Last updated January 8, 2021
Sometime around 1973 a friend asked me to recommend some science fiction books. I prepared a list and sent it to her, but I also kept a copy and have been updating it over the years. I have generalized it to include books in all fields that have made an impression on me, and deleted some entries to keep the overall list manageable. Please note that this is my list. YMMV.
“Amazon review” simply means that I reviewed the book on Amazon.com.
| Author/Editor | Title | category | comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Alsop | From the Silent Earth: A Report on the Greek Bronze Age | history-Bronze Age | |
| Poul Anderson | The Queen of Air and Darkness | fantasy | |
| Poul Anderson | Three Hearts and Three Lions | fantasy | |
| Poul Anderson | Homebrew | science fiction, fantasy | |
| John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler | The Anthropic Cosmological Principle | astronomy, physics | |
| Roger R. Bate, Donald D. Mueller, and Jerry E. White | Fundamentals of Astrodynamics | space, astronomy (technical) | Amazon review |
| James Blish | Black Easter | Fantasy | |
| Oliver Burkeman | The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking | self-help, philosophy | |
| Robert Farrar Capon | Hunting the Divine Fox | religion | |
| Robert Farrar Capon | The Supper of the Lamb | food | |
| Robert Farrar Capon | The Third Peacock | religion | |
| John Chadwick | The Decipherment of Linear B | linguistics, history-Bronze Age | |
| L. Sprague deCamp | The Ancient Engineers. | technology | First sentence: “Civilization, as we know it today, owes its existence to the engineers.” |
| L. Sprague deCamp | Lest Darkness Fall | science fiction, technology | |
| Ray D’Inverno | Introducing Einstein’s Relativity | physics, astronomy (technical) | |
| Robert Drews | The End of the Bronze Age | history, Bronze Age | |
| Freeman Dyson | Disturbing the Universe | physics, space, technology | |
| Cyril Falls | Elizabeth’s Irish Wars | history-Celtic, history-Early Modern | |
| Arthur Ferrill | The Fall of the Roman Empire | history-Rome | Amazon review |
| George MacDonald Fraser | The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers | history-Early Modern | |
| Martin Gardner | Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science | science, skepticism | |
| Ignace J. Gelb | A Study of Writing | linguistics | |
| Robert A. Heinlein | Glory Road | science fiction | |
| Cecelia Holland | Until the Sun Falls | historical fiction | |
| Tom Holland | Rubicon | history | |
| Tom Holland | Dynasty | history | |
| Fred Hoyle | The Black Cloud | science fiction | |
| Fred Hoyle | Ossian’s Ride | science fiction | |
| William Graves Hoyt | Planets X and Pluto | astronomy | Great history, but from before the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects other than Pluto. |
| Edward N. Luttwak | The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third | history-Rome | Amazon review, where I wrote: ‘It is interesting to note the state that gave us the term “imperialism” was actually much more concerned with defense than with aggression.’ |
| J.P. Mallory | In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth | linguistics, archeology | |
| Wilson McLeod | Divided Gaels: Gaelic Cultural Identities in Scotland and Ireland c.1200-c.1650 | ||
| Michael Newton | A Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World | history-Celtic | |
| Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle | Lucifer’s Hammer | science fiction | |
| Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle | The Mote in God’s Eye | science fiction | |
| James E. Oberg | Red Star in Orbit | space | |
| Sir Charles Oman | A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages: 378-1278 AD
A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages: 1278-1485 AD A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century | history-Medieval history-Early Modern | The links here are to editions currently available on Amazon. I still have my father’s old hardbound volumes. |
| Gerard K. O’Neill | The High Frontier | space | |
| Denys L. Page | History and the Homeric Iliad | history-Bronze Age | |
| Holger Pedersen | The Discovery of Language: Linguistic Science in the 19th Century | Linguistics | |
| Alfred Romer | The The Restless Atom: the awakening of nuclear physics | physics | |
| Robert T. Rood and James S. Trefil | Are We Alone?: The Possibility of Extraterrestrial Civilizations | astronomy, space | |
| Anne Ross and Don Robins | The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: How the discovery of Lindow Man revealed the secrets of a lost civilization | History-Celtic | |
| Ramamurti Shankar | Basic Training in Mathematics: A Fitness Program for Science Students | math (technical) | Amazon review |
| Neal Stephenson | The Baroque Cycle | historical fiction | |
| Neal Stephenson | Cryptonomicon | historical fiction | |
| David Stevenson | Highland Warrior | history-Celtic, history-Early Modern | |
| S.M. Stirling | Dies the Fire | science fiction, technology | |
| S.M. Stirling | Island in the Sea of Time | science fiction, technology | |
| S.M. Stirling | Under the Yoke | science fiction | Dystopia |
| J.R.R. Tolkien | The Lord of the Rings | fantasy | |
| S.M. Ulam | Adventures of a Mathematician | math, physics | |
| Roy Underhill | The Woodwright’s Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft | crafts, technology | |
| Dan Van Der Vat | The Ship That Changed the World: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914 | history-WWI | |
| R.L. Weber (ed.) | A Random Walk in Science | humor, science | |
