4 ms·

There was a time where Hawking's A brief history of time gave a decent overview of the universe to beginners. Does anyone know how well it holds up today and

There was a time where Hawking's A brief history of time gave a decent overview of the universe to beginners. Does anyone know how well it holds up today and if anything better exists?

ramraj07 3mo ago
There was never a time when a book gave the public an overview of the universe. ABHOT was so popular for being a book no one actually read, theres even an index named after Hawking due to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_Index Did _you_ read that book? There however definitely was a piece of media that captured public minds and educated them about the cosmos. And that was the show Cosmos. The original of course. Not the NDT drivel.
- coliveira 3mo ago
  I did read it and I'm sure a whole generation of people also did, it is a very clear and readable book. Don't underestimate or minimize the impact of Hawking's book when it was released.
- hyperman1 3mo ago
  I did read the book, and know enough people who did. Now I may have weird interests, but that describes basically half the inhabitants of this site. BTW, as non-USAian, I never saw Cosmos and never heard of NDT.
- on_the_train 3mo ago
  Interesting. I've been gifted that book at just the right time in my life as a teenager. It captured me. I read it the to end many times. Not understanding everything or course. But it created a spark which laid the groundwork for my entire career. I've never seen cosmos.
- The_Blade 3mo ago
  i will never forget learning about Eratosthenes when i was very young and should have been playing Excitebike or something
- freehorse 3mo ago
  I am pretty certain this "hawking index" meme must be a new-ish thing. I read the book as teenager and know also others who did. It is a fairly easily readable book imo, so I don't think this characterisation is warranted by the qualities of the book itself. I suspect that a popsci book becoming a bestseller creates a larger-than-the-usual-nerds audience, a big part of which lacks the motivation to actually finish it. I expect that in places like this you will find higher frequency of people who have actually read it. Moreover, when i read the book i did not have easy access to pop-sci sources as a (practically pre-internet) teenager in a small town of a small country, like i would have had today. I got upon a booklet of a small publishing house with the titles of translated pop-sci books and would order them from a local bookstore. Maybe if I was already familiar enough with the topic through youtube videos etc I would not have finished either.
  - NitpickLawyer 3mo ago
    > this "hawking index" meme must be a new-ish thing TBF the methodology and hypotheses that it's based on aren't that bad. I'm sure Amazon has better data, but for a "publicly accessible" data (at that time) I can see it. The problem is that while lots of people might abandon the book, that doesn't mean that still loads of people don't read it fully. They are, after all, extremely popular books. Obviously some people will have received / impulse bought / FOMO / new year resolution / etc the books, but from the sales numbers that's still a lot of people that did enjoy them. Marketing aside, the book is pretty approachable, like were Sagan's books and so on.
- ordu 3mo ago
  From that list I've read three books: "A Brief History of Time", "Thinking, Fast and Slow", and "Capital in XXI Century". First two I've read from start to end. The last I didn't read to the end, I think I've read ~50% of it. My numbers correlate with that list, the least "readable" book in the list is the book I didn't read through. However I still doubt the methodology. It is not obvious for me that if a book was read in full, then highlights from it would be distributed uniformly all over the book.
- hgoel 3mo ago
  As an early teen I begged my parents for both A Brief History of Time and The Grand Design. Read both several times. ~15 years later, my parents are still holding on to them and my Dad has read them a couple of times too. It was great reading and played a significant role in my choice of research as a career. Never heard of the "people don't actually read it" meme.
- IncreasePosts 3mo ago
  I knew dozens of people in my high school who actually read it. Maybe godel, escher, bach would be a better "book that people talked about but never read"
  - intrasight 3mo ago
    I read it in high school in 82. I still have the book. Fun fact: The very first book ever sold on Amazon was "Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought" also by Douglas Hofstadter
  - pohl 3mo ago
    I was also tempted to offer GEB as a better example, although I’ve read it twice. Many bounce off of it.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
gcanyon 3mo ago
I'll give a shoutout to Feynman's QED. It's approachable for anyone with high school understanding, and gives a reasonable insight into all sorts of phenomena.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
funkaster 3mo ago
It doesn't answer your question, but I would love to read an updated version of Asimov's guide to science: https://archive.org/details/asimovsguidetosc00unse/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/asimovsguidetosc00unse/mode/2up
jordanpg 3mo ago
Have not read it yet, but recently researched this question and came to this book as a readable overview of the latest thinking in cosmology, Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins by Afshordi and Halper [1]. The book assumes a basic knowledge of physics and cosmology so it does not spend half the book reviewing basics like many pop physics books do. [1] https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo244963115.html https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo244963...
sgt101 3mo ago
I went to a public lecture by Martin Rees at uni. He asked everyone who read it to put up their hand, then put it down if they understood it. He pointed to the professor of astrophysics who had invited the lecture and said "ok, you! The rest of you, no chance!"
mmooss 3mo ago
Look up introductory college courses, e.g.., in astronomy. Their syllabi have your answers. Maybe it is more extensive than you want, but one or two book might be what you seek. The very useful Open Syllabus Project collects syllabi and lists the most popular books, etc.: https://www.opensyllabus.org/ https://www.opensyllabus.org/ A professor's course materials may suit your need.
russdill 3mo ago
Depends on how deep you want to go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_Ideas_in_the_Universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_Ideas_in_the_Unive...

There was a time where Hawking's A brief history of time gave a decent overview of the universe to beginners. Does anyone know how well it holds up today and if anything better exists?

ramraj07 3mo ago

There was never a time when a book gave the public an overview of the universe. ABHOT was so popular for being a book no one actually read, theres even an index named after Hawking due to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_Index Did _you_ read that book? There however definitely was a piece of media that captured public minds and educated them about the cosmos. And that was the show Cosmos. The original of course. Not the NDT drivel.

coliveira 3mo ago
I did read it and I'm sure a whole generation of people also did, it is a very clear and readable book. Don't underestimate or minimize the impact of Hawking's book when it was released.
hyperman1 3mo ago
I did read the book, and know enough people who did. Now I may have weird interests, but that describes basically half the inhabitants of this site. BTW, as non-USAian, I never saw Cosmos and never heard of NDT.
on_the_train 3mo ago
Interesting. I've been gifted that book at just the right time in my life as a teenager. It captured me. I read it the to end many times. Not understanding everything or course. But it created a spark which laid the groundwork for my entire career. I've never seen cosmos.
The_Blade 3mo ago
i will never forget learning about Eratosthenes when i was very young and should have been playing Excitebike or something
freehorse 3mo ago
I am pretty certain this "hawking index" meme must be a new-ish thing. I read the book as teenager and know also others who did. It is a fairly easily readable book imo, so I don't think this characterisation is warranted by the qualities of the book itself. I suspect that a popsci book becoming a bestseller creates a larger-than-the-usual-nerds audience, a big part of which lacks the motivation to actually finish it. I expect that in places like this you will find higher frequency of people who have actually read it. Moreover, when i read the book i did not have easy access to pop-sci sources as a (practically pre-internet) teenager in a small town of a small country, like i would have had today. I got upon a booklet of a small publishing house with the titles of translated pop-sci books and would order them from a local bookstore. Maybe if I was already familiar enough with the topic through youtube videos etc I would not have finished either.
- NitpickLawyer 3mo ago
  > this "hawking index" meme must be a new-ish thing TBF the methodology and hypotheses that it's based on aren't that bad. I'm sure Amazon has better data, but for a "publicly accessible" data (at that time) I can see it. The problem is that while lots of people might abandon the book, that doesn't mean that still loads of people don't read it fully. They are, after all, extremely popular books. Obviously some people will have received / impulse bought / FOMO / new year resolution / etc the books, but from the sales numbers that's still a lot of people that did enjoy them. Marketing aside, the book is pretty approachable, like were Sagan's books and so on.
ordu 3mo ago
From that list I've read three books: "A Brief History of Time", "Thinking, Fast and Slow", and "Capital in XXI Century". First two I've read from start to end. The last I didn't read to the end, I think I've read ~50% of it. My numbers correlate with that list, the least "readable" book in the list is the book I didn't read through. However I still doubt the methodology. It is not obvious for me that if a book was read in full, then highlights from it would be distributed uniformly all over the book.
hgoel 3mo ago
As an early teen I begged my parents for both A Brief History of Time and The Grand Design. Read both several times. ~15 years later, my parents are still holding on to them and my Dad has read them a couple of times too. It was great reading and played a significant role in my choice of research as a career. Never heard of the "people don't actually read it" meme.
IncreasePosts 3mo ago
I knew dozens of people in my high school who actually read it. Maybe godel, escher, bach would be a better "book that people talked about but never read"
- intrasight 3mo ago
  I read it in high school in 82. I still have the book. Fun fact: The very first book ever sold on Amazon was "Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought" also by Douglas Hofstadter
- pohl 3mo ago
  I was also tempted to offer GEB as a better example, although I’ve read it twice. Many bounce off of it.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]

gcanyon 3mo ago

I'll give a shoutout to Feynman's QED. It's approachable for anyone with high school understanding, and gives a reasonable insight into all sorts of phenomena.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

funkaster 3mo ago

It doesn't answer your question, but I would love to read an updated version of Asimov's guide to science: https://archive.org/details/asimovsguidetosc00unse/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/asimovsguidetosc00unse/mode/2up

jordanpg 3mo ago

Have not read it yet, but recently researched this question and came to this book as a readable overview of the latest thinking in cosmology, Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins by Afshordi and Halper [1]. The book assumes a basic knowledge of physics and cosmology so it does not spend half the book reviewing basics like many pop physics books do. [1] https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo244963115.html https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo244963...

sgt101 3mo ago

I went to a public lecture by Martin Rees at uni. He asked everyone who read it to put up their hand, then put it down if they understood it. He pointed to the professor of astrophysics who had invited the lecture and said "ok, you! The rest of you, no chance!"

mmooss 3mo ago

Look up introductory college courses, e.g.., in astronomy. Their syllabi have your answers. Maybe it is more extensive than you want, but one or two book might be what you seek. The very useful Open Syllabus Project collects syllabi and lists the most popular books, etc.: https://www.opensyllabus.org/ https://www.opensyllabus.org/ A professor's course materials may suit your need.

russdill 3mo ago

Depends on how deep you want to go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_Ideas_in_the_Universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_Ideas_in_the_Unive...