It’s a history of the concept of God, ranging from prehistoric hunter gatherer comminities to the early civilazations of mesopothamia and then later to the birth of the three Abrahamic religions. The author is himself a Christian that is not afraid to go into topics that might shake the faith of some of his fellow believers, but also points out the positive aspects of religiosity. So whether you are religious yourself or an atheist, I think the book will have something in it that might challange your convictions and will ultimately lead to a better understanding of human nature.
jazzynoise on
Oliver Sacks’ case studies if you’re interested in neurology. *The Man Who Mistook Hos Wife for a Hat* is his best known. I especially liked *Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain*, as I’m interested in music.
Stephen Hawking’s *Brief History of Time* is a classic, of course.
And I think everyone should read Carl Sagan’s *The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark*, which is his plea for critical thinking. It is also remarkably prescient to the US in 2025.
I recently read Benjamin Labatut’s *When We Cease to Understand the World*, which is kind of an interconnected set of essays/stories about scientists and discoveries. Some read as non-fiction essays, others fictionalize the lives and imaginations of theoretical physicists. A common theme is advancements being used for good and ill, like Haber figuring out how to draw nitrogen from the air, creating fertilizer, which resulted in a population boom. But he also invented chemical weapons.
Isabel Wilkerson’s *The Warmth of Other Suns* is a work of nonfiction about the migration of six million African Americans from the south to north between WWI and 1970.
GuyMcGarnicle on
Non fiction:
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson (or The Code Breaker by Isaacson is good too)
Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of a Lifetime by Masha Gessen
9 Comments
just any genre any topic?
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
Gravitation by Kip Thorne
Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
simulacra & simulation
The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright.
It’s a history of the concept of God, ranging from prehistoric hunter gatherer comminities to the early civilazations of mesopothamia and then later to the birth of the three Abrahamic religions. The author is himself a Christian that is not afraid to go into topics that might shake the faith of some of his fellow believers, but also points out the positive aspects of religiosity. So whether you are religious yourself or an atheist, I think the book will have something in it that might challange your convictions and will ultimately lead to a better understanding of human nature.
Oliver Sacks’ case studies if you’re interested in neurology. *The Man Who Mistook Hos Wife for a Hat* is his best known. I especially liked *Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain*, as I’m interested in music.
Stephen Hawking’s *Brief History of Time* is a classic, of course.
And I think everyone should read Carl Sagan’s *The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark*, which is his plea for critical thinking. It is also remarkably prescient to the US in 2025.
I recently read Benjamin Labatut’s *When We Cease to Understand the World*, which is kind of an interconnected set of essays/stories about scientists and discoveries. Some read as non-fiction essays, others fictionalize the lives and imaginations of theoretical physicists. A common theme is advancements being used for good and ill, like Haber figuring out how to draw nitrogen from the air, creating fertilizer, which resulted in a population boom. But he also invented chemical weapons.
Isabel Wilkerson’s *The Warmth of Other Suns* is a work of nonfiction about the migration of six million African Americans from the south to north between WWI and 1970.
Non fiction:
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson (or The Code Breaker by Isaacson is good too)
Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of a Lifetime by Masha Gessen
Ethics by Benedict D Spinozza
Fermat’s Last Theorem