What's your favorite book on the Nature of the Universe?

[TennesseeWalker]

Physics? Existentialism? Philosophy?

[Don_G]

1. Karma Sutra?

:evilgrin:

[TennesseeWalker]

3. Yeah!

Send some good Karma my way!

[rudeboy666]

5. Right On!

It has to be a sex book!

As a philosophy graduate student, I know that books on reference and meaning will not rock anyone's world. :-)

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FlemingsGhost]

8. I'm with Pete

Fine choice.

[Don_G]

13. Did You Think I Was Kidding?

Sex improves your smell, stengthens your teeth, improves your blood pressure and boosts your immune system.

Paper bag optional: http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/08/cz_af_1008health.html

[lfairban]

4. A Brief History of Time

by Stephen Hawking. Honestly, I couldn't put it down. I guess it is not for everybody, but it was very light on technical details and had a very interesting description.

A close second, "Thirty Years That Shook Physics", written for the layman, about early 20th century physics.

Another good one is, "The Assent of Man", but I have not read it myself, but I loved the series.

[Dudley_DUright]

7. If you like Hawking

check out his new book, "The Universe in a Nutshell". Beautifully written and illustrated. Also check out "Coming of Age in the Milky Way" by Tim Ferris. One of the best books about the Universe I know of.

[Hokie]

6. Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

This is a can't miss show.

[Dudley_DUright]

9. Starts Oct. 28 on PBS

Check you local listings. Can't wait. I have read the book several times. I learn something new each time.

[delbert_]

10. THE URANTIA BOOK

Seems very plausable and fascinating to me. I've often wondered if a physicist etc has ever read it and what they thought of it's credability.

complete book online at:

http://urantia.com/

[Dudley_DUright]

16. I would be happy to look at it

if you would post a working link. Welcome to DU Delbert. BTW I just saw Delbert McClinton at the B.B. King blues club. Great show!

[TennesseeWalker]

26. Yeessh.

I googled it....

www.urantia.org

I'm not so sure about this one......;) Not that there's anything wrong with that

[DrWeird]

11. Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors"

Which shall remain forever, unfortunately, the first and only volume of a series.

[Philosophy]

12. "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch

Unites physics, cosmology, evolution, science, philosophy, quantum mechanics, parallel universes - reality.

BTW existentialism is load of crap. :evilgrin:

[oneighty]

14. Not a Favorite

But I own it. "Before the Beginning" Martin Reese. Foreward by Stephen Hawking.

Hawking "A Brief History of Time"

Sagan.. "Cosmos"

180

[Superfly]

15. The Journals of Lewis and Clark

by Lewis and Clark...written a couple hundred years ago.

[JitterbugPerfume]

18. The Artful Universe

by John D Barrow

a beautiful book

[Fight_n_back]

17. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

its as true as anything else.

A depressed robot is just plain funny.

[JitterbugPerfume]

21. YANG

I think you have got the right idea

it is just plain funny

[Iverson]

30. good choice, YANG

as long as you don't need natural science, then I'm with you.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

19. Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

by Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Followed by Pirisg's Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, then everything by Stephen Hawking, and then everything by Douglas Adams! Thanks for the fish!

(But at the top of the list, bar none, is The Holy Bible.)

[The Lone Liberal]

20. The Quark and Jaguar. Murray Gell-Mann

A very good book on complexity theory.

[Redneck Socialist]

22. "a short history of nearly everything,"

by bill bryson. A very good, very funny book about, well, everything.

[soleft]

23. The Tao of Physics

[Dudley_DUright]

33. I know the guy that wrote this book

He was a professor at the school I did my graduate work at. Interesting guy. A real Renaissance person.

[Chovexani]

37. That is a really deep book

I've read it a few times, and chunks of it admittedly go way over my head, but damn if it won't make you think. I love it.

[kodi]

24. go dog go.

its always the simple things that make you think.

[ForrestGump]

25. Toss-up: "Tao Te Ching" (Lao Tzu) or "The Tao of Pooh"

[TacticalPeek]

27. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, R. Buckminster Fuller

Or, 'I Seem To Be A Verb'.

Actually, 'Synergetics', and its on-line now: http://www.servtech.com/public/rwgray/synergetics/synergetics.html
or somewhere.

snip
About Universe and Systems
It's quite possible to subdivide universe instantly
by developing the concept of "systems"
as local phenomenon in universe.
All systems divide universe into
all universe inside the system, and
all universe outside the system, and
all that divides inside from outside.

When energies leave the local system,
they are taken on by another system.
Only in this century have we come to discover
that energies are not lost,
the universe is not running down.

All systems as viewed from the inside are concave; viewed from the outside, they are convex.
snip

http://www.bfi.org/

[OneBlueSky]

28. "The Universe is a Green Dragon" by Brian Swimme . . . n/t

.

[paradisiac]

29. maybe "The Blind Watchmaker"

by Richard Dawkins.

[VOX]

31. "Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book" by Walker Percy

Terrific novelist, sometimes jokingly referred to as the "Dixie Kierkegaard."

[TennesseeWalker]

32. Shameless Kick for my post.

I'm greedy. I want to read EVERYTHING.

[rucky]

34. The Book - By Alan Watts

[Paragon]

35. "Rare Earth"

Sort of the flip side of Sagan-ism, which explains the many factors that have to come together in order to support life on a planet. Good stuff - NIGHTLINE spent an entire episode on the book & its theories.

[scarletlib]

36. Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas

A series of beautifully written essays on life, biology and evolution with a little bit of the metaphysical thrown in as well.