physics and astronomy reading list- These books are among my all time favorites!

Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe - Mind bending ideas!  Build an orbiting ring around the sun?

Richard Feynman, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman - Hilarious!  Read this first.

Leon Lederman, The God Particle - A great history of physics and modern discovery.

Martin Rees, Gravity’s Fatal Attraction - Beautifully written, amazing physics.

James Gleich, Chaos - Fascinating!  Complexity rules!

Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Connection - Delightful, written before he became famous.

Martin Rees, Before the Beginning - Multiple Universes?

Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time - A classic, by the world’s most famous cosmologist.

Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang - Clearly written cosmology.

Stephen Weinberg, The First Three Minutes - ...after the big bang.  Yow!

Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth - A must-read if you think there is extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Steven Levy, Artificial Life - The scariest hint of the future I have ever encountered. 

Simon Winchester, Krakatoa - A well-written account of a huge Indonesian volcano blown to bits in 1883.

Walter Alvarez, T. rex and the Crater of Doom - A great detective story about a major extinction event. 

Kathy Sawyer, The Rock From Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets - The title says it all.

Abraham Pais, Inward Bound - a readable history of modern physics, with equations!