Comment by troymc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by troymc | Hacker News Reader

Growing up in the middle of nowhere, Canada in the 1980s, the library didn't have many good science books. When Hawking's book got published, it was the only thing available like that anywhere around. Remember, this is before you could get any book in existence within one month via Amazon. There was no Amazon.

I got A Brief History of Time and read it, and it's almost cliche to say so, but it changed the course of my life. It's not the only book that affected me, but it was pivotal. George Gamow's little book also was available, and some good Asimov stuff, but otherwise nothing really.

So I went to university in the big city (Saskatoon!) and studied physics, and they had a whole library of physics books! You'd think it was like heaven, but a lot of those books were crap or hard to read. Hawking showed how one can aim for a book that's interesting-and-good and actually achieve it. A few others managed to do the same. There are probably 20 actually-good and readable physics books in the whole world, and his books are a few of them.

A Brief History of Time changed my life too. My dad gave it to me when I was about 13 years old. It taught me 2 big things that I had not yet realized:

1) That science was graspable, even by me, given enough time to reflect (and a good teacher helps).

2) That science requires sparks of creativity, in addition to all of its methodology, and that being a scientist can involve being creative.

> it was the only thing available like that anywhere around. Remember, this is before you could get any book in existence within one month via Amazon

This seems to still be the case, I recently spent some time visiting my moms place in a small town in Ontario, Canada and visited the old library. I was looking at the biography section of the local library and outside of the usual mob or famous actors selection the three choices among the "great minds" were bios of: Isaac Newton, Hypatia, and Stephen Hawking.

Even if his ideas may only be poorly grasped by the general population he still ranks among the greatest and most accessible minds in history wherever you may live, and we're all better off thanks to him.

Can you share the names of other physics books that you think are good & readable ?

'A short history of nearly everything' is extremely readable. Written by a comedic writer. It surveys much of scientific knowledge roughly narrated as a history of scientific discovery and the development of science.

'Elegant universe' is a little denser. It's about as accessible as string theory gets, and that's surprisingly accessible. It also surveys a lot of scientific knowledge. For example, it has a very intuitive explanation of how knowing about the constant speed of light (Einstein) makes time travel possible. Also, it explains open questions that string theory is trying to solve, which are the big, TOE questions in physics currently.

Hard to beat Hawkins though. He heavily influenced and inspired these guys, an proved that hard science is interesting for everyone. Goodbye Professor. You will be missed.

Bill Bryson is the author of "A short history of nearly everything" and it is a very good book!

> 'A short history of nearly everything' is extremely readable. Written by a comedic writer.

Bill Bryson normally writes travel books, so the way this book is written is not your standard science approach. This book in particular is very entertaining since the topic is out of the authors comfort zone.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is actually my favourite book to read while travelling, funnily enough.

At risk of being pedantic, his name was Hawking, not Hawkins.

Many of Lee Smolin's books are phenomenal, and despite being very indepth into their subject matter, are easy and enjoyable to read. Trouble With Physics is my favorite.

"Einstein's Telescope" however, is fairly dry and a bit out of date now as well.

I find Brian Greene’s books to be well done and engaging.

There's a very good book called E=mc^2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation written by David Bodanis. I think I read it at about 16 and it was very approachable.

The Feynman lectures on Physics

I've been told that Roger Penrose's The Road to Reality is awesome if you already know enough math. If you're an engineer, for example, you shouldn't have problems. Unfortunately, my personal level of mathematical maturity is too low and I've never made it past the first ten chapters. Maybe some day with more effort. :/

Second that. It's an awesome book that explains pretty much everything when it comes to physics. As for the math, it's true that they're hard but you should really give it another try since the second part of the book has less equations and more text.

I've heard good things about that one. I should get it. It came much later than the 1980s, of course.

"Chaos" by James Gleick is about the same age as Hawking's book. The story of discovery there gives a great idea of the adventure in science.

Susskinds "Theoretical Minimum" series of books is quite readable.

Feynmann's "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter" is a popular science book which contains a small amount of approachable mathematics. It's a good choice if you want something a little more meaty.

Lee Smolin's "The trouble with physics" is pretty good.

I really liked Kip Thorne's Black Holes & Time Warps. Some overlap with Brief History of Time in content, but much bigger and detailed but still reasonably accessible (I thought).

"An Introduction to the Meaning and Structure of Physics", by Leon N Cooper, also another Nobel laureate in Physics. Filled my mind with wonder when I read it some 15 years ago.

I haven't seen Carlo Rovelli's books mentioned. Especially 'Seven brief lessons on physics'.

Asimov on Physics. Pretty much Asimov on anything.

The others are suggesting Bill Bryson, Brian Greene, Lee Smolin and Leonard Susskind books but they came quite a bit later. Good suggestions though.

What stands out that I could read in the 1980s? I mentioned George Gamow's little book: One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science.

Many Carl Sagan books were available by then. Ask Google.

Isaac Asimov wrote about everything, but his monthly essays in the Fantasy & Science Fiction (magazine) often covered some physics topic. I love how he tells the story: Always about the person, the time, the ideas, the meanings of the words, good analogies. He made it all seem so simple, but I know now that he was a master and loved it (and bragged about it too). Those essays were often collected into paperback collections, and my high school library got them.

Asimov also wrote a History of Physics book. Really thick and long. I read it for a book report for English class, because I was a total nerd and it seemed like a fun project. Most others read a comic book because those passed as "non-fiction" (for real).

One of the better textbooks is Introduction to Electrodynamics by David J. Griffiths. That one stands out in my mind.

MURRAY 5TH FLOOR QB981.H377 1998

Now I know what I'm doing this afternoon, thanks!

Now that you mention it, i think i got the "multimedia" edition of that as part of the bundle when i bought a CD-ROM upgrade kit back in the day.

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