I know this article was published in 2006, but I just ran across it in my files again, and we know I’m a sucker for a good reading list. Plus, as you’ll be able to tell, timeliness isn’t a huge factor for these. It is Discover magazine’s “All-Time Essential Reading List” of what they consider to be the 25 best science books ever written. I’m just embarrassed I haven’t read these, although I do own one (pathetic still, huh). Check out the article too, but I’ll run down the top 10 titles and authors here.
1. Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
2. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principa Mathematica by Isaac Newton
4. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei
5. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium by Nicolaus Copernicus
6. Physica by Aristotle
7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andrea Vesalius
8. Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
9. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
10. One Two Three… Infinity by George Gamow