Recommendations
Books Like A Brief History of Time
Best books to read after A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time is the best-selling popular science book in history — an accessible account of cosmology, black holes, and the search for a theory of everything, written by one of the world's most celebrated physicists. These 8 books extend into quantum mechanics, string theory, the nature of time, and the broader landscape of popular physics writing.
- 1Buy
The Universe in a Nutshell
by Stephen Hawking
Hawking's illustrated follow-up — updating A Brief History with developments in string theory and M-theory from the 1990s, making it the natural sequel for readers who want the full Hawking account.
- 2Buy
Cosmos
by Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan's expansive account of the cosmos and humanity's place in it — the companion to A Brief History of Time in tone and ambition, equally concerned with making the scale and wonder of the universe accessible to non-specialists.
- 3Buy
The Elegant Universe
by Brian Greene
Columbia physicist Brian Greene's account of string theory — the leading candidate for the unified theory of quantum gravity that Hawking's book seeks — providing the most accessible treatment of the physics that A Brief History of Time's final chapters point toward.
- 4Buy
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
by Carlo Rovelli
Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli's extraordinary seventy-page account of the most beautiful ideas in 20th-century physics — the most elegant brief introduction to the same intellectual territory A Brief History covers, written as a series of letters to a curious reader.
- 5Buy
The Fabric of Reality
by David Deutsch
Oxford physicist David Deutsch's argument that quantum mechanics, the theory of computation, evolutionary biology, and epistemology together form a unified explanatory framework for reality — the most ambitious attempt to answer the 'theory of everything' question from a different angle than Hawking's.
- 6Buy
The Order of Time
by Carlo Rovelli
Rovelli's beautiful account of what modern physics tells us about time — that it doesn't flow uniformly, that the past and future are not as different as we think, and that time itself may be an emergent property of the universe rather than a fundamental feature — directly addressing the questions about time that A Brief History raises.
- 7Buy
The Big Picture
by Sean Carroll
Caltech physicist Sean Carroll's account of how modern physics informs our understanding of existence, consciousness, meaning, and morality — the philosophical supplement to A Brief History of Time's scientific account.
- 8Buy
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's compact, accessible account of the most important discoveries in modern astrophysics — a quick, friendly companion to A Brief History that covers dark matter, dark energy, and the CMB in the same readable spirit.
More A Brief History of Time Resources
More Reading Recommendations
View all →Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.