2024 Unknown English
17010 Life As No One Knows It Sara Imari Walker 2024 Unknown English
17010 Scale Geoffrey B. West 2017 American English
17010 The Man From The Future Ananyo Bhattacharya 2021 Unknown English
17010 The Warped Side Of Our Universe Kip S. Thorne, Lia Halloran 2023 American English
17010 Grace In All Simplicity Chris Quigg, Robert Cahn 2023 Unknown English