Posted by Carlos on May 05, 1998 at 15:43:00:
I went home last night and made a list of the 20 best books on my bookshelf; "best" being defined as those books that have caused me to think, contemplate, re-evaluate, change my mind, change my perspective. I complete about a book a week, and usually have 3 or 4 in progress; therefore, I'm always looking for good reading material. Does anyone have suggestions for books along these lines (science, history or good fiction)?
Turbulent Mirror, John Briggs and F. David Peat [on chaos theory]
A Brief History of Time, Stephen W. Hawking
Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel C. Dennett
The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
The Day the Universe Changed, James Burke
Virus of the Mind, Richard Brodie
Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas R. Hofstadter
The Mind, Richard M. Restak MD
D-Day, Stephen E. Ambrose
Citizen Soldiers, Stephen E. Ambrose
The Origin of Satan, Elane Pagels
A History of God, Karen Armstrong
The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
The Federalist Papers, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay
The Lucifer Principle, Harold Bloom
Killer Angels, Michael Shaara [a novel of the battle of Gettysburg]
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo