Moondust by A.Smith-->> what others space exploration related books would you recommend

[antimatter]

I know there's separate forum about non-fiction books but there's not much traffic there

ChaosTrulyReigns - thanks a lot for this recommendation!
I got it on CD's and agree this is an amazing book.

I am hoping for other recommendations of books about space exploration.

[CoteDAzur]

Does it have to be non-fiction?

[smallinthesmoke]

I loved Moondust.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is superb. It's still in HB but discounted in some places.

[antimatter]

I prefer non-fiction. I don't get on with sci-fi
smallinthesmoke - thanks will look it up!

[CoteDAzur]

With a name like antimatter, you really should give sci-fi another go

[antimatter]

hahaha CoteDAzur - you are right!

origin of it goes to when my kittens were small ( I have 3 cats, black, grey and white)
I said to my kids that :
white one should be called - "white matter"
grey - "grey matter"
black - "dark matter"

I named myself antimatter

[CoteDAzur]

Would you be interested in non-fiction about the early days of quantum physics, for example? (I came to this from "antimatter")

If so, I would recommend The Strangest Man, on the life and work of Paul Dirac who has 'discovered' antimatter through mathematical equations a long time before they could be observed. It is the fascinating true story of this genius, as well as his contemporaries Bohr, Einstein, Oppenheimer, Schrodinger etc in the run up to the first atom bomb.

[antimatter]

Yes, definitely!
I also enjoyed "History of nearly everything" - listened to it 2 weeks ago.
Also few months ago I listened to "Why Does E=mc2?: (And Why Should We Care?)" by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw - I finally understood 4th dimension, got muddled up trying to understand the 5th dimension - must read it and look at diagrams at the same time to understand it!

[CoteDAzur]

Ah I have another one for you, then. I really loved Measuring The World, about the lives of the explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) and the mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855). Truly brilliant, I heartily recommend this book.

[antimatter]

Thanks CoteDAzur - I shall look out for both books.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

It's not space exploration but it is bloody excellent:
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

John Gribbin is another decent popular science writer.

The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins is good.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

And let's not forget Richard Feynmann.

[CoteDAzur]

I just bought this trilogy - Historical fiction about space exploration!

The Sky's Dark Labyrinth (about Kepler, Galileo, etc) is £0.99

The Sensorium Of God (about Halley, Newton, etc) is £1.19

The Day Without Yesterday (about Einstein etc) is £0.99

I have been waiting for these to drop in price for absolute ages

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

Got them too, ta!

[CoteDAzur]

I'll start on them as soon as I'm done plodding through Wolf bloody Hall.

Can't wait

[antimatter]

thanks CoteDAzur - got them too!

[CoteDAzur]

Enjoy

And let me know if you come across anything like these books or others we have talked about further downthread.