5 Physics Books You Should Read (Popular Science + Textbook Recommendations)

Books to read if you like physics! Whether you're interested in learning about different concepts in physics, or you want to learn the detailed mathematics behind ideas in quantum physics or relativity, here are my recommendations!

Affiliate links to all the recommended books down below!

My first physics book recommendation is a popular science book called "50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know" by Joanne Baker. This book was lent to me by my high school chemistry teacher when she found out I was going to study physics at university. It introduces 50 interesting ideas in physics, covering each one over a couple of pages. The explanations are succinct and engaging, and the "ideas" are spread over a large number of topics in physics.

My third recommendation is "How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog" by Chad Orzel. The premise is quite fun, with the author having conversations with his dog about quantum mechanics, discussing it in ways the dog would find enjoyable. For example, there is a whole conversation about whether the dog can use quantum mechanics to her advantage while chasing squirrels. And there's also a good explanation as to why this wouldn't work, and why quantum phenomena are only observable on very small scales.

My fourth recommendation is a more mathematically detailed book, called "Quantum Theory" by David Bohm. Bohm was a well known physicist who worked on different areas in quantum mechanics, and this textbook was written for undergraduate physics students. I still feel like this book (or many parts at least) are accessible to laypeople and non-physics students. If you know a bit of calculus, you'll be able to roughly follow a fair amount of the mathematics. (Apparently, Bohm became dissatisfied with quantum mechanics as it was then, after he wrote this book, and went on to work on some very well known theories).

My final recommendation is the most mathematically complicated book of the five. It's called "General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists" by Hobson, Efstathiou, and Lasenby. The reason I'm recommending this difficult textbook is because many of you have asked me some very deep, detailed questions about relativity. This book was the one my relativity courses at university were based on, and I used it as a reference many times during my degree. It starts out with the basic concepts of special relativity, and then goes into some very interesting and complex general relativity concepts.

If you'd like to get any of these books, check out the links below. They're affiliate links, so if you purchase anything through them, I get a small commission!

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Physics Book Recommendations by Parth G
0:43 - 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know (Joanne Baker)
1:45 - Dead Famous: Albert Einstein and His Inflatable Universe (Dr Mike Goldsmith)
2:37 - How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog (Chad Orzel)
4:08 - Quantum Theory (David Bohm)
4:47 - General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists (Hobson, Efstathiou, Lasenby)

[parthasur]

Popular:

1. One Two Three Infinity – George Gamow
2. Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland – George Gamow
3. Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom – George Gamow

The Mr. Tompkins books are now combined into one volume called “Mr. Tompkins in Paperback”.

4. The Restless Universe – Max Born
5. The Character of Physical Law – Richard Feynman
6. QED: The strange Theory of Light and Matter – Richard Feynman
7. The Quark and the Jaguar – Murray Gell-Mann
8. Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe – Simon Singh
9. The Quantum Universe – Tony Hey and Patrick Walters
10. Einstein’s Mirror – Tony Hey and Patrick Walters
11. Hidden Unity in Nature’s Laws – John C. Taylor
12. The Forces of Nature – Paul (P.C.W.) Davies
13. The Elegant Universe – Brian Greene
14. The First Three Minutes – Steven Weinberg
15. The Structure of the Universe – Jayant Narlikar
16. The Key to the Universe – Nigel Calder
17. Foundations of Physics – Robert B. Lindsay and Henry Margenau
18. The Tao of Physics – Fritjof Capra

Text Books:
1. Mechanics (Berkeley Physics Course Vol 1) – Charles Kittel, Walter Knight et al.
2. Electricity and Magnetism (Berkeley Physics Course Vol 2) – Edward M. Purcell
3. Waves (Berkeley Physics Course Vol 3) – Frank S. Crawford
4. Quantum Physics (Berkeley Physics Course Vol 4) – Eyvind Wichman
5. Statistical Physics (Berkeley Physics Course Vol 5) - Frederick Reif
6. Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics – Douglas Giancoli
7. Electromagnetism: Principles and Applications – Paul Lorrain and Dale Corson
8. Classical Electricity and Magnetism - Wolfgang Panofsky and Melba Philips
9. Fundamentals of Optics – Francis A. Jenkins and Harvey E. White
10. Optics – Eugene Hecht
11. Fundamentals of Physics (vols 1-2) - R. Shankar

Books 11 are the accompanying books for the following two Yale undergraduate Physics courses by Prof. Shankar:



12. Thermodynamics – Enrico Fermi
13. Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles – Robert Eisberg and Robert Resnick
14. Atomic Physics – Max Born
15. Theoretical Physics – Georg Joos
16. Principles of Mechanics – J.L. Synge and B.A. Griffith
17. Classical Mechanics - Tom Kibble and Frank Berkshire
18. A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics – John L. Townsend
19. Quantum Mechanics - Leonard Schiff
20. Spacetime Physics – Edwin Taylor and John Wheeler
21. Introduction to Special Relativity – Wolfgang Rindler
22. Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology – Robert J. A. Lambourne

And of course
23. The Feynman Lectures on Physics (vols 1-3) – Richard P. Feynman

Although "Mathematical Methods for Physics" type books are not included in this video special mention must be made for:

24. Mathematical Methods for Science Students - G. Stephenson
25. Advanced Mathematical Methods for Engineering and Science Students - G. Stephenson and P. M. Radmore
26. Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences - Mary L. Boas
27. Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering - K.F. Riley, M.P. Hobson, S.J. Bence
28. Applied Mathematics for Engineers and Physicists - Louis A. Pipes
29. Mathematical Methods: For Students of Physics and Related Fields - Sadri Hassani
30. Mathematical Physics: A Modern Introduction to Its Foundations - Sadri Hassani

And finally, a beauty (for the mathematically inclined) from Prof. Balakrishnan:
31. Mathematical Physics: Applications and Problems – V. Balakrishnan

If you do not know how good he is, here are some of his advanced undergraduate/graduate level lectures at IIT, Chennai:

Classical Physics (including Statistical Mechanics):

Quantum Physics:

[charlz]

I'm impressed by your restraint by not including griffiths intro to electrodynamics

[salcanoman]

"Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" would be on my list as a casual reed to see physicists rock as well !

[lifeofphyraprun]

'PHYSICS' by Resnick, Halliday and Krane is a book that really walks you through most of the Physics.From Newton's Laws to the Second Law of Thermodynamics in Volume 1 and from Electrostatics to Particle Physics and Cosmology in the last chapter. I am through with the first volume and half of the second volume.I am a high school student and it is my favorite book, as it kinda left no confusion at all, in the topics that I covered.Reading that book feels like discovering Physics yourself, and that is really fun.

[BitwiseMobile]

When I was a kid I was introduced to science from Scientific American of all things. I started reading that when I was still in grade school. At one point I was going to be a mechanical engineer (my dad was a machinist and that influenced). I fell into the physics rabbit hole after reading Scientific American, and I wanted to become a physicist. Then I read an article on Conway's Game of Life and the programming bug bit. I took physics in Uni up to 250 (which is 2nd year - not sure how the schedule numbers work in all universities), but I majored in CSE. I still have a deep love for physics though, and your videos are a perfect way to rendezvous with that old love.

[fizyknaut]

I saw "How to Teach Quantum Physics to your Dog" at a book store the other day and thought "Well, I don't have a dog but... I want to know how." I just finished it and it was pretty fun!

[AlMaarij]

I am an undergraduate electrical engg. But after 2 years of my degree I realized that my real interest is Quantum Physics and Astrophysics.
Whenever I try to start self study, the heavy math comes in my way.
It'll be very helpful for me if you recommend books that (if not in easy way) atleast explain fairly the quantum and astrophysical topics (related to math).

[lucascaraca]

I'm really enjoyng "Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum" (Leonard Susskind)
He focuses more on the concepts rather than the math in a way that is intuitive but profound at the same time.

This was the approach I was looking for QM, especially in my first contact with it when I was in college.

[douglasstrother]

"The Feynman Lectures on Physics" are always a great read.

[TheHumanHades]

I have read a brief history of time by Stephen Hawking when I was in class 9th. From the layman's view(which I was back then) it is awesome.

[sjdpfisvrj]

"The Road to Reality" by Roger Penrose. It's a book that takes no prisoners; it almost challenges you to get as far as you can.

[TerryBollinger]

QED by Feynman is a delightful intro to quantum theory. It conveys the deep strangeness of the quantum world better than any book I've read, yet does so without maths. The main technical concept he uses is, well... clock dials. Feynman prepared these lectures for Alix Mautner, an English literature friend, with the goal of using no math at all. He fudged that goal a bit in the footnotes, but only because he could not resist pointing out that complex numbers provide an extraordinarily efficient way to represent and calculate changes in large numbers of those little clock dials. By taking so much of the mystery out of the maths, Feynman makes *what* they say about the quantum world all the more striking.

[tdoc]

Highly recommend the national geographic series called 'genius', I know its not a book but the first season is all about Einsteins life story, really well delivered and the acting is brilliant too imo

[douglasstrother]

"The Electron" by Robert Millikan is another great read.

[bharathsf]

I loved Cosmos and the Pale Blue Dot when I was young. I dont know if it qualifies for this particular criteria of physics books but it is amazing

[avnishsaravanan]

"Lost in Math" is a must-read for enthusiasts of physics and other fields, and professionals alike.

[alansilverman]

I love that you recommend Bohm... truly a great read!
Some volumes I find enjoyable -
Vibrations and Waves by French
Intermediate Quantum Mechanics by Baym
Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation by Price, Press, et.al.
Quantum Dynamics by Schwinger
Astrophysical Concepts by Harwit
Dirac's little monograph on Relativity is concise and eminently readable...
Spacetime Physics by Taylor
and of course,
Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler

[vikrantsingh]

Well, (for not so advance students)I actually enjoyed reading
1. Gravity: A very short introduction by Timothy Clifton. A very detailed and interesting book also some other books from the same series such Particle Physics, Astrophysics, etc.
2. Quantum by Manjit Kaur also provides a very interesting explanation of the whole quantum history from Bohr's model to Bohr's-Schrodinger model-Copenhagen interpretation- Bell's theory. (must read for quantum enthusiast)

[Blackmuhahah]

For German speakers I highly recommend "Liebes Hertz!" by Anita Ehlers. Sadly I don't know if there is an English translation. It contains a lot of stories and anecdotes of the Greats like Röntgen, Einstein, Nernst, Meitner, Hilbert, Heisenberg and many many more, which gives you insight into the culture of scientists in the past.
I would recommend "Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell" by A. Zee, it's quite advanced but it doesn't (on the first read, really) require you to go into a lot of maths to understand the concepts. I feel it is a very nice primer on the very very deep subject of quantum field theory. It is enjoyable to read and if you are familiar with quantum mechanics and the mathematics involved you can at least follow along for the most part, while enjoying sprinkled in stories about the history and the dead ends of particle physics of the last century.

[johnsjarboe]

I'd toss out a recommendation for Road to Reality by Roger Penrose. I think it's an excellent middle ground for folks who are comfortable reading through mathematical explanations and looking through formulas, but is also written in a conversational tone that doesn't feel like chugging through a textbook. A lot of his personality comes through the writing and its entertaining along with being informative. The first half of the book is a summary of mathematics from "what is a fraction" to "what are connections on fiber bundles" (though I find his explanations of tenor calculus and differential geometry lacking and will need supplemental resources to understand) and then the latter half of the book is applying those concepts and building up the structure of modern physics from Penrose's perspective at the time of writing.