Some Books Worth Reading

I put together a list of books worth reading for a friend of mine. It's based on a mix of his and my tastes and intended to introduce him to new works. Originally, it was more balanced, but I decided to flesh out some more of the speculative fiction works (which is my favorite genre, no doubt).

I've read everything on the list. I limited it to one book per author (mostly, an author might show up more than once due to collaborations).

It's not a ranking or anything. Many of the books are my favorites by a particular author, but not all. (For instance, Prelude to Foundation is probably my favorite Asimov book).

Note: Categories are fuzzy with overlap. Very Rough. I'd love to get feedback.

Non Fiction

Physics

• QED, Richard Feynman
• The Age of Entanglement, Louisa Gilder
• The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
• The Black Hole Wars, Leonard Susskind

Math

• Group Theory in the Bedroom, Brian Hayes
• The Drunkard's Walk, Leonard Mlodinow
• An Introduction To Information Theory, John R. Pierce

Engineering

• The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, Henry Petroski.
• Roving Mars, Steven W. Squyres

Music

• This Is Your Brain On Music, Daniel J. Levitin

Speculative Fiction

Hard Sci-Fi

• The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
• Red Thunder, John Varley
• A Deepness In The Sky, Vernor Vinge
• Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
• Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
• Footfall, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
• The Integral Trees, Larry Niven (This is an edit. Originally, I had listed A World Out of Time.)
• Neuromancer, William Gibson
• Tangents, Greg Bear (specifically for "Blood Music")
• The Uplift War, David Brin

Potpurri

• Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
• The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
• The Complete Compleat Enchanter, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• David Starr, Space Ranger, Isaac Asimov

Fantasy (fairly broad definition of Fantasy)

• His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik
• Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
• American Gods, Neil Gaiman
• A Spell For Chameleon, Piers Anthony

Alternate History

• Death Is Lighter Than a Feather, David Westheimer
• A World of Difference, Harry Turtledove
• 1632, Eric Flint
• Lest Darkness Fall, L. Sprague de Camp
• Birds of Prey, David Drake