***Sci Forum Book Recommendations***

Alone In The Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique
John Gribbon / Wiley / 2011 / 219pp

Mr. Gribbon (Astrophysics/University of Sussex) explains why (in his opinion) we are the only intelligent beings in our galaxy and perhaps, even the universe. An interesting and good read.
 
Godel, Escher, and Bach:an Eternal Golden Braid by Hofstadter
For narratives:
The Republic by Plato
...anything by Dostoyevsky
 
I'd recommend reading the Bible or the Qu'ran, or does it go without saying. I'm not recommending it on the basis of its scientific merit, but these 2 books are very influential historically in various fields. It's not so much that you should adopt their doctrine, but so you can understand those who have (which is over half the world). After all, its a mark of an educated mind that can entertain a thought without accepting it ;)
 
"What Is Your Dangerous Idea?" edited by John Brockman with an introduction by Steven Pinker and an afterword by Richard Dawkins.

"What do the world's leading scientists and thinkers consider to be their most dangerous idea? Through the leading online forum Edge (www.edge.org) the call went out, and this compelling and easily digestible volume collects all the answers. From using medication to permanently alter our personalities to contemplating a universe in which we are utterly alone, to the idea that the universe might be fundamentally inexplicable, What Is Your Dangerous Idea? takes an unflinching look at the daring, breathtaking, sometimes terrifying thoughts that could forever alter our world and the way we live in it."
 
Well,i have heard a very good books especially Michio Kaku books!! I have got both of his book already.. Mind blowing books!! Those books are Hyperspace and Parallel Worlds!!
 
"The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics". Written by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith
 
Fiction - 6 book Series .. Clan of The Cave Bear - Written by Jean M Auel -

It won awards for the amount of research necessary, and even though it is a work of fiction it has been adopted by some as a survival guide. It has many researched medicinal plants, and methods of living from bleaching leathers with Urine, to using surrounds to catch animals. I laughed. I cried. I am very well read and this was the vest series I have ever read. It is one of the only series I reread about 15 years later and enjoyed as much.

They attempted to make this into a movie (first book) starring Darryl Hannah, but it did not do it justice. This Story requires at least a season or Miniseries to tell and even then it is such an awesome book series it would be a shame to miss the reading of it.

The archaeological and paleontological research for this book was carried out by Auel from her public library, by attending archaeological conventions, and touring extensively on sites with briefings by working field archaeologists.[5] Some of the descriptions are based on the first adult Neanderthal skeletons found in Iraq from the cave burial at Shanidar, dating between 60-80,000 years BP. Other data is clearly linked to the widespread Aurignacian culture and Gravettian culture, and their tell-tale Venus figurines which Auel uses as one center of her Cro-magnon religious practices.[6]
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The writing is so incredible I felt as if I had completed a journey when I finished them. I enjoy the writing of Robert Ludlum as well if anyone is wishing to discern my literary taste.

This story spans 4000 pages and has sold 45 million copies, so it is likely some here have even read it.

I always liked the Trilogy format with books so I would not need to start fresh on my next book, and this does not disappoint. Many people who read this series adopt it as their favorite books.

Hillary Clinton - The Clan of the Cave Bear by Auel. Clinton continued “I’ve been interested for a long time in archeology and anthropology, and this novel about life in prehistoric times is a rich blend of imagination and information about everything from plants that were used for medicine to the rituals and taboos of Neanderthal man.”
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Here is movie of first book, but it some books dont translate as well into movies.

[video=youtube;GXh4BNYYObU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXh4BNYYObU[/video]


This is a great way to spend a few weeks worth of reading.
 
My suggestion would be the book Two timeless theories. You can google for it.
The book has a theory about particle physics and a theory about human instincts.
 
Although I'm only a few chapters into it and it's not super-current, I'm quite enjoying "Living in Space" by G. Harry Stine.
It covers what humans actually need to survive, i.e. ideal temperature and humidity ranges, oxygen/nitrogen levels, the basic whys and hows of what the body needs and what happens if these go into non-ideal ranges... the book goes into acceleration toleration (rhyme time!), radiation, and so on.
It's a good, basic rundown of what a human body needs in it's environment for ideal survival.
 
I'm reading The Witness by Nora Roberts, Myuu help me. It's trite and has holes big enough to drive a truck through but requires no brain and I'm editing it as I go along.
 
Nin' said:
Hello,

I'm looking for some book recommendations as the title of this thread suggests. I would prefer non-fiction books in the categories of Science, Philosophy, Politics, History, or anything that you feel can expand the mind. Any recommendations would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

(PS. Sorry if this made it into the wrong section of the forum)
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Probably the best book I have ever read, is "The Making of The Atomic Bomb " by Richard Rhodes:
Far more then about the making of the bomb and the Manhatten project, it is in reality a history of late 19th century and 20th century physics/chemistry, from Madam Curie, Rhotegen and Rutherford, to Fermi Szillard and Bohr, up to Einstein Feynman and Teller and the H bomb.....A GREAT READ!!!!
 
I've decided to read (again) 1984, by George Orwell. If you haven't read it, it fits into a more "political fiction" category than science fiction, but it often is placed in the sci-fi genre. A disturbing, yet fabulous read! :)
 
I Am a Strange Loop

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Both by: Douglas Hofstadter

Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American professor of cognitive science whose research focuses on the sense of "I", consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics. He is best known for his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, first published in 1979. It won both the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and a National Book Award (at that time called The American Book Award) for Science.[a] His 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.
 
The book Transparent Universe by S.F. van der Meulen, best cosmological theory you'll ever read. You'll have to read it threw to the end to understand how neat space is constructed.
 
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