Books by Carl Sagan

“Pale Blue Dot is a contemplation on humanity, and our future. It asks who we are and where we came from, in order to understand where we are going. In particular, it examines the possibilities of space travel within our solar system and to other stars over the next few centuries. The thing I found most compelling about it was how it described the science of these endeavours in such evocative — indeed poetic — ways. I hadn’t realised it was even possible to write like this, combining clarity, accuracy and beauty, and it made a great impression on me.” Read more...

The best books on Big History

Toby Ord, Philosopher

“It explains 14 billion years of the evolution of the universe, a sort of engineering experiment on the largest possible scale. It spans all scales of space and time, describing everything from the largest scales of the universe to the smallest scales of molecules and atoms. It’s a good book for putting everything in perspective.” Read more...

The best books on Engineering

Ante Shoda, Scientist

“It’s a reflection, at the end of his life, on the dangers of superstition and of faith. It’s very well written and a lot more succinct than his more popular book, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark which was a big bestseller in the US. That’s a bit bloated. This book is much more concise, much more tightly argued. It makes a good case for basing your actions on rationality rather than superstition and he talks about the dangers of not doing so from his experiences in fighting medical quackery, UFOs, the purported existence of canals on Mars etc.” Read more...

The best books on The Incompatibility of Religion and Science

Jerry Coyne, Biologist

“He holds your hand and shows you the wonders of science and the universe. The Demon-Haunted World is probably his best book.” Read more...

Books on the Wonders of The Universe

Philip Plait, Physicist

“It captures a unique moment in the history of human discovery. It’s a combination of the transcript of that panel discussion – which took place the day before the Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit Mars in 1971 – and essays that the panel participants wrote roughly one year later. The transcript and the essays book-end one of the most spectacular unveilings we’ve had in the history of solar system exploration. The book combines the scientific with the poetic. It includes a couple of poems by Ray Bradbury, whom I think of as the poet laureate of space” Read more...

The best books on Space Exploration

Andrew Chaikin, Science Writer

“This is a great book. It was published in 1966 and I read it in 1968, the year Apollo 8 circumnavigated the moon. …This is the first astrobiology book. A dozen or more astrobiology books have appeared over the last ten years, it’s become such a hot topic, but many of them repeat this book. Certainly our knowledge of the planets has increased since then. But the underlying principles are still all expounded in this book. It has everything from cosmology, the origin of the universe, all the way up to searching for intelligent life and first contact.” Read more...

The best books on Life Below the Surface of the Earth

Tullis Onstott, Environmentalist