The Greatest Books of All Time on Science

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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
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
162 Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962 American English
177 The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud 1899 Austrian German
179 Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev 1862 Russian Russian
180 On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin 1859 British English
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
293 A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle 1962 American English
304 The Double Helix James D. Watson 1968 American English
315 Relativity Albert Einstein 1916 German German
327 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
361 Foundation Isaac Asimov 1951 American English
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
399 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
402 The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle -334 Greek Ancient greek
417 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn 1962 American English
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
531 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 1776 Scottish English
543 Discourse on Method Rene Descartes 1637 French French
622 Elective Affinities Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1809 German German
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
682 The Open Society and Its Enemies Karl Popper 1945 British English
710 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
711 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 1959 American English
720 The Professor's House Willa Cather 1925 American English
776 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
822 I, Robot Isaac Asimov 1950 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
863 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems Galileo 1632 Italian Italian
926 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne 1864 French French
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
1018 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1052 Treatise on Radioactivity Marie Curie 1910 French French
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1122 A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 1988 British English
1170 Capitalism and Freedom Milton Friedman 1962 American English
1212 A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud 1920 Austrian German
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1276 The Feynman Lectures on Physics Richard P. Feynman 1963 American English
1283 Cybernetics Norbert Wiener 1948 American English
1323 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1327 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1342 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1352 The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton 1969 American English
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1429 Aphorisms Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1902 German German
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1474 Chaos James Gleick 1987 American English
1476 Flatland Edwin A. Abbott 1884 British English
1483 Tono Bungay H. G. Wells 1909 British English
1486 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1589 Tarka the Otter Henry Williamson 1927 British English
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1656 Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis 1925 American English
1660 The Waste Books Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1770 German German
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1706 The Principia Mathematica Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell 1910 British English
1728 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1750 The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes 1986 American English
1786 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
1802 Kallocain Karin Boye 1940 Swedish Swedish
1803 The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1912 British English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1843 Euclid's Elements Euclid -300 Greek Ancient greek
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
1871 Brief Lives John Aubrey 1898 British English
1883 Chariots Of The Gods Erich Von Däniken 1968 German German
1892 A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold 1949 American English
1897 The Ice People René Barjavel 1968 French French
1948 The Jewel Of Seven Stars Bram Stoker 1903 British English
1948 The Cadaver Of Gideon Wyck Alexander Laing 1934 American English
1973 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells 1897 British English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1982 The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne Gilbert White 1789 British English
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
1992 Headlong Hall Thomas Love Peacock 1816 British English
2005 Baltasar and Blimunda José Saramago 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
2030 On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres Nicolaus Copernicus 1543 Polish Latin
2031 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2076 Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 2011 Israeli English
2105 Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey 1968 American English
2151 Conversations Of Goethe With Johann Peter Eckermann Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann 1836 German German
2160 The Immense Journey Loren Eiseley 1957 American English
2196 That Hideous Strength C. S. Lewis 1945 British English
2219 King Solomon's Ring Konrad Lorenz 1949 Austrian German
2237 Ringworld Larry Niven 1970 American English
2253 A Field Guide to the Birds Roger Tory Peterson 1934 American English
2290 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2292 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
2307 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 1976 British English
2324 Being Mortal Atul Gawande 2014 American English
2352 Contact Carl Sagan 1985 American English
2364 One Two Three . . . Infinity George Gamow 1947 American English
2368 On Growth and Form D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson 1917 British English
2382 Notebooks Leonardo da Vinci 1883 Italian Italian
2398 The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish 1666 British English
2418 A Mathematician's Apology G. H. Hardy 1940 British English
2422 Galileo Bertolt Brecht 1938 German German
2429 The Physicists Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1962 Swiss German
2476 Quatermass And The Pit Nigel Kneale 1959 British English
2487 Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann 2005 German German
2494 Rogue Moon Algis Budrys 1960 American English
2498 The South Pole Roald Amundsen 1912 Norwegian Norwegian
2507 The Abyss Marguerite Yourcenar 1968 French French
2529 The Mystery Of The Yellow Room Gaston Leroux 1907 French French
2563 The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Edmund Husserl 1936 German German