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Reccommend a book

lw24

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lw24

lw24

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Hi all,

I recently won an award at my secondary schools achievements evening, and now have a £10 book voucher to spend, but am not really sure what book to get. Firstly, I'll list the books I already have:

Wonders of the Universe

Wonders of the Solar System

Stephen Hawking: The Grand Design

Why Does e=mc^2

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)

Turn Left at Orion

I'm looking for an astronomy/physics book about the universe, which covers things such as string theory, the idea of a multiverse, black holes, dark matter etc. One thing I want is a modern book, which contains the up to date scientific discoveries and theories.

I have seen books such as A Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell, but am unsure if these would be what I am looking for, and if they are too complicated for me (seeing as I am still completing GCSE Physics).

Other books that look attractive are the Brian Greenes books, such as The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and The Hidden Reality, Richard Panek's book The 4-Percent Universe, Patrick Moore's Yearbook of Astronomy, and 50 Ideas You Really Need to Know: Universe by Joanne Baker.

I hope you can help!

Cheers

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brantuk

brantuk

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Turn Left at Orion is a great book for helping you to find stuff in the sky with a telescope - however I think on this occasion it's not appropriate, bearing in mind your stated reading objectives.

I think this is the first time I've not been able to recommend TLAO - wierd lol. :D

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acey

acey

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Congratulations on your award, lw24.

I've read all of Brian Greene's book's, they're all excellent. The one I would recommend is the most recent, The Hidden Reality.

The first, The Elegant Universe, is about string theory, written at a time when it looked like the whole thing was maybe about to be tied up in "M-Theory". The book was very nice as a way of describing the technicalities involved (e.g. Calabi-Yau manifolds) without actually being too technical. But the subject has moved on since then and you want something more up to date. What's happened is that it has become apparent that there are kazillions of possible string theories, which possibly undermines the whole idea.

The Fabric Of The Cosmos was again a very nice book, and broader in scope. It gives a rundown of ideas from quantum theory, cosmology etc., all very nicely explained. Strings and branes are in there too.

The Hidden Reality is the most up to date, and takes into account the crisis that has arisen due to the large number of possible string theories. One response is to say that these many theories imply a multiverse. So that's what the book is essentially about, though there are lots of ways of thinking about multiverses (not just string theory), so like Fabric Of The Cosmos it's pretty broad.

I recently read it back-to-back with the latest books by John Barrow and David Deutsch and I found Greene's the most enjoyable of the three. Downside is that it's still in hardcover while the earlier books are available as paperbacks. It came out in February so I should imagine that the paperback edition will be February 2012. So if it's a choice between the two older paperbacks or one new hardback then it's really down to how much reading you want to do and whether you like nicely bound books. Maybe flip a coin?

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Nexus 6

Nexus 6

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I've already got Turn Left at Orion...

I'm more looking for a astrophysics book than an astronomy book.

Ye sorry, did'nt realize you were wanting something to get your teeth into. Plenty of good choices mentioned above though :D

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Geordie mc

Geordie mc

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Another vote for Universe by Roger A Freedman and W J Kaufmann. It's a first year graduate level book now in it's 9th or 10th edition. You can get it in various forms with/without CD etc. The cheapest is about £40 I think. It has a supoorting website and is an excellent text. It covers the solar system, black holes, galaxies, star formation and death, protoplanets, neutron stars, quasars etc. Hightly recommended.

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obscura

obscura

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Further to Geordie and my recco, "Universe" gently takes you through the maths, excellent support diagrams, foties and text. It does not specialise in multipaged full page foties that abound in other volumes. This book helped me through OU S282 course. Its well worth £40ish. Re Amazon and reviews.

Highly recommended.

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lw24

lw24

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"Universe" sounds great, it's just I can only use the book voucher in a book store (not online, not on Amazon).

I was thinking maybe treating myself to "Universe" on Amazon, then using the book voucher for another book, such as Parallel Worlds, or 50 ideas..., or The 4-Percent Universe or The Fabric of the Cosmos.

It's just what one to choose :D

Any suggestions on the above?

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Ad Astra

Ad Astra

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I'm currently looking at getting either The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos or The Hidden Reality.

Could you summarise what each book covers?

Clear Skies

The Elegant Universe is mostly about modern advances in string theory (Theory of Everything) and is very good. I've also just picked up "The Book of Universes" by Barrow which was very good. Gribbin's "In Search of the Multiverse" was also excellent.

If you want something on dark matter and dark energy, I can strongly recommend "The 4% Universe" With the exception of Greene's book, all of these are 2011 books and very up to date. If you are feeling very frisky (and well up on your maths), you can also try Roger Penrose's "Cycles of Time" - but that one is a bit of a challenge - Penrose is a longtime colleague of Stephen Hawking, but he writes for a more informed audience. If you think you are ready for the next level, and you want to explore modern cosmology - I would start with the 4% Universe as a warmup, and then try Penrose's book.

Let me know if you have questions and we can discuss them!

Dr. Daniel Barth

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lw24

lw24

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The Elegant Universe is mostly about modern advances in string theory (Theory of Everything) and is very good. I've also just picked up "The Book of Universes" by Barrow which was very good. Gribbin's "In Search of the Multiverse" was also excellent.

If you want something on dark matter and dark energy, I can strongly recommend "The 4% Universe" With the exception of Greene's book, all of these are 2011 books and very up to date. If you are feeling very frisky (and well up on your maths), you can also try Roger Penrose's "Cycles of Time" - but that one is a bit of a challenge - Penrose is a longtime colleague of Stephen Hawking, but he writes for a more informed audience. If you think you are ready for the next level, and you want to explore modern cosmology - I would start with the 4% Universe as a warmup, and then try Penrose's book.

Let me know if you have questions and we can discuss them!

Dr. Daniel Barth

Hi,

I don't really know how good my maths is, except I'm predicited an A/A* in Maths at GCSE. Whether this is sufficient for the 'next level', I am unsure.

Hmm, "The Book of Universes" seems very good. I'm just unsure what level to jump in at. I know it's alot to ask in one book, but ideally, i'm looking for a book which covers multiverses, string theory, black holes and M-Theory.

Maybe I could cover this in 2 books.

Clear Skies

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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"Universe" by Roger A Freedman and W J Kaufmann

But not £10.

My copy is 6th edition 2002. A great 800p book + cd.

It is a serious book for anyone who wants to really get to grips with Astronomy.

Seconded, heartily. You might find a copy by searching on ABEbooks, the second hand book search engine. This is a real astronomy book and truly authoratitive. Yet it is accessible and a delight to read. I absolutely love it and use it on the 'intro to astro' course I sometimes run here.

Olly

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sevs23

sevs23

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Marcus Chown writes good books based around modern & historical physics etc like the big bang etc - "The Universe Next Door" etc

Simon Singh - Big Bang

John Gribben - In Search of the Multiverse, The Universe, A History.

All the above write with an easy to read style without you needing to know maths or physics.

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