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The Soonish Science Nerds' Favorite Pop Sci Books
The book is peppered with humor, comic strips, weird facts, and stories the husband-and-wife team of Kelly and Zach Weinersmith uncovered while researching their book. Really weird. Like did you know humans will usually obey a killer robot that claims to have cookies?
"We are giant science nerds, and Goodreads asked us to recommend five of our favorite pop sci books. We managed to narrow it down to ten. All of these books were so good that they changed the way we think. The first five are pop science. The next five are, let's say, not exactly light reading. But they are all well worth the journey," says Zach Weinersmith.
Click on each book's image below to learn more about the authors' selections.
Want more book recommendations from authors? Check out our Good Minds Suggest series.
And for even more bookish goodness, see our recent blogs:
16 Hilarious Audiobooks Guaranteed to Make You Laugh
9 Book Characters You Would Want to Take a Road Trip With
7 Brand-New Books Goodreads Members Can't Wait to Read
Comments Showing 1-13 of 13 (13 new)
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Debra
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Oct 04, 2017 04:44AM
What age group is this for? My grandson loves Science!
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Quantum Computing Since Democritus isn't a pop science book, it's a compilation of a university professor's lecture notes. It's probably way, way too dense for anyone that isn't studying math or computer science at the university level.I made the mistake of buying and then quickly realized that high school physics and a liberal arts degree wasn't going to cut it.
The high reviews of the book make me think that most of the readers have some advanced maths under their belts, or are engaged in an "The Emperor's New Clothes" face-saving exercise.
"I made the mistake of buying and then quickly realized that high school physics and a liberal arts degree wasn't going to cut it."I can see myself saying exactly the same in a parallel world where I've purchased that one book. Thank you immensely for that clarification, it saved me from that frustration. I'm much more interested in doing a dollar-saving exercise than a face-saving one.
I would very much like to how these books were selected.
Jamie wrote: "Quantum Computing Since Democritus isn't a pop science book, it's a compilation of a university professor's lecture notes. It's probably way, way too dense for anyone that isn't studying math or co..."I think you missed the heading above it that says: "Five science books that aren't really "pop" but are readable by patient nerdy people and are really good so just read them please, okay?"
^^;
Thanks for that reply, but it still doesn't tell me the criteria on which the books were selected.
John wrote: "Thanks for that reply, but it still doesn't tell me the criteria on which the books were selected."Oh the reply wasn't actually to you, it was to Jamie :/
But it would seem the books were selected because they "changed how [the authors of Soonish] think about something" (as the first heading says) and, for the second grouping of books, because the authors of Soonish think they "are really good" and worth reading.
:)
Dylan wrote: "John wrote: "I would very much like to how these books were selected."Because Zach and Kelly Weinersmith like them."
OK. That doesn't seem to be a very good criterion for selecting a science book. If it's a book written around media or publisher hype, the reader doesn't have much of a warning.
John wrote: "OK. That doesn't seem to be a very good criterion for selecting a science book. If it's a book written around media or publisher hype, the reader doesn't have much of a warning.Worth noting that (as it says in the article above..) one of them is a scientist and the other studied physics at tertiary education level for a time, so they likely have fair knowledge of what makes a good science book...certainly much more so than the average joe..! :)
John wrote: "Dylan wrote: "John wrote: "I would very much like to how these books were selected."Because Zach and Kelly Weinersmith like them."
OK. That doesn't seem to be a very good criterion for selecting..."
Hey, this is Zach. Kelly and I selected books we thought were excellent, and which we thought people might not have heard of. The second set of books are all fairly difficult textbook-like documents, which are worth your time to read if you're into that sort of thing.
I highly recommend, Weapons of Math Destruction.
Soonish science is really a good topic and favorite of mine, I am watching https://pinoychannel.top/watch-video-... and reading this blog too.
Ricardo wrote: ""I made the mistake of buying and then quickly realized that high school physics and a liberal arts degree wasn't going to cut it."I can see myself saying exactly the same in a parallel world whe..."
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