A laymen's look

I have recently read a few books that give a great introduction to laymen in some areas of specialization. One is CHAOS Making A New Science by James Gleick. Black Holes & Time Warps, Einstein's Outrageous Legacy by Kip s. Thorne. Another is Isaac Asimov's The History of Physics. Finally I also read a few books on economics by Linda Mcquaig. They all dealt with entertaining and interesting explanations of of a complicated subject for laymen. Does anyone know of any other good books like this? That deal with a science or economics from a laymen's perspective? I felt they all were entertaining, interesting, not too dumbed down to make me feel like I was being spoonfed, but not too challenging to make me fall asleep / not understand.

Any other recommendations?

[Matt R.]

The one I always recommend to people is The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. Phenomenal book, but it sounds like you've already read stuff regarding this area. Its emphasis is string theory and its consequences, and it builds up to it through relativity and quantum mechanics.

This is EXACTLY the sort of thing I am looking for, thank you. Other suggestions will still be accepted greatfully : )

Totally off the top of my head:

Evolution: The Blind Watchmaker (Dawkins). Mathematics: A Mathematician's Apology (Hardy) and The Mathematical Experience (Davis and Hersh). Linguistics: Words and Rules (Pinker). Cognitive Science: Society of Mind (Minsky), Vehicles (Braitenberg).

[Lestat]

I just finished "How the Mind Works", by Steven Pinker and found it to be a fascinating book!

Also "Philosophy for Dummies" was somewhat interesting, although I wouldn't recommend it unless you had a specific interest in the subject.

Thanks for your recommendations.

[Borodog]

Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt.

[chezlaw]

"Gödel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R. Hofstadter

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"Gödel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R. Hofstadter

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****, I knew I missed something. That's one of my standard recommendations. I second Chezlaw.

[imported_luckyme]

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"Gödel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R. Hofstadter

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I still sometimes read sections of it just for the pleasure of it. There are not many books a person can say this about - It was a mind-altering book for me ( not in the mescalinized way).

Whats this about? It seems to have popular demand.