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 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
315 Relativity Albert Einstein 1916 German German
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
1018 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
1052 Treatise on Radioactivity Marie Curie 1910 French French
1122 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
1476 Flatland Edwin A. Abbott 1884 British English
2031 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2327 The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu 2006 Chinese Chinese
2365 One Two Three . . . Infinity George Gamow 1947 American English
2369 On Growth and Form D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson 1917 British English
2430 The Physicists Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1962 Swiss German
2713 Mission Of Gravity Hal Clement 1954 American English
2873 Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard P. Feynman 1985 American English
3206 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
3285 What Is Life? Erwin Schrödinger 1944 Austrian English
3452 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
3843 The Fractal Geometry Of Nature Benoît Mandelbrot 1977 French English
4643 Micrographia Robert Hooke 1665 British English
4848 Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey Lillian Schiessel 1982 American English
4979 The First Three Minutes Steven Weinberg 1977 American English
5040 The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out Richard P. Feynman 1999 American English
5938 The Turning Point Fritjof Capra 1982 American English
6484 Coming of Age in the Milky Way Timothy Ferris 1988 American English
6729 The Mysterious Universe James Jeans 1930 British English
7025 The Fabric Of The Cosmos Brian Greene 2004 American English
7071 E=Mc2 David Bodanis 2000 British English
7766 In Search of Klingsor Jorge Volpi Escalante 1999 Mexican Spanish
8182 Timescape Gregory Benford 1980 American English
8193 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8851 The Emperor's New Mind Roger Penrose 1989 British English
8972 A Short History Of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 2003 American English
9582 American Prometheus Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin 2005 American English
9893 The Whole Shebang Timothy Ferris 1997 American English
10087 We Have No Idea Daniel Whiteson, Jorge Cham 2017 Unknown English
10507 Shadows Of The Mind Roger Penrose 1994 British English
10546 The Character Of Physical Law Richard P. Feynman 1965 American English
11111 The Quantum Rose Catherine Asaro 2000 American English
11506 How To Build A Time Machine Paul Davies 2002 British English
12225 The Tao of Physics Fritjof Capra 1975 Austrian English
12699 The Devil Reached Toward The Sky Garrett M. Graff 2025 American English
13044 Collisions Alec Nevala-Lee 2025 American English
13182 Destroyer Of Worlds Frank Close 2025 British English
13214 Stuff Matters Mark Miodownik 2013 British English
13340 The Radioactive Boy Scout Ken Silverstein 2004 American English
14202 Tau Zero Poul Anderson 1970 American English
14232 Einstein's Dreams Alan Lightman 1992 American English
14232 Copenhagen Michael Frayn 1998 British English
14324 How To Randall Munroe 2019 American English
14435 Einstein Walter Isaacson 2007 American English
14554 For The Love Of Physics Walter Lewin 2011 American English
14680 Thing Explainer Randall Munroe 2015 American English
14772 The Works of Archimedes Archimedes -287 Greek Ancient greek
14788 The Chemical History Of A Candle Michael Faraday 1861 British English
14985 Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli 2015 Italian Italian
14985 Eon Greg Bear 1985 American English
14985 In Search Of Schrodinger's Cat John Gribbin 1984 British English
15613 The Outline Of Science J. Arthur Thomson 1922 British English
15912 Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature Niels Bohr 1932 Danish English
15912 The Expanding Universe Arthur Eddington 1933 British English
15912 Science and Hypothesis Henri Poincaré 1902 French French
15912 Uncertainty Principle Werner Heisenberg 1927 German Unknown
15912 Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism James Clerk Maxwell 1873 Scottish English
15912 The Origin And Development Of The Quantum Theory Max Planck 1922 German German
15912 The Radium Woman Eleanor Doorly 1939 British English
15912 Physics For Entertainment Yakov Perelman 1913 Russian Russian
17153 Physics and Philosophy Werner Heisenberg 1958 German German
17153 Discussion with Einstein on Epistemology Niels Bohr 1949 Danish Unknown
17153 The Universe In A Nutshell Stephen Hawking 2001 British English
17153 Electric Universe David Bodanis 2005 British English
17153 The Particle At The End Of The Universe Sean Carroll 2012 American English
17153 The Fabric Of Reality David Deutsch 1997 British English
17153 The Edge Of Physics Anil Ananthaswamy 2010 Indian English
17153 Big Bang Simon Singh 2004 British English
17153 Mapping The Heavens Priyamvada Natarajan 2016 American English
17153 The Black Hole War Leonard Susskind 2008 American English
17153 Bathtub Science Shar Levine 2001 British English
17153 Candy Experiments Loralee Leavitt 2013 Unknown English
17153 Mythbusters Science Fair Book Samantha Margles 2011 American English
17153 Charged Up Jacqui Bailey 2004 British English
17153 Hyperspace Michio Kaku 1994 American English
17153 The Age Of Entanglement Louisa Gilder 2009 American English
17153 The Magic Furnace Marcus Chown 1999 British English
17153 Only The Longest Threads Tasneem Zehra Husain 2014 Pakistani English
17153 101 Quantum Questions Kenneth W. Ford 2011 American English
17153 Most Wanted Particle Jon Butterworth 2015 British English
17153 Martians Of Science Istvan Hargittai 2006 Unknown English
17153 Six Easy Pieces Richard P. Feynman 1994 American English
17153 The Cosmic Landscape Leonard Susskind 2005 American English
17153 Edge Of The Universe Paul Halpern 2012 American English
17153 Classical Mechanics Leonard Susskind, George Hrabovsky 2013 American English
17153 The Trouble With Physics Lee Smolin 2006 American English
17153 The Inflationary Universe Alan Guth 1997 American English
17153 Hiding In The Mirror Lawrence M. Krauss 2005 American English
17153 Warped Passages Lisa Randall 2005 American English
17153 Qed Richard P. Feynman 1985 American English
17153 The Cosmic Code Heinz R. Pagels 1982 American English
17153 Heisenberg's War Thomas Powers 1993 American English
17153 How To Dunk A Doughnut Len Fisher 2002 British English
17153 The Anthropic Cosmological Principle John D. Barrow, Frank J. Tipler 1986 British English
17153 Zero Charles Seife 2000 American English
17153 Isaac Newton James Gleick 2003 American English
17153 Deep Space Govert Schilling 2024 Dutch English
17153 The Impossible Man Patchen Barss 2024 Unknown English
17153 Quantum Drama Jim Baggott, John L. Heilbron 2024 Unknown English
17153 Life As No One Knows It Sara Imari Walker 2024 Unknown English
17153 Scale Geoffrey B. West 2017 American English
17153 The Man From The Future Ananyo Bhattacharya 2021 Unknown English
17153 The Warped Side Of Our Universe Kip S. Thorne, Lia Halloran 2023 American English
17153 Grace In All Simplicity Chris Quigg, Robert Cahn 2023 Unknown English