You do not need a classroom to learn about the past or how the universe works. Many experts write books for general readers, explaining complex subjects with stories and clear examples. Here are some widely praised starting points.
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Big-picture history
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Why some societies came to dominate others, explained through geography, crops, animals and disease. Pulitzer Prize-winning, though historians debate parts of its argument.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. A sweeping history of humankind in one volume.
The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. World history told from the trade routes linking East and West.
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. A demanding but essential analysis of how Nazism and Stalinism arose.
Science for curious readers
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. A funny tour of how scientists figured out the age of the Earth, atoms and life itself.
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. The story of genetics, mixed with the author’s family history.
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. A classic explanation of evolution from the gene’s point of view.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The woman whose cells, taken without consent, transformed medicine.
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The universe and the nature of reality
Cosmos by Carl Sagan. The companion to the famous TV series, on our place in the universe.
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Black holes, the Big Bang and the nature of time for non-specialists.
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli. Modern physics in under 100 pages.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Short chapters on the basics of the cosmos.
How to get the most from nonfiction
Read with a notebook, look up terms you do not understand, and follow up with a second book that takes a different view. Popular books simplify; when one makes a bold claim, check what specialists say. Techniques for remembering more are covered in reading comprehension and memory. For fiction that explores the future and science, see books about the future.
