Halfway toward understanding the world
Years ago I discovered a list of ten books recommended for those who wish to "understand the world." I had read and enjoyed three of them, so I decided to pursue the rest of the list. To date I've read five:
Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach
Richard Feynman: Safecracker Suite
Steven Pinker: The Language Instinct
J. E. Gordon: The New Science of Strong Materials (1968) (but not yet the also-recommended Structures)
Stuart Sutherland: Irrationality
Still to go:
Marcus Chown: The Magic Furnace
Richard Dawkins: The Blind Watchmaker
Graham Cairns-Smith: Seven Clues to the Origin of Life
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson: On Growth and Form
Jamie James: The Music of the Spheres
As far as understanding the world goes, I think I got the most out of Gordon's explanation of what makes stuff tough and Pinker's presentation of Chomskyan language theory. Hofstadter was mind-expanding and abstract, Feynman was fun and inspiring, and Sutherland was interesting but sometimes shallow.
If I had to recommend a single book to meet this lofty goal, without hesitation I would suggest Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (here's an excerpt). Not especially rigorous (in fact, somewhat erroneous), it presents a quite readable and illuminating Big Picture. He aims to capture the current state of scientific knowledge and, often amusingly, relate the stories behind the people who figured things out. His sense of wonder is infectious, and the reader is left with a sense of how little we do understand the world.
Still to go:
As far as understanding the world goes, I think I got the most out of Gordon's explanation of what makes stuff tough and Pinker's presentation of Chomskyan language theory. Hofstadter was mind-expanding and abstract, Feynman was fun and inspiring, and Sutherland was interesting but sometimes shallow.
If I had to recommend a single book to meet this lofty goal, without hesitation I would suggest Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (here's an excerpt). Not especially rigorous (in fact, somewhat erroneous), it presents a quite readable and illuminating Big Picture. He aims to capture the current state of scientific knowledge and, often amusingly, relate the stories behind the people who figured things out. His sense of wonder is infectious, and the reader is left with a sense of how little we do understand the world.