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
6266 So Laßt Uns Denn Ein Apfelbäumchen Pflanzen Hoimar von Ditfurth 1985 German German
6308 The Lost Symbol Dan Brown 2009 American English
6326 The New Kings Of Nonfiction Ira Glass 2007 American English
6379 Leonardo Da Vinci Walter Isaacson 2017 American English
6381 The Mysterious Island Jules Verne 1874 French French
6382 A Voyage Round The World Georg Forster 1777 German German
6432 Ideas and Opinions Albert Einstein 1954 German English
6435 On Immunity Eula Biss 2014 American English
6437 Blood Music Greg Bear 1985 American English
6445 Eaarth Bill McKibben 2010 American English
6459 Science and Civilisation in China Joseph Needham 1954 British English
6484 Coming of Age in the Milky Way Timothy Ferris 1988 American English
6574 Combats Pour L'histoire Lucien Febvre 1953 French French
6596 The Invention Of Nature Andrea Wulf 2015 German English
6599 Benjamin Franklin Carl Van Doren 1938 American English
6612 Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 2020 American English
6613 Gorillas In The Mist Dian Fossey 1983 American English
6617 Revelation Space Alastair Reynolds 2000 British English
6620 Sea Of Slaughter Farley Mowat 1984 Canadian English
6661 Mendeleyev's Dream Paul Strathern 2000 British English
6704 Collected essays Aldous Huxley 1958 British English
6717 Human, All Too Human Friedrich Nietzsche 1878 German German
6728 The Relic Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child 1995 American English
6729 The Mysterious Universe James Jeans 1930 British English
6767 Experiments And Observations On Electricity Benjamin Franklin 1751 American English
6789 The Investigation Stanislaw Lem 1959 Polish Polish
6792 La Tejedora De Coronas Germán Espinosa 1982 Colombian Spanish
6836 We are All Completely Beside Ourselves Karen Joy Fowler 2013 American English
6906 Washington Black Esi Edugyan 2018 Canadian English
6935 The Insect Societies E. O. Wilson 1971 American English
6954 Kindly Inquisitors Jonathan Rauch 1993 American English
6957 The Fifth Risk Michael M. Lewis 2018 American English
6974 Origins Reconsidered Roger Lewin, Richard Leakey 1992 Multiple English
6983 Project Hail Mary Andy Weir 2021 American English
7043 The Cosmic Connection Carl Sagan 1973 American English
7045 Invention Norbert Wiener 1948 American English
7083 The Art of the Soluble Peter B. Medawar 1967 British English
7106 Technopoly Neil Postman 1992 American English
7168 Timeline Michael Crichton 1999 American English
7169 The Everglades Marjory Stoneman Douglas 1947 American English
7216 Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars Ellen Macgregor 1951 American English
7216 Poems Of Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella 1601 Italian Italian
7216 The Garden Of Cyrus Sir Thomas Browne 1658 British English
7216 Hymn To Satan Giosué Carducci 1865 Italian Italian
7216 Gryll Grange Thomas Love Peacock 1861 British English
7216 Essays And Reviews Edgar Allan Poe 1845 American English
7216 Eureka Edgar Allan Poe 1848 American English
7216 Back To Methuselah George Bernard Shaw 1921 Irish English
7582 Feed Seanan McGuire 2010 American English
7637 Soulless Gail Carriger 2009 American English
7667 The Age Of Wonder Richard Holmes 2008 British English
7766 In Search of Klingsor Jorge Volpi Escalante 1999 Mexican Spanish
7785 Close To The Machine Ellen Ullman 1997 American English
7793 The Gods Themselves Isaac Asimov 1972 American English
7794 The Gay Science Friedrich Nietzsche 1882 German German
7811 The Song Of The Dodo David Quammen 1996 American English
7820 On The Track Of Unknown Animals Bernard Heuvelmans 1955 Belgian French
7878 The Fountains of Paradise Arthur C. Clarke 1979 British English
7878 Forever Peace Joe Haldeman 1997 American English
7890 The Dog Star Agneta Pleijel 2023 Swedish Swedish
7929 Abundance Ezra Klein 2025 American English
7981 The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Paul Hoffman 1998 American English
8006 On The Move Oliver Sacks 2015 British English
8020 The Story Of A Heart Rachel Clarke 2024 Unknown English
8076 Nurture Shock Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman 2008 American English
8182 Timescape Gregory Benford 1980 American English
8196 The Living Beach Silver Donald Cameron 1998 Canadian English
8212 Dark Emu Bruce Pascoe 2014 Australian English
8216 Green Mars Kim Stanley Robinson 1993 American English
8244 Bully For Brontosaurus Stephen Jay Gould 1991 American English
8251 The Sun Chemist Lionel Davidson 1976 British English
8285 The Other Side Of Desire Daniel Bergner 2009 American English
8293 Die Gesellschaft Der Gesellschaft Niklas Luhmann 1999 German German
8317 Subterranean James Rollins 1999 American English
8320 A Brief History Of Everything Ken Wilber 1996 American English
8402 Genie Russ Rymer 1993 American English
8422 The Man Who Loved China Simon Winchester 2008 British English
8445 The Harvest Of Chronos Mojca Kumerdej 2016 Slovenian Slovenian
8473 Natural History Joan Perucho 1960 Spanish Catalan
8466 The Poisoner's Handbook Deborah Blum 2010 American English
8466 Being Wrong Kathryn Schulz 2010 American English
8492 Underland Robert Macfarlane 2019 British English
8512 From A Logical Point Of View Willard Van Orman Quine 1953 American English
8548 Down Under Bill Bryson 2000 American English
8561 Beautiful Swimmers William Warner 1976 American English
8595 The Adventures Of Tintin Hergé 1929 Belgian French
8614 The Devil's Teeth Susan Casey 2005 American English
8643 Water Marq de Villiers 2000 Canadian English
8681 Adapt Tim Harford 2011 British English
8739 The Dalkey Archive Flann O'Brien 1964 Irish English
8852 The Emperor's New Mind Roger Penrose 1989 British English
8859 The Navigator Of New York Wayne Johnston 2002 Canadian English
8862 A Commotion in the Blood Stephen S. Hall 1997 American English
8861 Empire Of The Ants Bernard Werber 1991 French French
8971 Myths Of Gender Anne Fausto-Sterling 1987 American English
8973 A Short History Of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 2003 American English
9009 T Zero Italo Calvino 1967 Italian Italian
9020 Climbing Mount Improbable Richard Dawkins 1996 British English
9059 Challenger Adam Higginbotham 2024 British English
9074 Euphoria Lily King 2014 American English
9091 Pluto's Republic Peter B. Medawar 1982 British English
9148 Knowledge And Human Interests Jürgen Habermas 1968 German German
9165 A Place Between The Tides Harry Thurston 2004 Canadian English
9192 How We Got To Now Steven Johnson 2014 American English
9192 The Accidental Universe Alan Lightman 2014 American English
9192 But What If We're Wrong? Chuck Klosterman 2016 American English
9192 The Confidence Game Maria Konnikova 2015 American English
9192 What Do Women Want? Daniel Bergner 2013 American English
9192 The Geography Of Madness Frank Bures 2016 Unknown English
9288 A Leg To Stand On Oliver Sacks 1984 British English
9326 The Hacker Crackdown Bruce Sterling 1992 American English
9334 Authority Jeff VanderMeer 2014 American English
9334 Acceptance Jeff VanderMeer 2014 American English
9523 Oranges John McPhee 1967 American English
9567 Mathematics, Form And Function Saunders Mac Lane 1986 American English
9584 American Prometheus Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin 2005 American English
9629 The Less Noble Sex Nancy Tuana 1993 Unknown English
9635 The Collected Works of Paul Valéry Paul Valéry 1957 French French
9639 Being There Andy Clark 1996 Unknown English
9682 Tropical Nature Adrian Forsyth, Ken Miyata 1984 Unknown English