Neil deGrasse Tyson's Reading List
Astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium; popular science communicator. Posted his recommended reading list on Reddit AMA in 2011.
Open in WellRead Daily app →Eight Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read (2011)
Tyson's response in his 2011 Reddit AMA when asked which books should be read by every intelligent person.
Source: www.reddit.com
King James Version · 1611 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn that it's easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself."
Isaac Newton · 1687 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn that the universe is a knowable place."
Charles Darwin · 1859 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth."
Jonathan Swift · 1726 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos."
Thomas Paine · 1794 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world."
Adam Smith · 1776 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself."
Sun Zi (also written in English as Sun Tzu) · -500 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art."
Niccolò Machiavelli · 1532 · Buy on Amazon
"to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it."
By the Book: Neil deGrasse Tyson (2013)
NYT By the Book column (2013-12-19).
Source: www.nytimes.com
Agnes M. Clerke · Buy on Amazon
"Agnes M. Clerke, writing in the late 19th century and the turn of the 20th, was one of the most prolific science writers in any field, although her specialty was astrophysics, then a male-dominated area. Her titles include "The Concise Knowledge Library: Astronomy" (1898)."
Agnes M. Clerke · Buy on Amazon
"Her titles include "The Concise Knowledge Library: Astronomy" (1898), "Problems in Astrophysics" (1903) and "Modern Cosmologies" (1905)."
Agnes M. Clerke · Buy on Amazon
"Her titles include "The Concise Knowledge Library: Astronomy" (1898), "Problems in Astrophysics" (1903) and "Modern Cosmologies" (1905)."
Debra Frasier · Buy on Amazon
"Early on, my favorite children's book is "On the Day You Were Born" (1991), written and illustrated by Debra Frasier. I'm often asked by publishers whether I will ever write a science-based children's book. My answer will remain no until I believe I can write one better than Frasier's."
Tish Rabe · Buy on Amazon
"Also, I remain impressed how fast the Dr. Seuss "Cat in the Hat's Learning Library" series updated Tish Rabe's book "There's No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System" (1999, 2009) to reflect the official 2006 demotion of Pluto to "dwarf planet" status."
Carl Sagan · Buy on Amazon
"But if I am forced to pick one, it would be Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" (1980). Not for the science it taught, but for how effectively the book shared why science matters — or should matter — to every citizen of the world."
Carl Sagan · Buy on Amazon
"But if I am forced to pick one, it would be Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" (1980). Not for the science it taught, but for how effectively the book shared why science matters — or should matter — to every citizen of the world."
Jonathan Swift · 1726 · Buy on Amazon
"Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726). I often find myself reflecting on the odd assortment of characters that Lemuel Gulliver met during his travels."
George Gamow · Buy on Amazon
"George Gamow's "One, Two, Three . . . Infinity" (1947) and Edward Kasner and James Newman's "Mathematics and the Imagination" (1940) are both still in print. I have aspired to write a book as influential to others as these books have been influential to me."
Edward Kasner and James Newman · Buy on Amazon
"George Gamow's "One, Two, Three . . . Infinity" (1947) and Edward Kasner and James Newman's "Mathematics and the Imagination" (1940) are both still in print. For me, at middle-school age, they turned math and science into an intellectual playground that I never wanted to leave."
Neil deGrasse Tyson · Buy on Amazon
"The closest I have come is "Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries" (2007), but while I think it succeeds on many educational levels, I'm quite sure it falls short of what these authors accomplished."
Richard A. Muller · Buy on Amazon
""Physics for Future Presidents," by Richard A. Muller (2009) is, of course, already conceived for this purpose."
Carlo Collodi · Buy on Amazon
"The last book that I read to both of my kids, at the same time, was Carlo Collodi's "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1883). Only when you read the original book do you realize how much of an undisciplined, stubborn, troublemaking truant Pinocchio actually was."
Edgar Allan Poe · Buy on Amazon
"I've been intrigued by the breadth of topics that interested Edgar Allan Poe. In particular, his prose poem of speculative science called "Eureka" (1848), which lays out basic tenets of modern cosmology, 70 years before cosmology even existed as a subject of study."
Henrik Ibsen · Buy on Amazon
"I'd be Thomas Stockmann, the medical doctor in the 1882 Henrik Ibsen play "An Enemy of the People.""
Bertrand Russell · Buy on Amazon
"Four books that I just acquired from an antiquarian bookseller — short monographs by the philosopher, mathematician and social activist Bertrand Russell: "Justice in War-Time" (the 1924 printing), "Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays" (1932 edition), "Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare" (1959) and "Has Man a Future?" (1961)."
Bertrand Russell · Buy on Amazon
"Four books that I just acquired… "Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays" (1932 edition)."
Bertrand Russell · Buy on Amazon
"Four books that I just acquired… "Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare" (1959)."
Bertrand Russell · Buy on Amazon
"Four books that I just acquired… "Has Man a Future?" (1961)."
Favorite books (2022)
Favorite books recommended by Neil deGrasse Tyson's Recommended Reads, as compiled by radicalreads.com. Source article: https://radicalreads.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-favorite-books/.
Source: radicalreads.com
Carl Sagan , Jane Goodall , Martin Luther King Jr. & Maya Angelou ) · Buy on Amazon
"To learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself.” -NdT"
Michael Crichton · Buy on Amazon
"A reminder that space is dangerous — not only because of what we know can kill us, but especially because of all that we have yet to learn can kill us.” -NdT"
Charles Darwin (also rec’d by David Attenborough ) · Buy on Amazon
"To learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth.” -NdT"
Richard Dawkins · Buy on Amazon
"Dawkins is a longtime friend, and a tireless defender of the real story of how we all got here. This 1986 book is a reminder that the laws of evolution and natural selection, given billions of years, have no trouble generating stupefying complexity among life-forms on Earth.” -NdT"
Galileo Galilei · Buy on Amazon
"This is Galileo’s 1610 report on what he saw when he first looked through a telescope — and a reminder that the universe brims with undiscovered truths that lie in plain sight before us.” -NdT"
George Gamow · Buy on Amazon
"I have aspired to write a book as influential to others as this book was to me. I read it in ninth grade, and it did what Gamow, a nuclear physicist, designed it to do: It transformed the physics of the universe into an intellectual playground of delight. From then on, studying to become a scientist was no longer a task but a celebration.” -NdT"
Stephen Jay Gould · Buy on Amazon
"A reminder of what can happen when what passes as science is conducted in a landscape of social, political, and cultural bias. Gould was a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, and in his seminal 1981 book he provided a history of biological determinism — the idea that the social and economic standing of different groups of people is rooted in hereditary, inborn distinctions — and then marshaled the evidence to definitively refute it.” -NdT"
Niccolo Machiavelli (also rec’d by Martin Luther King Jr. ) · Buy on Amazon
"To learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it.” -NdT"
Isaac Newton · Buy on Amazon
"To learn that the universe is a knowable place.” -NdT"
Thomas Paine · Buy on Amazon
"To learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world.” -NdT"
Adam Smith · Buy on Amazon
"To learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself.” -NdT"
Jonathan Swift · Buy on Amazon
"To learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos.” -NdT"
Sun Tzu · Buy on Amazon
"To learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art.” -NdT"