There are many available nowadays, on all sorts of subjects.

Absolutely anything by Peter Medawar, possibly the finest popular science writer of any time. Not a bad scientist either if his Nobel Prize is anything to go by)

Incidentally, I just a day or so ago recommended "Why the sky is blue" byG.Hoeppe. (It goes beyond the blue!)

Anything by Richard Dawkins, but especially the 2nd or 3rd ed of "The Selfish Gene" (don't judge it by the title!!!) "River Out of Eden", "Climbing Mount Improbable".

J.E.Gordon "Structures, Or why things don't fall down"

"Our Wandering Continents" Alex du Toit

"Cats' paws and Catapults"  Steven Vogel

"The Invisible Gorilla " C.Chabris & D Simons

"Soap Bubbles" C.V. Boys (recently appeared on Gutenberg too!)

"Science for the Citizen" Lancelot Hogben

I.M.Copi & C.Cohen "Introduction to Logic"

"Fragments of Science" J.Tyndall (also on Guteberg)

Peter S. Stevens "Patterns in Nature"

Anything by E.R. Tufte, eg "Envisioning Information" & "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information"

Anything by John Maynard Smith, including "Did Darwin Get it Right?" and "The Origin of Life"

Anything by E. O. Wilson, even if you read some items with reservations. Ditto Martin Gardner.

David Kahn, "The Code Breakers"

Harold Gatty "Nature is Your Guide"

David Attenborough's books, though they may look a bit coffee-tabley, are really very good material and very entertaining.

Steven Pinker's books have come in for a lot of flak, but I read as many of them as I can. They always have a lot of solid stuff to assimilate, and until the critics can do better, I reckon that he is the best writer among the experimental psychologists.

Some controversial old favourites are by Konrad Lorenz: "King Solomon's Ring", "Man Meets Dog" and "On Aggression".

Absolutely anything by R.V. Jones, such as "Reflections on Intelligence" and "Most Secret War".

"Metamagical Themas" and "Goedel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter and with Daniel Dennett: "The Mind's I" (A reall mind and eye stretcher that one!)

Dennett also wrote "Darwin's Dangerous Idea", possibly the best introduction to evolution by a non-biologist.

Oliver Sacks produced a mixed bag, but I have not yet read any of his works that I did not profit by. Try "Seeing Voices", "Musicophilia" and "The Island of the Colour Blind"

Roger Penrose wrote some fine books. "The Road to Reality" is not so much to be read as to be worked through, but it is very rewarding.

On a similar scale, Donald Knuth wrote some terrific material on maths and programming.

Anything by Daniel J. Boorstin! ("The Discoverers", "The Creators", Lots more!")

Etc... This was a glance round my bookshelves, and omitted a lot of good stuff that I missed or that didn't seem to fit in.

And oh yes, what about Faraday?    

Thanks Jon. That's a good list to be going on with.

I'll second the nomination of Richard Dawkins - I think I've read most of his books but The Ancestor's Tale sticks in my mind. His God-bashing stuff irritates me a bit even if I agree with his atheism. Like you, I enjoy David Attenborough - underestimate him at your peril.

Just to keep the thread ticking along: The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey.

And one that my son (15 years old) just enjoyed: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - probably falls slightly outside the genre in strict terms, but you can't fail to love Bryson's enthusiasm!

So far I have been disappointed by the lack of response, so I published another "question" to draw attention to this one. 

Let's hope someone nibbles!

Meanwhile, some textbooks really are worth a read. In fact, a surprising number of them are both readable and usable nowadays. Copi & Cohen's book on Logic, that I mentioned before, is one example. I read it on the train when I used to commute.

Two that I found surprisingly interesting books on what I had assumed to be dull subjects were:

"The Fifth Kingdom"  by Bryce Kendrick

and

"Virology" by Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat, Paul C. Kimball, and Jay A. Levy

Looking that one up, I found a newer book that also looks very good, but I cannot afford it at the moment and have not read more than a few sample pages:

" Virology: Principles and Applications" John Carter & Venetia Saunders

Another book that could happily be read for pure interest, no matter how dull the title (don't ask me what title would have kicked it onto the best-seller list; I'm no book salesman!) is:

Anatomy and Physiology by Rod Seeley, Trent Stephens, and Philip Tate

My choice of textbooks might strike you as eclectic, not to say eccentric, but if you would not be seen dead with any of my examples, try browsing the remaindered and second-hand shelves of university bookshops. You never know what you might find.

A trick that just might be worth trying, is when you find a particularly rewarding book in a library, to put in a card as a bookmark, saying what you liked about it and including your email address in case some congenial person contacts you.

Back to non-textbooks, how about:

Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atom Bomb"?

q

Jon, I am not surprised that you love books, but the depth of your erudition is matched only by the breadth. I feel quite humbled here.

>>The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: Oliver Sacks<< My daughter has just finished this and left it on my bedside table for me. It was part of the reading list for the university course she starts next month.