Science Challenge

List of Science Books #

Brodsky’s list lacked a large amount of books on science. It was slanted toward history, philosophy, and literature. This was most likely due to the fact that Brodsky was a poet. I looked in depth for a quality science list, but I just couldn’t find one. My options were to create one or crowd source one. I crowd sourced the list, and with the help of librarians and the good people on the Internet I was able to curate a few options to at least start from.

Formal Science #

Mathematics #

  • Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton
  • Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham
  • The Princeton Companion to Mathematics by Timothy Gowers, June Barrow-Green and Imre Leader
  • Calculus: Early Trancendentals by James Stewart
  • Differential Equations and Their Applications by Martin Braun
  • Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science by Donald Knuth
  • Linear Algebra by Ward Cheney and David Kincaid
  • Computational Science and Engineering by Gilbert Strang

Logic #

  • Logic Primer by Allen and Hand
  • Logic by Wilfrid Hodges
  • Paradoxes by Mark Sainsbury

Computer Science #

  • The Self-Taught Computer Scientist: The Beginner’s Guide to Data Structures & Algorithms by Cory Althoff
  • Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne
  • Data Structures & Algorithms by Goodrich, Tamassa, and Goldwasser
  • The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena
  • Python Data Science Handbook by Jake VanderPlas
  • Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows
  • TCP/IP Network Administration by Craig Hunt
  • Linux in a Nutshell by Seiver, Weaver, Higgins, Love and Robbins

Cybersecurity #

  • Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schneier
  • The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook 2 by Stuttard
  • Hacking: The Art of Exploitation by Erricson
  • CISSP Study Guide by Mike Chapple
  • The Hacker’s Playbook
    • The Hacker’s Playbook by Peter Kim
    • The Hacker’s Playbook 2 by Peter Kim
    • The Hacker’s Playbook 3 by Peter Kim
  • The Shellcoder’s Handbook by Chris Anley
  • Practical Malware Analysis: The Hands-On Guide to Dissecting Malicious Software by Michael Sikorski and Andrew Honig

Natural Science #

Generic #

  • Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  • The New York Times Book of Science by The New York Times
  • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

Astronomy #

  • Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei
  • De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus
  • A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Biology #

  • The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
  • The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
  • The Double Helix by James D. Watson (1968)

Chemistry #

  • TBD

Medicine #

  • First Aid for the USMLE Step 1
  • First Aid for the USMLE Step 2
  • First Aid for the USMLE Step 3

Physics #

  • Physica (Physics) by Aristotle
  • Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
  • The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands

Social Science #

Andragogy #

  • The ABC of Reading by Erza Pound
  • Mastery by Robert Greene
  • Deep Work by Cal Newport
  • Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman
  • How we Learn by Carey
  • The 5 elements of Effective Thinking by Burger and Starbird
  • Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley

Economics #

  • Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman
  • The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
  • Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Bubner
  • The Road to Serfdom by Hayek
  • Human Action by Mises
  • The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes
  • Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Piketty
  • Globalization and Its Discontents by Schumpeter
  • Individualism and Economic Order by Hayek
  • Principles of Political Economy: and Chapters on Socialism by John Stuart Mill
  • The Way the World Works by Jude Wanniski
  • Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt
  • Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx
  • Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter
  • Economy and Society by Max Weber
  • The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs
  • Wealth and Poverty by George Gilder
  • Acemoglu and Robinson by Why Nations Fail
  • Man, Economy, and State by Murray Rothbard
  • Free to Choose: A Personal Statement by Milton and Rose Friedman
  • Basic Economics + Applied Economics by Thomas Sowell
  • The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism By David Friedman
  • Economic Fallacies Exposed by Wood

Psychology #

  • Man’s Search for meaning by Viktor Frankl
  • Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
  • The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
  • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
  • The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
  • Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung
  • Three Case Histories by Sigmund Freud

Law #

  • Winning Arguments by Jay Heinrichs
  • The Law by Bastiat
  • The US Constitution by Various
  • Strategies and Tactics for the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) by Emanuel Bar Review
  • The Ultimate Guide to the MBE by Winston A Bowman
  • How to Write Bar Exam Essays Strategies and Tactics to Help You Pass the Bar Exam by Matt Racine

Political Science #

Must Read #

  • The Republic by Plato
  • Politics by Aristotle
  • The Prince by Machiavelli
  • Leviathan by Hobbes
  • Two Treatises of Government by John Locke
  • The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • The United States Constitution by Various
  • The Social Contract by Rousseau
  • Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
  • On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
  • The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels
  • The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
  • Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson
  • The Federalist Papers by Hamilton
  • Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Nozick

Conservative Thought #

  • The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis
  • Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot by T. S. Eliot
  • Ideas Have Consequences by Richard M. Weaver
  • The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
  • Ethnic America by Thomas Sowell
  • An American Dilemma by Gunnar Myrdal
  • Main Currents in American Thought by Vernon L Parrington
  • The Machiavellians by James Burnham
  • Bureaucracy by Ludwig von Mises
  • The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk
  • Essays of E. B. White by E.B. White
  • The Burden of Bad Ideas: How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society by Heather MacDonald
  • A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell
  • The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater
  • Orwell
    • Animal Farm by Orwell
    • 1984 by Orwell
    • Collected Essays of George Orwell by George Orwell
  • Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright
  • The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

Progressive Liberal Thought #

  • Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
  • Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky
  • The Age of Reform by Richard Hofstadter
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
  • Das Kapital by Karl Marx
  • A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls
  • Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? By Michael J. Sandel
  • Marcuse
    • One-Dimensional Man by Marcuse
    • An Essay on Liberation by Marcuse
    • The Essential Marcuse
  • Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays by Althusser

Classical Liberal Thought #

  • The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
  • Radicals for Capitalism by Brian Doherty
  • The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan
  • The Open Society by Karl Popper
  • The Constitution of Liberty by Friedrich von Hayek
  • The Anti-Federalist Papers by Various authors
  • Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis by Ludwig von Mises
  • The Clash of Economic Ideas by Larry White