#non-fiction
The Feynman Lectures on Physics I
the famous lectures by Richard Feynman turned into a book
The Black Swan
my first book from Taleb and an instant favourite
The Selfish Gene
This book has changed my life. It made me realize that I am a machine for propagating DNA–a survival machine. Everything else is a by-product of evolution.
Science in the Soul
Richard Dawkins selected short writings
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
This is a must-read for all students. The style is not very entertaining but there are only a few such impactful book in the world.
The Five Elements of Effective Thinking
Five steps toward a better thinking.
The Demon-Haunted World
A great book by a great scholar. I expected more science and less politics, but still, great reading.
Talking to strangers
Just several anecdotal stories about how people can’t really understand and predict each other
Superforecasting
How to be better at forecasting. How to overcome our biases.
Sedm zákonů
Pohled na zrod, vzestup a pád civilizací z výšky. Směs Diamonda, Harariho, Roslinga, …
Open Access
A good overview of the issue with publishing science
Musicophilia
It is clear from this book that music and its perception is very deeply engraved into our brain.
Metamagical Themas
An anthology of Hofstadter’s articles in Scientific American
Metafory paměti
A history of metaphors of memory, how they changed with technology and how they related to understanding of our minds.
Lifespan
there is a slight chance that our generation can live to 100 years with a good health. There is also a non-negligible chance that we won’t die.
Language Myths
A set of short articles about language myths. Some great, some weak, but good overall.
Jak se dělá imunita
stručný přehled o fungování imunity
How To
Another funny book from the author of XKCD comics.
I Contain Multitudes
It felt to me like a very long blog entry or a longish article on web rather than a science popular book.
How to live
One of a few authors who writes about ideas without any unnecessary words
Homo Deus
If you consider yourself an intellectual, you should read this since all people considering themselves as intellectuals probably have read this book as well, myself included.
Hell Yes or No
A brief but dense book full of wit, clever questions, ideas and thought food. Derek is compressing many self-help and life-hack books and it is
The Formation of Vegetable Mould
The last book of Darwin which perfectly shows how rigorous he was and that he was such a talent for discovering of long-term phenomena.
The Emperor of All Maladies
Cancer seems to be an inevitable part of our biology
The Ancestor's Tale
Goodreads review: Another great book from Dawkins. I would love to have like 100 more pictures to illustrate the living or extinct animals.
The 4-Hour Workweek
Stop working and fully enjoy your life! Easy, isn’t it?
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
one of the best self-help books I’ve ever read; own your life
Thinking, Fast and Slow
clever and courageous; it strongly supports my convinction that we are just a bit better than apes
Factfulness
people are quite bad in estimating how world is improving
A Brief History Of Time
the most commonly unfinished book of all times–hard to digest but a real treat for a curious mind
It Starts With Food
Whole30 diet, not very good for vegans and vegetarians
Dějiny
Půjčil jsem si od Dana Kropáčka, nebo na jeho doporučení jsem přečetl.
I Am a Strange Loop
an epilogue to GEB
Sapiens
An instant favourite. What a thinker this Harari!
On Intelligence
This book had an impact on me while working on my PhD thesis as it resonated with my view of artificial (machine) intelligence.
Essentialism
One of the best self-help book I’ve read.
Vladař
Mildly interesting
Velká Fermatova věta
One of my first popular science (math) book.
The Joy of Music
A must-read for classical music listeners.
Větrné toulání
Výběr krátkých povídek a příběhů od Míly Nevrlého
Introduction to Algorithms
Nevím, jestli jsem to dočetl.
Slova a pravidla
Knížka od Pinkera. Přestal jsem ji číst, protože nesouhlasím s teorií, kterou tam Pinker popisuje. Obsahuje spoustu pěkných příkladů, ale jejich interpretace mě rozčilovala, tak jsem ji asi v půlce odložil.
Jak drahé je zdarma
Anchors, framing, prospect theory and much more
Jak drahá je intuice
Third book from Dan Ariely. A bit less entertaining but still very informative.
Desatero domácí ekologie
Rady a tipy pro domácnosti. Některé rozumné, některé přehnané, ale žádné zbytečné.
The God Delusion
Dawkins’ attack on the religion. This probably won’t make you an apostate but I liked it a lot as many other Dawkins’ books.
The Greatest Show on Earth
Bertrand Russell said, ‘We may all have come into existence five minutes ago, provided with ready-made memories, with holes in our socks and hair that needed cutting.
Reč těla
Learn to manage your body expressions to help you persuade, empathize, soothe, … others
Bad Science
An overview of the problems with the current state of science and its methods and procedures
The Paradox of Choice
If I read this book before all those Arielys, Kahnemans, then it would be much more interesting and mind-boggling.
The Extended Phenotype
The book was quite hard to follow since it is very academical and if you are not acquainted with biology and genetics I think it will be hard to follow for you too.
The Red Queen
Doporučení od Honzy Michelfeita. Goodreads review: Packed with new information, many examples, clever ideas - it was delight to read each day on my way to work.
The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing
A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the ser ious scientifi c workers are the only profoundly religious people.
Consciousness Explained
The quasivisual nature of the phenomenology of comprehension has been almost entirely ignored by researchers in cognitive science, particularly in Artificial Intelligence, who have attempted to create language-understanding computer systems.
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Probably the hardest book I’ve ever read. If you want to get the overall idea, read I am a strange loop instead.
Guns, germs, and steel
Goodreads review: I agree with the opinion in the book and I like the whole idea but the arguments could have been much shorter and denser.
Chaos
An overview of a completely new scientific field
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Hard to read. Both history and acquaintance made me doubt that practitioners of the natural sciences possess firmer or more permanent answers to such questions than their colleagues in social science.
The End of Faith
Another attempt at attacking religion from one of Four Horsemen.
Economix
Great non-fiction comix. I want more of these!
The Gene
Not so good as his previous book about cancer.
The Moral Landscape
An attempt at formalizing or defining morality. That’s a hard task, but Harris doesn’t fail completely.
The Laws of Simplicity
The topic of simplicity is really complex.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Funny. So famous that you need to read it.
Digital Minimalism
Read Essentialism instead.
Deep Work
It was not so eye-opening, probably because I’ve read a bunch of similar books before this one—I liked Essentialism much more.
Mým marodům
Spousta zajímavých myšlenek, ale je potřeba autora brát s rezervou. Což je tedy potřeba asi vždy a všude.
Zázračný úklid
If you are a hoarder, you need to read this. If you have too many things in your house, you should read this. If you are a minimalist, skip it.
Why we sleep
Walker is exaggerating to emphasize his point, but there is a lot of interesting facts.
The Better Angels of Our Nature
A clever argument in favour of optimism.
Rationality
Ramblings on rationality, biases, false believes, artificial intelligence, …
Outliers
Malcolm is a good storyteller but I don’t enjoy his books very much.
God is not great
Hitchens has much more arguments against religions than other prominentatheist writers (e.g. Dawkins with his God’s delusion) and this book seemed more compelling.
Everything is Fucked
His previous book was much better, but this one is better compared to other self-help books I have read.
Enlightenment now
Velmi dlouhý argument o tom, proč je věda, vzdělání dobrá.
Chvály Zadní země
Méně známá knížečka od libereckého poutníka Míly Nevrlého.
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
The third book from Harari, probably the weakest of the three, but still a fun to read.
Antifragile
Taleb introduces another great term—antifragility—which can be found in many areas. And which can be consciously improved. It’s more than robustness.
Thirty Million Words
Encourage your child’s ability to self-regulate
The Evolution of Everything
If you push enough, everything can be explained with evolution theory.
The Code Book
The history of cryptography from the acknowledged popular science (maths) book author.
How Innovation Works
Innovation is a long, messy and complex process. The contributions of single scientics and inventors is overstated.
Cosmos
Sagan is one of the most prominent popular science author and this book was even turned into a series.
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
What can modern DNA analysis tell us about our ancestors? A lot actually.
Slepé skvrny
Palčivé problémy Česka v podání předního sociologa, který neváhá kritizovat levici i pravici.
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
A self-help novel, full of great wisdoms packed into a bit weird story.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
One of the oldest self-help books. I am not the intended audience. I couldn’t follow his rules and being true to myself, authentic and consistent.
Give and Take
Givers, takers and matchers. Givers are the most and least successful of all. I had to stop listening to this.