I always enjoy hearing about the reading habits of people who are much smarter and more interesting than me. New Scientist has a feature package where seventeen big name scientists recommend books that they considered "life-changing." Here is the list of the scientists and the books they suggest, with each title linking to Amazon. Follow the link at the bottom of the post to the New Scientist article where you can read the scientists' thoughts on their picks. From New Scientist:
1. Farthest North – Steve Jones, geneticist
2. The Art of the Soluble – V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist
3. Animal Liberation – Jane Goodall, primatologist
4. The Foundation trilogy – Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist
5. Alice in Wonderland – Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist
6. One, Two, Three… Infinity – Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist
7. The Idea of a Social Science – Harry Collins, sociologist of science
8. Handbook of Mathematical Functions – Peter Atkins, chemist
9. The Mind of a Mnemonist – Oliver Sacks, neurologist
10. A Mathematician’s Apology – Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician
11. The Leopard – Susan Greenfield, neurophysiologist
12. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior – Frans de Waal, psychologist and ethologist
13. Catch-22 / The First Three Minutes – Lawrence Krauss, physicist
14. William James, Writings 1878-1910 – Daniel Everett, linguist
15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Chris Frith, neuroscientist
16. The Naked Ape – Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
17. King Solomon's Ring – Marion Stamp Dawkins, Zoologist
