I really enjoy reading popular science and other non-fiction books and would love to get some suggestions from other sifters. Please add amazon invocations and a bit on why you like a particular book.
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Bad Science: A great book about the things that go wrong in the scientific process, and the reporting on that process by the media. It focuses on medicine and diet in particular.
A Short History of Nearly Everything: Really well written and amusing history of scientific progress and understanding.
The Singularity Is Near: About the profound changes that will happen relatively quickly due to the exponential progress in IT technologies. The writing is a bit dry, but the point he is trying to make is profound and supported with convincing arguments.
Freakonomics: Really interesting and amusing book about applying principles of economy to study issues of every day life and human behavior.
Alien Hand Syndrome: A damn interesting collection of great and often humorous articles on interesting and surprising subjects that you probably didn't know about before reading it. Published by the blog www.damninteresting.com
On that note, I also recommend Transcend, Nine Steps to Living Well Forever. It is written by the same guy (Ray Kurzeil), along with his doctor Terry Grossman M.D. The main point of the book is to detail our most recent understanding of human health and the causes of most major health problems. Basically, it's about how to be healthy.
Of course, it is in the context of Kurzweil's predictions, so the overarching idea is that those who choose to be health now will live long enough to take advantage of upcoming developments in biotech and beyon, which will further increase health and lifespan. Eventually technology will be able to prevent age-related disease and death, so there is a good posibility that a healthy lifestyle today will get people to that point.
It's a much easier read than Singularity, so I recommend it to everyone who is interested in preventing avoidable health problems.
I'm also thinking of picking up a copy of The Neuro Revolution: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World. I've read lots of good things about this book, so I might check it out when I'm done with my current readings.
...:("The Circle" (series) -- Ted Dekker (Christian-related fiction)
"Dark Tower" (series) -- Stephen King
"Return to Earth" (series)-- Orson Scott Card
"Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" (series)-- Stephen R. Donaldson <-Fantastic
"Shadow Play" (series)-- Tad Williams <-Genius.
http://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Explained-Daniel-C-Dennett/dp/0316180661/
It is a bit wordy at times and confusing for it, but I found it a very enlightening collection of thoughts on consciousness as a fully materialistic phenomenon. Changed the way I think.
i'm currently struggling thru Daniel C Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea
and i just picked up Brian Greene's The Fabric Of The Cosmos yesterday, haven't gotten too far into it but, so far so good.